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192

Pentagon Keeps Pouring Cash Into Golf Courses — Even As Trump Slashes Government Spending (theintercept.com)

submitted 7 months ago by IndustryStandard@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he has a singular mission. “Your job [as secretary] is to make sure that it’s lethality, lethality, lethality. Everything else is gone. Everything else that distracts from that shouldn’t be happening,” he said during his confirmation process. Since taking the helm at the Pentagon, Hegseth has doubled down. “We do warfighting here at the Department of Defense,” he said at a Pentagon town hall, demanding a “laser focus on readiness, lethality, and warfighting.”

Not everyone at the Defense Department seems to have gotten the message. Right now, the U.S. military is looking to pour money into the renovation of 35 golf course sand traps at the Woodlawn Golf Course at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Contracting documents show that Air Force Special Operations Command also wants to purchase sterile mushroom compost for the golf course greens at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. It is also looking into hydroseeding at that same course. The Army, for its part, plans to issue a service contract that will cover maintenance in the golf course clubhouse at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

What golf has to do with lethality is a question that the Defense Department failed to answer. Nor would the Pentagon weigh in on the hundreds of millions of dollars wrapped up in, or swallowed up by, military golf courses over decades. The Pentagon did not provide a full tally of its current inventory of golf courses, which The Intercept put at around 145. What is clear is that critics have been raising alarms about the military’s golf obsession for at least 60 years, and, despite claims of a new dawn at the Pentagon, putting-green pork is still par for the course.

top 24 comments

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[–] Cgers@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 7 months ago

Actual look at Trump regime

[–] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Why is this an ISSUE? We CUT Child Education and Lunches JUST so we could Afford THIS! It's FINE now! If KIDS want to Eat or get Learnt they can Get a Job!

[–] Bonzaibongo@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

fuck them kids, amirite? /s

[–] Eldest_Malk@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

~it was a joke~

[–] Bonzaibongo@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

edited my original comment to include the /s

[–] Eldest_Malk@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

❤️

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

they can become caddies! it's win/win!

also today: trump tried to say tariffs are tax cuts.

that's the kind of blindingly stupid people they let drive the bus. fml

[–] Retropunk64@lemmy.ml 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Can we at least get some tactical polos? Ooh, and golf bags with room for a rifle and sidearm?!

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Can we at least get some tactical polos

Best we can do is tactical turtleneck

[–] Retropunk64@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

I'll two two in black, and two more in a slightly darker shade of black, please!

[–] multiplemigs@sh.itjust.works 12 points 7 months ago

Pete Hegseth can gargle some golf balls

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Every military golf course I've known about have been funded through non-appropriated funds. Meaning that they, like most MWR functions on a base, have to pay for themselves and are not provided money from Congress to exist. The golf course at the base near me shut down recently because not enough people played to pay for it.

There are probably exceptions but probably not many.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 7 months ago

Glad we've got our priorities straight. It'd be a shame if some of that money went to treating addiction, housing the unhoused, or lifting children out of poverty. Good job, USA. No notes.

[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 7 months ago

lol... probably secret hidden bases and spycraft sites.

[+] b34k@lemmy.world -14 points 7 months ago (3 children)

So the Armed Forces have some golf courses that their servicemen can enjoy when off duty (and some are even open to civilians) and, surprise surprise, they require some maintenance and upkeep dollars.

I feel like this piece is some manufactured outrage. Let the members of the armed forces have nice places to relax… they should be allowed some reprieve from their role as cogs in the war machine.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 39 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The problem is that the federal government is taking a literal chainsaw to critical life saving programs like disability, social insurance, and USAID, while ignoring expenses like maintaining golf courses that are purely a luxury.

You've got federal funds available to invest in fertilizing the grass so people can be entertained; but can't possibly continue to keep people alive and off the streets??

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have lost their jobs, with many panicking not knowing where their next meal will come from. Millions of people worldwide have been cut off from food, water, and medical supplies that the US had promised to provide (whether actually supplying the goods or providing transport/protection). These people WILL die because of this; but the putting greens are looking nicer than ever!

[–] b34k@lemmy.world -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Then get mad about the cuts to the much needed programs and the corrupt people cutting them. Not at the other expenses they’ve decided not to cut.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

The point is to highlight how blatantly corrupt those people are.

[–] Retropunk64@lemmy.ml 8 points 7 months ago

Lmao, how is this manufactured outrage? They're claiming the government is wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous things. What's more frivolous than a shitty golf course? If they truly cared about saving taxpayers money, that would have been the first thing they cut. But that's not what they care about, they care about hurting the less fortunate. Which group of people overwhelmingly use gold courses? I'll give you a hint. Its not people with lower incomes.

[–] Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I can guarantee you, Joe, isn't on those golf courses. That shit is there, so whatever General officers can tee off and huff one anothers farts.

[–] b34k@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I live in a Navy town with 3 such golf courses. I know plenty of rank and file who have play them regularly.

[–] Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh, my mistake! I bow to your expertise, sir! Certainly, you are there waiting at the gates. 21 year old Private Joe Snuffy is definitely taking a break from drinking and hitting the gym to play the most boring game known to man.

[–] Eldest_Malk@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Pretty childish take.

[–] Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

Well, you're a poopy head.