Monday, June 27, 2011

What Atrios said

We obviously must cut medicare and food stamps and not raise taxes slightly for multi-millionaires...

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.

2 comments:

Montag said...

This shouldn't come as a surprise, since most of the electricity necessary to run those air conditioners is coming from diesel generators and it's costing ~ $400/gal. to get fuel into Afghanistan.

Being the new high-tech French Foreign Legion isn't cheap. Good thing Uncle Sam has a wallet full of credit cards....

Anonymous said...

100 degrees here in Kansas. My sister told me yesterday "I can't afford to run my a/c on what I make"
Then she isn't in Afganistan, just a single mom making beds for air force personell at the local air base working for a contractor 4 days a week. No benefits. Fans and wet towels help.
vox