but is only a bit more than 1 percent of the federal budget
"...And besides, it's almost all just getting funneled directly into our Military Industrial Complex so it doesn't really count anyway"
also lol, using the entire federal budget's not trying to be intentionally misleading at all, right? $80 billion is almost 10% of our non-defense discretionary budget
It's also 80B$ to do, what, exactly? Create a post-war Russia that's even more desperate and less stable, a much more destabilized Ukraine which will never recover and forever remain beholden to Western investors and increasingly austere IMF/World Bank measures.
not trying to be intentionally misleading at all, right?
There are lies, damned lies, and economists.
Isn't it all just accruing as debt too? It's 80 billion that the US doesn't actually have.
Dollar denoted debt is meaningless when you can just print dollars.
It would only cover the expiring SNAP supplement (helping 16 million Americans put food on the table) for a measly 3 years! Peanuts.
It's interesting that liberals readily put aside "How are we going to pay for it?" if they like the idea. And they even say that if it's 1% of the federal budget - it's no biggie.
because Western economies are vastly bigger than Russia's
how is measuring using GDP working out for you, shithead
I did a little research awhile back, the amount of money contributed to the war effort in Ukraine is roughly similar to the yearly cost of the USA’s genocide in Vietnam. Krugman is a schmuck.
You’re telling me that you can defeat Putler with 1% of the budget but housing roughly 700,000 people in the US is too expensive?
Yes.
There's one kind of money for war and bombs and cops and prisons and then there's a completely different kind of money for doing stuff that actually helps people. There is always an endless supply of the first kind of money and never any of the second kind.
And no, you can't get more of the second kind of money by spending less of the first kind. The moment you slack even the tiniest on funding death, destruction and violence the terrorists/Putin/the Jewish bolcheviks/scary ethnic crime people will come and take everything from you.
Actually he's saying with haven't defeated Putler with 1% of the budget and won't. How much more it would take to defeat him remains unsaid... for reasons.
Put 100 of Paul's favorite people in a room, shoot one - what? It's just 1%, Paul.
I thought this was an opinion piece saying Kanye should be financing the Ukraine war at first for some reason
"I'mma let them finish, but Ukrainé has one of the best wars of all time!"
Can the West afford to provide aid on a sufficient scale to turn the war’s tide? Of course, and easily, because Western economies are vastly bigger than Russia’s.
Why are you comparing total economies, Paul? Are you considering total war?
The United States has committed about $80 billion so far... a bit more than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget. Americans who complain about the expense of aiding Ukraine are either innumerate or disingenuous.
But how much more than 1% would we need to commit to win? Why won't you tell us that? Innumerate and disingenuous would be to suggest we could cheaply wage a total war with Russia.
I mean $80 billion is just the direct aid costs, there's also the indirect trade costs from sanctions. Not to mention the non-monetary costs that come with destabilizing Europe and starting a new Cold War.
