The government shutdown isn’t slowing down the warmongers. For example:
- The CIA is ramping up covert training program [6] for Syrian rebels
- President Obama has waived a ban on aiding regimes that use child soldiers [7]
- The Department of Defense awarded 94 new contracts [8] worth a combined total of more than $5 billion dollars the day right before the government shutdown
- DoD will continue to award contracts during the shutdown … but will stop publicly announcing them [9]
- The giant $2 billion dollar NSA spying center in Utah is still opening [10] (the NSA is part of the Department of Defense [11], which carries out assassination [12] and cyber-warfare [13] campaigns, as well as destroying the privacy of American citizens)
As Ron Paul notes [14], military spending will increase 18% even after the sequestration “cuts”:
Reducing spending on militarism would not only help balance the budget, but would enhance our security.Yet both the House and the Senate continuing resolutions not only fail to reduce military spending, they actually authorize $20 billion more in military spending than authorized by the “sequestration” created by the 2011 Budget Control Act. Most of the supposedly “draconian” sequestration cuts are not even cuts; instead, they are “reductions in the planed rate of spending.” This is where Congress increases spending but by less than originally planned—and yet they claim to cut spending.
Under sequestration, military spending increases by 18 percent instead of by 20 percent over the next ten years. Yet some so-called conservatives are so opposed to these phony cuts in military spending that they would support increased taxes and increased welfare “military” spending. This “grand bargain” would benefit the DC political class and the special interests, but it would be a disaster for the American people.
Of course, we wouldn’t be in this crisis [15] of hitting the debt ceiling in the first place if we hadn’t spent so much money on unnecessary wars … which are horrible for the economy [16].
And as John Whitehead writes [17]:
The one area not impacted in the least by a government shutdown will be the police/surveillance state and its various militarized agencies, spying programs and personnel. Take a look at the programs and policies that will not be affected by a government shutdown, and you’ll get a clearer sense of the government’s priorities — priorities which have … little to do with serving taxpayers and everything to do with maintaining power and control, while being sold to the public under the guise of national security [18].
Postscript: Those who say that soldiers won’t be paid are wrong. Active-duty military service members, plus civilians and contractors with the departments of Defense and Homeland Security support active-duty troops and guardsmen, will still be paid [19] during the temporary cessation of most government activities.