Planes That Won’t Fly, or Ships That Won’t Sail?
May We Interest You in a Republican Orgy?
There is a Presidential budget floating around Washington, and for the first time in this century, some people took it seriously for a few moments.
Though Rep. Darrell Issa will probably whine about everything in the proposal not related to guns, the reason it was being talked about is that it had something for everybody.
That said, whatever Congress ends up agreeing on, if they can agree on anything other than a continuing resolution, will look a lot different. If Biden likes it, it must be bad, according to the partisan hacks caucuses.
The New York Times quoted some faceless White House source as saying this was a “bipartisan unity agenda.”
It includes
A 10% increase in the defense budget
$45 billion to address climate programs and “environmental justice.”
More than $17 billion toward cracking down on gun trafficking
Nearly $70 billion for the F.B.I. to drive down violent crime.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will receive more than $8 billion.
$30 billion for police departments and community-based anti-violence programs
$367 million for the Justice Department to support police reform, prosecute hate crimes and protect voting rights.
more than $200 million extra for the federal government’s two antitrust agencies,
A 25% increase over 2022 for the Environmental Protection Agency, including $1.5 billion for low-income areas and communities of color.
A 15% increase for the Department of Health and Human Services, with major increases for pandemic preparedness and public health surveillance.
$68 billion for the highway program helping states fix roads and bridges, boost electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
$21 billion going to the Federal Transit Administration mostly for grants for bus and transit system projects.
In keeping with its bipartisan (read: Joe Manchin) agenda, the promised deficit reduction amounts to $1 trillion over a decade with higher taxes on the rich and corporations.
Republicans are already claiming that Biden’s offering up the biggest tax increase ever. Which might be true if you’re bringing home more than $400,000+ next year.
Sadly, the budget does not include a couple of spending areas that could translate into more votes for Democrats. Promises for protections for recreational marijuana markets, and student debt reduction were left by the wayside. Talk about failing to read the room!
***
A few words about the defense budget are in order.
The budget for purchases of F-35 aircraft is being cut, allowing for 61 instead of 94 new planes. The F-35 is the U.S. answer to all the non-functional Russian equipment (due to theft & corruption) we’ve been hearing about in Ukraine.
A 2021 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the "full mission capable rate—the percentage of time during which the aircraft can perform all of its tasked missions" was just 39%. And that was an improvement over the 2020 32% full mission capable rate.
The F-35 is supposed to be capable of flying at supersonic speeds. The military has discovered it can "only fly at supersonic speeds for short bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage." There is "no plan to correct" this problem, because the cost is prohibitive.
After two decades of development, the planes cost more than $110 million each, and cost more than $44,000 per hour to fly. And the military admits "F-35 supply chain does not have enough spare parts available to keep aircraft flying enough of the time necessary to meet warfighter requirements."
Only in Washington would something this crappy inspire the need for a bipartisan Joint Strike Force Caucus, which is furious about the Pentagon’s planned reduction for 2023 (even though we're selling these lemons to countries all over the world). Included in this bunch is San Diego Congressman Scott Peters, whose district includes facilities from Northrop Grumman and Cubic that manufacture parts for the F-35.
Since we’re in a Navy town, it’s only fitting that I note its budget calls for retiring 24 ships to save $3.6 billion ($720 million per year over five years), while spending $27.9 billion to build nine ships to replace them.
Included on the deep six list are eight relatively new littoral combat ships, which, according to the GAO, haven’t demonstrated satisfactory operational capabilities. The significant challenges uncovered by the government watchdog include the ship's lack of ability to defend itself and high failure rates of mission-essential equipment.
That's a net loss of 15 ships -- for $24.7 billion more. Wow.
***
Alright, alright, alright! Let’s get to the congressional orgies.
North Carolina’s Rep. Madison Cawthorn, elected in 2020 to succeed former Trump advisor Mark Meadows, has done a bang up job of proving the GOP’s attraction to bottom feeders.
The self-described Christian and constitutional conservative is the youngest Republican and one of the youngest members ever elected to the House of Representatives. He has openly admitted that he came to Washington to agitate rather than legislate.
One of the first controversies in his political career stems from an Instagram picture of his visit to Adolf Hitler's vacation residence Eagle's Nest, which he said had been on his "bucket list for a while" In the post he referred to Hitler as "the Führer", Hitler's official title. He also called Hitler "a supreme evil".
Evil is good or bad in the eye of the beholder these days in the far right, and there have been repeated instances revealing Cawthorn’s sympathy for white nationalists.
As he was running for office in 2020, 150 alumni from Patrick Henry College signed off on a public letter accusing Cawthorn of "sexually predatory behavior" while he was a student there for little more than one semester, as well as of vandalism and lying.
There can be no doubt the North Carolina Republican has been a loose cannon since being elected, and he never misses an opportunity to weigh in on matters of interest to the fringes of his party, ranging from the January 6 insurrection to calling Ukrainian President Zelenskyy a “thug.”
His latest claims about sex and drugs may have crossed a line that even congressional loony-tunes can’t abide.
Via Politico:
The first-term conservative told the podcast “Warrior Poet Society” that he received invitations along the lines of “‘hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come’.” The 26-year-old described his response as: “‘What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.”
Cawthorn suggested that such behavior was seen from lawmakers in their 60s and 70s. He also claimed to have seen other people who are “leading” efforts to eradicate drug addiction using cocaine in front of him.
Members of the House Freedom caucus, who are about the only legislators willing to publicly associate with Cawthorn, are upset about the sex and drugs comments.
Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry says he plans to speak to the North Carolina congressman one-on-one about the comments, adding that Cawthorn should identify the individuals he alleges engaged in that behavior.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is also planning on speaking to Cawthorn, no doubt while wagging his finger.
The mental image of these (mostly) geezers going (or doing) bump(s) in the night is stomach churning to say the least.
Here’s Jim Newell at Slate:
This could have passed as a dumb thing a spiraling member of the House said on a podcast that was forgotten a day later. Happens all the time.
But the allegation has spread enough that members, including GOP members, are getting asked about it by their constituents. That’s when it becomes a problem.
During House Republicans’ weekly conference meeting Tuesday morning, multiple members “stood up to air their anger and frustration over Cawthorn portraying his own colleagues as bacchanalian and sexual deviants,” Politico reports. Among them was Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, who complained that he’s getting questions about who exactly is doing keys of cocaine and participating in orgies.
“Congressman Womack felt strongly about addressing the comment,” a spokesperson for Womack told me.
Members further suggested that if it’s true, Cawthorn should name names. I agree.
In the meantime, McCarthy will settle it with a chat.
And then….
****
Speaking of loony tunes:
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com