Summary
President Joe Biden approved $571.3 million in military aid to Taiwan, reinforcing U.S. support amid increasing Chinese military pressure.
This package follows a $567 million aid approval three months ago and Taiwan’s recent acquisition of 38 Abrams tanks, its first new tanks in 30 years.
Taiwan expressed gratitude for the U.S.‘s security commitment while maintaining discretion on the aid’s specifics.
China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has condemned U.S. arms sales and escalated military activities around the island, vowing not to renounce force for unification.
Isn’t $500 Million in Military terms like a McDonald’s cheeseburger in human terms? Like the B2 Bomber cost $44 Billion to develop and $2 Billion a piece.
But we can’t afford single payer healthcare…
Single payer healthcare would save money. No amount of unrelated spending is preventing us from having universal coverage. It would be cheaper to switch.
I’d love single payer healthcare, but it would cost like 1000x more than this.
Correctly implemented (cf Europe) it would cost less than what currently exists.
Presumably he’s been on this military aid spree out of fear Trump won’t send any more?
It’s so weird.
Trump is only slightly less pro-war than Bush/Obama/Biden, but the thing is, when he pulls the military from a war he almost certainly does it for the wrong reasons.
I’m anti-war myself, so for me, it’s a win. Obama had us at war in seven countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Libya) and the US military is still active in most of them. Personally, I think it’s more of a business move than a political one. Lots of war profiteers spent a lot of money on Biden and Harris’ campaigns, and they expect a return on that investment while he still has the power to give it.
Meanwhile trump is throwing around the idea of invading mexico and… canada?
Being against helping the little guy isn’t anti-war, it’s pro-imperialism
… So the Iraq war was now to help the little guy and so the US could be anti-Imperialists? wtf is going on in here.
Who mentioned the Iraq war?
Thank you for the brilliant platitudes, ILikeBoobies.
You are quite welcome
Don’t make silly arguments if you don’t want them rebutted by boilerplate counter arguments.
Ah isn’t it fun? Liberals downvoting you for speaking out against arms sales. The world is itching for war and preparing for it unfortunately and many liberals are fully onboard.
It’s ironic, yes, but not unexpected.
For the 99% that always vote party over country, any opinion they hold is subject to political convenience. It really is a shame though that no one seems to have learned from the wars of the past 40 years. Every single time we’re able to look back on them and see very clearly that we were lied to and the war industry and politicians benefited handsomely.
Well, that’s good news.
Definitely didn’t need that 571 million here in the US for anything.
It’s under $2 per American.
I see these comments every time military aid is talked about. Military aid isn’t just sending money. It can include weapons, equipment, training, or other support to help a country defend itself or strengthen its military. Sometimes, the aid is in the form of funds, but often it’s specific resources like tanks, aircraft, or technical expertise. Believe it or not, it helps the US economy while also helping our allies protect themselves without risk to american lives. Taiwan has the right to stand up for itself, unless you are against that policy stance I’m not sure what else to say.
Military aid isn’t just sending money. It can include weapons, equipment, training, or other support to help a country defend itself
Not unlike how corporate donors buy thousands of Trump’s books, or stays at his hotels, or whatever other bribe they render to get him to take their phone calls. In short, legalized bribery.
Works the same way with war profiteers. All those bombs aren’t free, and they are 100% marked up.
My entire life I’ve watched the US spend like drunken sailors to wage war around the world. I’m going to remind the chickenhawks that our people are dying while these boondoggles take place, because apparently your preferred news program, the one trying to manufacture your consent, certainly won’t.
It seems like you don’t grasp the concept of military aid still. And now you are changing the subject. It’s ok to admit you don’t understand military aid and just say you used it the wrong context. Taiwan has a right to protect itself, full stop. It sounds like you are anti-American and anti-Taiwan, so I’ll end this conversation here.
The government should be giving every American a bucket of 30 year old 5.56 and a tank that hasn’t been maintained since 1986!
No, friend.
The government should be giving everyone health care.
Look at Canada and Mexico. Combined they spends a little over $30 billion a year on their military. Both have universal health care. Here in the US we spend well over two trillion a year on war, and if you have an injury or illness, you will go bankrupt.
Doesn’t matter what China does if you’re out on the street, because SCOTUS just paved the way for homelessness to be criminalized.
The government should be giving everyone health care.
Single-payer healthcare is cheaper than the current system. No amount of spending in an unrelated area is preventing us from having cheaper universal healthcare.
Look at Canada and Mexico. Combined they spends a little over $30 billion a year on their military. Both have universal health care. Here in the US we spend well over two trillion a year on war, and if you have an injury or illness, you will go bankrupt.
None of this has anything to do with anything.
You could eliminate all foreign aid, all military aid, all foreign spending whatsoever and you still wouldn’t have health care. While many Americans support it (some polls suggest a majority), they don’t care enough about it to actually use the electoral system to get it. Meanwhile parasites in the health care system (insurance companies chief among them) make huge profits and will gladly use a bunch of that on campaigns to maintain the status quo. Americans already spend more per capita on health care than anyone else. They just get pitiful value for that money, and lack the will to change things.
I fully agree, we need to stop spending so much money on the military immediately. I was simply making reference to the fact that we are not spending several hundred million dollars on the military aid that we’re sending, we’re sending several hundred million dollars worth of military aid that we paid for before I was born.
People keep making that argument, that it’s only older military ordnance being sent to these countries.
I think that’s going to age about as well as the stories about Saddam having nukes, which everyone else claimed authoritatively at one point, using their preferred billionaire-owned news media source as gospel.
BUT, I appreciate that you’re willing to have a discussion in good faith, unlike most on this thread. Thank you.
Don’t worry. The corporate plutocracy guarantees these funds would’ve never benefited the American people either way.
Likely.
Still needs to be said every time our money is spent on military boondoggles and not our own needs.
If China takes Taiwan, the US loses access to high end semiconductors completely or is beholden to China to obtain them. China is fighting a soft war against the US already.
I would have agreed with you with every conflict the US has been involved in in the last 50 years, but China and Russia are both direct existential threats to the Western world. Anyone who doesn’t recognize this is simply not well informed.
I would have agreed with you with every conflict the US has been involved in in the last 50 years
My entire life I’ve heard facsimiles of the arguments you’re making.
I never hear them in favor of helping people dying in ER waiting rooms here until an Italian goes off and kills a CEO.
Those stances aren’t mutually exclusive. Both arguments can be right at the same time.
If I’m wrong, tell me how. You don’t get to just ignore the facts because you don’t like them.
None of the other countries we attacked in the last 50 years (with possibly Afghanistan as the exception) were fighting soft wars against the US and actively prepping for a hot one. When someone’s actively punching you in the face, pacifism starts to lose its glow.
To be fair, the national security of Taiwan is pretty important; however, I would much rather this money come out of the US military’s ridiculous 900 billion budget.
I would much rather this money come out of the US military’s ridiculous 900 billion budget.
Agreed. I’m guessing the war profiteers who keep Biden’s phone busy are doing the best they can to milk him before Trump takes office.
