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US looks at 8% defense budget cut in each of next 5 years, Washington Post reports
(www.reuters.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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I can totally see Trump privatizing US military.
They pretty much already are. That's why the defense budget is so high already. It's a money funnel to defense contractors. Almost every aspect of it is just paying contractors. The military doesn't do a lot outside of just supplying the cannon fodder. The only thing left to do is privatize actual soldiers. But still, there's be a capitalist needing to make money off them and soldiers are already paid next to nothing as it is.
So realistically, this move has me stumped.
Think about it this way, instead of funding stuff like F35s, they'll spend that money on getting Blackwater to hire more goons who can be used to put down food riots.
I can't imagine Blackwater and other PMCs have the bodies to replace the entire US military, and I'm skeptical that they could realistically recruit a comparable number of bodies that quickly for even less pay without the emergency recruitment tool that only the government has (conscription). Even if Trump did want to reshuffle everybody that's currently in the military into a the private sector, what that would practically look like is firing them all, giving contracts to the preferred companies, then hoping that the fired people all apply for lower paying jobs at the preferred companies. Even assuming you got 100% of the fired soldiers to voluntarily do that, it'd be a massive, slow, and disruptive transition that would leave the imperial military totally ineffective until after the transition's complete (if then) while also giving up conscription as a tool to backfill cannon fodder.
When the global capitalist business model depends on keeping a gun pointed at the head of the world, I can't imagine who seriously considers putting down the gun for a bit and expecting the hostages to wait patiently while the empire takes it apart looking for ways to make a cheaper gun from the parts. I can't imagine any world leader wouldn't see even a temporary imperial demilitarization of that scale as the single best opportunity anyone will ever get to drive a stake through Dracula's heart and act accordingly.
I don't think there's any talk of replacing the entire US military though. They just want to reduce Pentagon budget over the coming years, and funnelling that money into stuff like PMCs seems to be an obvious next step. Also, if they're now realizing that they can't take on Russia and China then the policy would be to retrench which means they have less global commitments. Europe being dumped is one example of this. I very much agree with the assessment here https://archive.ph/00s4y
I think theyre gonna pivot to PMC model to allow the military of the US to operate in areas as mercenaries without it being a "war".
US companies could hire PMCs to go secure regions for them and the US govt can be like "Those are private entities that has nothing to do with us"
I think they're probably cutting pet projects of the industrialists and reallocating to cyber
Absolutely not gonna happen
Although if reporters aren't asking "Do you mean THE MILITARY MILITARY or all the other shit?" then they're failing to do their jobs.
8% reduction in soldiers, arms production, etc.
Or that remains the same- and 8% of VA doctors, etc. are fired.
Defense budget doesn't include the VA, btw, but we all know it's suddenly going to. Magically.
But, you know, Inshallah he does manage to cut the DoD. I doubt it! Highly! But hey... ok...
I actually proposed this plan (definitely not uniquely but whatever- still counts!) for the last... decade now. Just cut the budget repeatedly for two decades and it will starve the MIC (in theory) and does so in a controlled wind down from the insanity since WWII.
Of course "my plan" also called for diverting those resources immediately, plus adding on top, to expanding Medicare to everyone. Of course cuts are not required in order to fund Medicare, but if thr Nazi ass dems insist then, hey, cut the DoD in half, push the money to healthcare! Blammo!
I mean, I would never say never (also wouldn’t bet on it happening).
The real job of the US president and the US government broadly is to manage the different factions of capital into a united front against the working class (both domestic and international). Finance capital, industrial capital, tech billionaires, etc. Get everyone on the same page and make sure every group is getting something out of it. It seems to me that Trump is just completely ignoring this part of the job and is favoring some bourgeois groups over others. Specifically, it seems to me that tech capital is running the show. Of course, there’s plenty of intersection between military contractors and tech billionaires. But the tech billionaires would be perfectly happy with a pared down military budget that still funneled even more money to the high tech sector i.e. Palantir, Boston Dynamics, et al. I also think that tech capital - in contrast to say finance or industrial capital - is perfectly happy to see US hegemony and maybe even the US state nearly evaporate as they believe they will still come out ahead in that scenario. Musk, Thiel, Andresson, and that group I believe want something like an AnCap USA; and in that world they will emerge on top. Those are the people Trump is listening to right now. They are ok gutting everything and funneling it back to billionaires because they think we’re in the “rip the copper wiring out and sell it” phase of capitalism. Entirely possible other members/groups of the bourgeoisie see it that way too - no way imperialist capitalism can be maintained given climate change, the rise of China, etc so just try to cash out now.
That can all be true, and I don't really disagree, and yet...
Well let me just state some "facts" for no particular reason
A ton of US citizens rely on programs they're proposing cutting (not talking about the military. Yes people rely on that but... 🤷♂️. Give them cash to not work. I don't care). Imagine this purely fictional world where millions of people potentially are teetering... then shoved. They know who did it. Elon, Thiel, Trump, etc. I would think "being alive" would be a large part of this world they want... alive to "enjoy" it. Hard to do if... well... free country. Free speech. I'm so free to say the thing...
If this happens
yea right bro, we won't see defense cuts until anti-corruption politicians who don't take military-industrial campaign $ handouts get into power
If they got into power, we'd sooner see their entire party get JFK'd than them actually reducing corruption.
Yhey'll just move money towards funding private mercenary companies like Blackwater who can be used to put down food riots later.
Where have you gone, Lee Harvey Oswald / Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you