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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

>It seems to me that no one expects any war that would hurt the US any time soon, so it's an open season for fleecing the military budget for all it's worth.

If that was the whole story, the military budget would be plummeting as our representatives realized that they could also, and far more legitimately, take money away from the military to put in their pet projects.

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Military is the pet project. It's the only form of public spending with broad support even from anti Federal government people.

> Military is the pet project. It's the only form of public spending with broad support even from anti Federal government people.

Law enforcement has about equally broad support, including from anti-federal-government groups (though not always the same ones that back the military, as their are pro-law-and-order anti-interventionist groups that aren't keen on military spending, and pro-military groups that are federal law enforcement as jackbooted authoritarian thugs.)

Unfortunately federal law enforcement has lost some of its support among the law and order crowd because of the perception that they are in bed with the political opposition.

For political reasons it can be easier to justify defense spending. Then you just make sure that it's _your_ pet project that gets the spending.

False they can’t cut it back for economic reasons. The economy is based on it

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