Sarah Lazare writes
US Weapons Exporters Lead World in War Profiteering:
U.S. weapons manufacturers lead the world in profits from the booming military arms and equipment business, driven by rising tensions and conflict around the world, according to a new report from London-based analysts.
The annual study by IHS Inc.—which looks at military markets in 65 nations, excluding small arms, munitions, and surveillance programs—finds that the United States is behind one-third of all equipment and weapons exports world-wide.
This is no small amount: in 2014, global "defense" trade surpassed $64.4 billion, the report finds.
"Defense trade rose by a landmark 13.4 percent over the past year," said Ben Moores, senior defense analyst at IHS Aerospace, Defense and Security, in a press statement. "This record figure has been driven by unparalleled demand from the emerging economies for military aircraft and an escalation of regional tensions in the Middle East and Asia Pacific."
The U.S., further, is the top profiteer from rising conflict across the Middle East, accounting for $8.4 billion in exports to this region in 2014, compared to $6 billion the previous year.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2014—GOP will repeat Ryan budget history by adopting Camp tax plan next year:
Last month, Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) introduced his proposal for a major overhaul of the U.S. tax code. But among Republican leaders in Congress, its arrival was about as welcome as an ill-timed fart.
Hoping to focus the 2014 midterm elections on Obamacare instead of controversial new tax provisions, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pronounced Camp's plan dead on arrival, cynically lamenting, "I think we will not be able to finish the job, regretfully. I don't see how we can." Meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) rejected the idea that Camp's was the official House GOP tax plan and responded simply, "Ah, Jesus" when asked if he would bring it up for a vote. And Paul Ryan (R-WI), who if he does not run for president in 2016 will likely take Camp's committee gavel next year, "ducked questions on the proposal's substance" before blandly declaring, "this is the beginning of a good debate."
But the skittish reaction of the GOP's best and brightest should not mislead anyone into believing that this is the beginning of the end for Dave Camp's tax code rewrite. Instead, it is just the end of the beginning. After all, in early 2010 Republicans in Congress terrified about its impact on the upcoming midterms ran away from Paul Ryan's budget-busting, upper class tax-cutting, Medicare rationing, Social Security privatizing and safety net shredding "Roadmap for America's Future." Yet a year later, 95 percent of Republicans on Capitol Hill voted for the Ryan budget, a near-unanimous endorsement they would repeat in 2012 and 2013.
Tweet of the Day
Just because you can't tell the difference between weather & climate doesn't mean you don't know which foreigners to kill.
— @Wolfrum
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin gets DST on track with a roundup including Western water wars, FL's ban on climate change, Issa's bid to get back in the news, the latest 2016 polling, Gop in disarray, and Senate Republicans agree to "Like" Tom Cotton's Facebook post about Iran. The Selma weekend. Gop House coup talk, again. The Ferguson judge aggressively jailing people for owing the government money... owes the government money. Menendez headlines generate political speculation and some oddball spin from Republicans. Contrarian Republicans can't break their Reaganism training even when they try. More scamPACs. Surveillance surveyed.
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