Paul plans to force vote on $110B Saudi defense deal

This is a good thing in my opinion.

I don't expect it to stop the deal or have any real impact. The military industrial complex will see to it the deal goes through. But at least it will keep the issue in the public eye a little bit longer and we'll get to see who votes in favor of selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Rand Paul intends to force a vote on a $110 billion defense deal President Trump signed with Saudi Arabia, according to an aide to the Kentucky Republican. Paul is expected to introduce a measure to disapprove of the sale later on Wednesday, the aide said, over concerns that the deal may pull the U.S. into Yemen's civil war.

I just had a thought. Not sure if it would make a difference.

The weapons manufacturing industry is something I wouldn't mind seeing the Govt. take over as opposed to healthcare or education. Not that it would ever happen. But if we're going to sell weapons I'd prefer taxpayers benefit than corporations.

Source

a reply to: watchitburn

I am a fan of Rand Paul. At least he puts up a fight. You have a good idea on paper. But I have a feeling they would mucky up the simple business of making and selling weapons. Plus alot of pocket lining would be done along the way. Call me a cynic though.

originally posted by: watchitburn
The weapons manufacturing industry is something I wouldn't mind seeing the Govt. take over as opposed to healthcare or education. Not that it would ever happen. But if we're going to sell weapons I'd prefer taxpayers benefit than corporations.

Education is fine at least here in New Jersey. Healthcare is worse than defense contractors in my opinion. What defense contractors do doesn't really affect as much people. You could even argue defense contractors make the work much unsafer than they make it safer!

CEOs love a good monopoly. Business is so much easier when you have customers by the balls. So if you think about it, if you privatize the defense industries you get more wars. If you privatize the prisons you get more prisons and prison labor. When you privatize the schools, as we see with higher education as with online degrees, education becomes worthless because it's so much cheaper not to teach anything meaningful. Privatize healthcare and market forces will end up only serving the ultra-rich. Privatize NSA to Booz Allen Hamilton and you get some hamburger flipper off the streets with just a community college education like Snowden having access to the highest levels of security.

We've heard endless propaganda that "government can't do anything" and the privatization of government is the only thing that works. Privatization creates juicy monopolies the CEOs want more than anything else. There are trade-offs to every design decision. At some point we will come to our senses and design governmental systems based on science and not politics. Casinos are capable of self-governance so why can't the federal government? The funny thing about casinos is most of the cameras in the casino are pointed at the money handlers than they are on the customers. We could learn a lot about how government should be designed from looking at casinos.

On March 15, 2013—three days after what he later called his "breaking point" of "seeing the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress"[51]—Snowden quit his job at Dell.[52] Although he has stated that his "career high" annual salary was $200,000,[53] Snowden said he took a pay cut to work at Booz Allen,[54] where he sought employment in order to gather data and then release details of the NSA's worldwide surveillance activity.

a reply to: watchitburn

This is concerning since it shows just how little he understands about our government. Congress has no say what so ever in this. In fact the president doesn't either technically . What happen's is contracts are made then said contracts are submitted to the government. If there is a national security concern they are denied. The only say the president has is as commander in chief he can declare weapons vital to national security and block their sale.

Now what happened here is the arms manufacturers allowed him to negotiate for them but the companies are still the ones on 5hr contracts.

Good for Rand. I agree, forcing the vote won't stop the deal, but it will give us names of those who continue to support our alliance with the Saudis. We can get a better picture of who stands where.

God, I wish there were more Republicans with testicles and brains of their own like Rand Paul.

a reply to: dfnj2015

I think you missed my point.

When Govt. beaurocracy tries to run things, it always fails. Like education and health care.

I think if govt took over the military industrial complex the world's ability to wage war would be greatly reduced.

But again, this was just a random thought that popped in my head. I haven't really explored how it might work.

This is a conspiracy website, how is this a conspiracy or anything remotely like one?

This is concerning since it shows just how little he understands about our government

Yeah, Congressman Paul is near ignorant of how the government operates and the position of Congress in it.

This is why Congress or the Senate, will never get in the way of any arms deal. Paul can force all the votes he wants, but our "leaders" will always vote for what lines their pockets.

fortune.com...

The 2016 elections are still more than a year away, but U.S. defense contractors are already topping campaign donor lists. Data compiled by nonpartisan research group Maplight shows defense industry political action committees (PACs) are dominating a list of top 10 contributors to Congress in the first quarter of 2015.

This is old data, but I'm sure it's gone nowhere but up.

projectcensored.org...

more than 151 members of Congress have up to $195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the US military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Well it's good that Paul continues to stand by his convictions and remain one of the few uncorrupted voices in the American Congress.

Unfortunately both the GOP and DNC are completely in the pocket of the House of Saud. These arms deals will go through with overwhelming support in both houses.