Trump budget would cut $4.4T in spending, boosting defense while slashing safety nets, foreign aid

[TSA]

Spaceforce is a waste of money smh.

Exclusive: Strange Russian Spacecraft Shadowing U.S. Spy Satellite, General Says

"A pair of Russian satellites are tailing a multibillion-dollar U.S. spy satellite hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, a top U.S. military commander tells TIME, underscoring a growing threat to America’s dominance in space-based espionage and a potentially costly new chapter in Washington’s decades-long compe ion with Moscow.

Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, commander of the newly minted U.S. Space Force, says the Russian spacecraft began maneuvering toward the American satellite shortly after being launched into orbit in November, at times creeping within 100 miles of it. “We view this behavior as unusual and disturbing,” Raymond says. “It has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space.” Raymond says the U.S. government has expressed concern to Moscow through diplomatic channels.

The confrontation marks the first time the U.S. military has publicly identified a direct threat to a specific American satellite by an adversary. The incident parallels Russia’s terrestrial encounters with the U.S. and its allies, including close calls between soldiers, fighter jets and warships around the world. Observers worry that space is now offering a new theater for unintentional escalation of hostilities between the long-time adversaries."



"However, the satellites, identified as Cosmos 2542 and Cosmos 2543, appeared to be carrying out another mission. By mid-January, they were sidling near the American satellite, identified as USA 245, known to space experts as a KH-11.

The U.S. satellite, part of a reconnaissance constellation codenamed Keyhole/CRYSTAL, is operated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the secretive intelligence agency headquartered in Chantilly Va. Although the NRO refuses to comment on the large school bus-sized satellites, the KH-11’s capabilities are often compared by experts in the field to the Hubble Space Telescope. Instead of staring into the vast expanse of space, however, the satellites’ sensors and cameras are focused into the heart of foreign adversaries’ top-secret military installations

A KH-11 satellite, known as USA 224, is widely believed by analysts to have taken the image of Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center that President Donald Trump posted to Twitter in August. The photo was so detailed, you could make out the Farsi characters written along the edge of the launchpad. The KH-11 constellation, which consists of four satellites that maintain constant Earth observation, operate in a polar orbit above the rotating Earth, enabling them to cover its entire surface."

https://time.com/5779315/russian-spa...-share-article

[boutons_deux]

Exclusive: Strange Russian Spacecraft Shadowing U.S. Spy Satellite, General Says

"A pair of Russian satellites are tailing a multibillion-dollar U.S. spy satellite hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, a top U.S. military commander tells TIME, underscoring a growing threat to America’s dominance in space-based espionage and a potentially costly new chapter in Washington’s decades-long compe ion with Moscow.

Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, commander of the newly minted U.S. Space Force, says the Russian spacecraft began maneuvering toward the American satellite shortly after being launched into orbit in November, at times creeping within 100 miles of it. “We view this behavior as unusual and disturbing,” Raymond says. “It has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space.” Raymond says the U.S. government has expressed concern to Moscow through diplomatic channels.

The confrontation marks the first time the U.S. military has publicly identified a direct threat to a specific American satellite by an adversary. The incident parallels Russia’s terrestrial encounters with the U.S. and its allies, including close calls between soldiers, fighter jets and warships around the world. Observers worry that space is now offering a new theater for unintentional escalation of hostilities between the long-time adversaries."



"However, the satellites, identified as Cosmos 2542 and Cosmos 2543, appeared to be carrying out another mission. By mid-January, they were sidling near the American satellite, identified as USA 245, known to space experts as a KH-11.

