House votes to let Pentagon sponsor NASCAR races

House votes to let Pentagon sponsor NASCAR races

The House has voted to let the Pentagon continue using taxpayer dollars to sponsor NASCAR race teams. By a 281-148 vote, lawmakers rejected an effort by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum that would have ended the practice.

McCollum aides said the Army is spending $7 million on a sponsorship this year, and the Air Force and National Guard are spending additional money.

Most Democrats backed McCollum’s effort, while Republicans voted overwhelmingly against it.

LINK TO ORIGINAL STORY

WTF? In the era of belt tightening and balanced budgets, OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS ARE PAYING TO SPONSOR NASCAR? Where is the outrage? Disclaimer: I am a auto racing aficionado (sports cars) but will be watching Daytona 500 race today. (Worth noting it appears on FOX. ) I am also a Democrat. But I DO NOT feel that our tax dollars should be WASTED like this. So this is the new fiscal responsibility I've been hearing so much about?

CHILLING SNIPPET FROM UNRELATED STORY:

...the Pentagon does have perhaps the single largest public relations apparatus on earth – spending $4.7 billion on P.R. in 2009 alone and employing 27,000 people, a staff nearly as large as the 30,000-person State Department

(Makes you wonder about Disnfo agents among us.)

LINK TO UNRELATED STORY

AND FOR FOX NEWS FANS:

An Associated Press investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That's almost as much as it spent on body armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006.

FOX NEWS LINK


Your thoughts?

The nation is facing a financial mess right now and the absolute last thing The Dept of Defense needs to be wasting money on is sponsoring NASCAR races as we cannot afford it.

Imagine this hypothetical,

"Presenting the Pentagon 500, sponsored by The Dept Of Defense at Virginia Motor Speedway".

It is unfortunate, but with the left-wing liberals vitriolic spew of hatred against the military, I can understand their need to use good public relations. What is the difference in them spending their money on madison avenue or in daytona? That being said $9,000,000,000 is that right? I need to verify that. Spending that much money on PR is unconscionable. I know advertising is expensive, but that is just insane if true.

Originally posted by sonofliberty1776
It is unfortunate, but with the left-wing liberals vitriolic spew of hatred against the military, I can understand their need to use good public relations. What is the difference in them spending their money on madison avenue or in daytona? That being said $9,000,000,000 is that right? I need to verify that. Spending that much money on PR is unconscionable. I know advertising is expensive, but that is just insane if true.

I am a centrist leaning liberal and WE DO NOT HATE THE MILITARY SO QUIT WITH THAT BLATANT LIE AND MISINFORMATION.

We want the same thing every American wants, to not be told that the only avenue we have for employment is military service.

We need to shift our focus back to the nation and not on the military. Spend that money on Main Street and provide Americans with jobs, you know, the one thing the GOP absolutely hates, an American with an American job.

reply to post by sonofliberty1776


I invite you to verify my sources/data. Not sure where you are getting your #.

If I have gotten anything wrong, please let me know.

Thanks.

First of all...THEY'RE NOT SPONSORING RACES!!!! They are continuing to sponsor a driver of ONE car. The military have always provided a fly over and representation in honor of all those in the military at the beginning of races. Those men and women in uniform who volunteer to represent the services of this country at races are given special seats and free refreshment. Today, the 500 will again have a fly over and the ARMY car will be in the race. Dale Jr.'s car has Coast Guard sponsorship and is under the jurisdiction of DHS also. The funding of that car comes out of the Coast Guards budget! It actually gives the biggest bang for the buck for advertisement and recruiting for the services!

Zindo

Taken in context, this seems about right to me. Advertising isn't cheap and the Military has a sizable propaganda machine that includes TV, print, sports, and recruitment officers.

If this troubles me on any level, it is less the absolute dollars spent, and more the demographic that it is obviously targeted towards. I don't see the Army logo on any polo ponies or racing yachts...

~Heff

That's...unconstitutional.

I for one don't think the Pentagon deserves good press considering how shady it is. Our country could spend that money better, preferably by not taxing it out of our income and letting American citizens spend it for themselves.

And they wonder why people hate paying taxes.

Are you F-N kidding???




After the last two years of yap, threatening to pull unemployment benefits, "YOU LIE", "watering the tree of liberty"... All the theatrics too... OMG




I am so surprised right now it's surprising

More left wing lies

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
First of all...THEY'RE NOT SPONSORING RACES!!!! They are continuing to sponsor a driver of ONE car.

As per T&C the headline in my OP is as per source, but nice try.

