The Washington Post appeared to break some remarkable news this week: Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth reportedly directed his department to come up with a plan to cut 8% of projected annual military spending in each of the next five years. That’s striking because the Pentagon is among the last places to expect an administration of either party to seek dramatic spending reductions.
That’s not what happened, though. Hegseth never ordered any cuts; he merely wants to shift funding from some military programs to others. That’s not cutting the Pentagon budget; that’s reshuffling it.
Once the oligarchs squeeze every cent they can out of wages, public services, and the environment, the military is about all that’s left. Gotta get that infinite growth from somewhere!
It depends on whether they can control the military. If so, they need them for when people don’t comply. However, the military has many, many people, so it comes down to having to buy compliance against the national interest which can be more expensive.
nah, you don’t cut military spending when you squeze every cent out of the poor.