The U.S. satellite, part of a reconnaissance constellation codenamed Keyhole/CRYSTAL, is operated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the secretive intelligence agency headquartered in Chantilly Va. Although the NRO refuses to comment on the large school bus-sized satellites, the KH-11’s capabilities are often compared by experts in the field to the Hubble Space Telescope. Instead of staring into the vast expanse of space, however, the satellites’ sensors and cameras are focused into the heart of foreign adversaries’ top-secret military installations

A KH-11 satellite, known as USA 224, is widely believed by analysts to have taken the image of Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center that President Donald Trump posted to Twitter in August. The photo was so detailed, you could make out the Farsi characters written along the edge of the launchpad. The KH-11 constellation, which consists of four satellites that maintain constant Earth observation, operate in a polar orbit above the rotating Earth, enabling them to cover its entire surface."

https://time.com/5779315/russian-spa...-share-article

Raymond spewing propaganda promoting his Space Force corporate welfare bull .

what's he gonna do? shoot down the Russian stuff? will he do anything at all?

[boutons_deux]

Anyway, Russia is America's best friend, Trash promotes improved relations with harmless Pootin

Pootin says it was not him who cracked America, it was Ukraine

So what's the problem with Russian stuff trailing American satellites?

If there is a problem, what's the solution? how many $10Bs does the MIC want for the solution?

[RandomGuy]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...eland-security

SO you are all for massive cuts to social security and medicare? Have fun selling that.

[Trill Clinton]

Despite $4.4 Trillion in Spending Cuts, Trump's Budget Won't Balance Until 2035


On the campaign trail in 2016, President Donald Trump promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. On Monday, he will propose a budget that won't even balance for another 15 years—a clear admission that he will leave the federal government's finances in a more precarious state than he found them.


Overall, federal spending would climb from $4.6 trillion next year to more than $6.5 trillion in 2030. The proposed domestic spending cuts in this year's budget are hardly enough to balance out the spending increases that Congress has passed and Trump has approved in recent years.


Trump's proposal would cut the federal deficit from over $1 trillion in the current fiscal year to a mere $966 billion next year—nearly 50 percent higher than the $666 billion deficit Trump inherited from President Barack Obama in 2017. Trump's budget would have the federal government operating in the red until 2035, the Journal reports.


It's important to keep in mind that all of this is likely the rosiest possible scenario for the federal budget. The budget proposal assumes 3 percent annual growth, a number that has not been achieved since the Bush administration—not even in the immediate aftermath of Trump's tax cuts, which briefly revved the economy—and one that far exceeds the Congressional Budget Office's estimated growth rate of 1.7 percent over the next decade.


The problem with all that is that a large and growing national debt reduces economic growth. The CBO projects that the average American household will lose between $2,000 and $6,000 in annual wealth by 2040 if the current trajectory continues. It also says America's GDP will shrink by 2 percent over the next two decades if current policies continue and the debt keeps growing.




But short-term thinking dominates Washington these days. And Trump, despite his outsider status, has quickly acclimated to the consensus political view that fixing the national debt will have to be the next president's problem.

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration comes up with yet another way to destroy Medicaid and rural health care

The Trump administration is determined to destroy Medicaid, chipping away at it from all angles.

From work requirements to block grants,

Trump is using the regulatory tools at hand—

largely in defiance of Medicaid law—to demolish the program.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma was sneaking out another one, the

Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation that could drastically reduce the federal funding contribution to states.

That could mean cuts as high as $11 billion annually in the state of Texas alone.

That's $11 billion, in one year, in one state.

Nationwide, it could mean up to $31 billion lost to hospitals across the country.

It would mean $500 million, annually, lost to hospitals just in Houston.

It would probably cost rural hospitals across the state a yearly $900 million, when rural hospitals are already in jeopardy.

The Texas Organization for Rural and Community Hospitals (TORCH) has done an analysis finding that

nearly half—46%—of the state's real hospitals are already running at a loss, and

26 of them have been shuttered in the last decade.

That's in large part a result of

Texas refusing to take Medicaid expansion to spite the Magic Knitter

under the Affordable Care Act, and

the state has experienced the highest rate of rural hospital closures in the nation.

This rule would result in even more closures.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1918179

Just more evidence that bag Texas Repugs make Texas a hole, ting even on rural Texans.

[Winehole23]

I'd say get rid of the DHS, it's redundant and silly to have it, and too expensive.

Hear, hear.

Unfortunatately, the GOP can't help but characterize any cuts to police or miltary spending as weakness and iresponsibility. Dems are much the same.