So you justify the expenditure? Hilarious.

It is very interesting to hear all the different reactions.

Just a little background and history on why they do this.

These sponsorships are paid for out of funds allocated for increasing recruitment. The Pentagon has been in the recruitment game for a while, and they have found that advertising like this is very effective.

BTW they advertise in a lot of other sports as well, just yesterday I was watching the X Games sponsored by... The US Air Force.

The only thng I wonder about is whether they actually need to spend the money now. Not because we can't afford it, but because the military is seeing record recruitment right now because so many people are out of work.

Originally posted by alpha chino

The only thng I wonder about is whether they actually need to spend the money now. Not because we can't afford it, but because the military is seeing record recruitment right now because so many people are out of work.

...Not to mention threatening turning out unemployed people every other month due to financial concerns.
The same people who make those very threats turn and fund this -

The few reactions here and general silence is exactly why we have a patriot act, exactly why we attacked the wrong country and will do so for a decade.

Where is the responsibility crowd when it is time to be responsible?

Originally posted by Hefficide
If this troubles me on any level, it is less the absolute dollars spent, and more the demographic that it is obviously targeted towards. I don't see the Army logo on any polo ponies or racing yachts...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/be38817aace9.jpg[/atsimg]

U.S. Army Recruiting Color Guard brings in the teams at Polo on The Lawn

Link

Notice "Recruiting" LOL

I am already finding the sheer hypocrisy on page one of this thread highly telling. :shk:

Unless you want to stop the military from spending money on advertising altogether, I don't really see the issue with this. The military allocates a percentage of its budget to advertising and recruitment and given the viewership of Nascar, I can understand why they'd give it a try since it would seem like a good opportunity to reach a large number of people. The only question I have is whether its really all that effective or not, and that's something I can't answer.

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
First of all...THEY'RE NOT SPONSORING RACES!!!! They are continuing to sponsor a driver of ONE car. The military have always provided a fly over and representation in honor of all those in the military at the beginning of races. Those men and women in uniform who volunteer to represent the services of this country at races are given special seats and free refreshment. Today, the 500 will again have a fly over and the ARMY car will be in the race. Dale Jr.'s car has Coast Guard sponsorship and is under the jurisdiction of DHS also. The funding of that car comes out of the Coast Guards budget! It actually gives the biggest bang for the buck for advertisement and recruiting for the services!

Zindo

edit on 2/20/2011 by ZindoDoone because: (no reason given)

edit on 2/20/2011 by ZindoDoone because: (no reason given)

I don't care if they sponsor a car as all firms should be allowed to do my beef is them sponsoring an event or a team of drivers.

reply to post by kinda kurious


Awesome! I stand corrected!

Since we don't have a humble pie emote, you'll have to just accept my thanks for showing me I was wrong - and I am scratching "polo" off of my go-to argument point list!

~Heff

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
The military have always provided a fly over and representation in honor of all those in the military at the beginning of races.

Related:

The Super Bowl flyover may have cost $450,000. Was it worth it?

Link

Keep rowing with single oar dude. You'll get there.

Where are the people with actual advertising experience?

Advertising is not measured in straight forward dollars. Rather, it is measured by ROI, or one's return on investment. This holds true in all forms of investment, including the stock market.

The best use of advertising dollars is spent where your actual customers are -- hence the whole Nascar correlation. If you look at the demographics of people most likely to enlist, and then look at the demographic of Nascar fans, you will see why this has been the recipient of a portion of the Pentagon's advertising budget.

Who cares if it costs the most, if it results in the largest number of potential military personnel?

To figure out the real cost, one must divide the total cost by the number of people that enlist. If you do this, you will find that this is a rather good use of the Pentagon's advertising budget in terms of ROI.

Now, if you want to make the argument that the Pentagon has too large of an advertising budget overall, that is a far different topic entirely. My guess is, that even if their budget were halved, they would still allot for Nascar advertising since it has proven to be effective.

It's good marketing Lots of Americans like racing not so much bowling. I have no problem with it and whoever does needs to go to a business class and do some basic math. You have to spend money to make money and the milittarys money is able bodied men and women. You don't find them in the hood watching basketball you find them doing and watching outdoor sports. Yes I'm white and live in a town that makes me a minority of minorities.

reply to post by lpowell0627


reply to post by mikellmikell


Nice work fellas. Perhaps your arguments would have more credibility were it not for this silly little economic crisis we are presently in.

All I'm saying is there is a lot of "fat" in that $4.7 Billion Public Relations budget I referenced in OP that could be trimmed without sacrificing safety, no?