Let’s take a break from Donny’s clusterf**k with Iran and move on to his less than brilliant idea of the Golden Dome.
Golden Dome is Donny’s version of the budget busting program proposed by Reagan, the Strate4gic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)….and guess what Donny’s ‘brilliant’ idea is a budget buster as well….to the tune of $1 trillion….a far cry from the bullshit Donny said but then why would he ever tell the truth?
President Trump’s plan to put weapons in space—pitched as a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program—is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a 20-year period, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a far heftier sum than the initial $175 billion price tag he gave last year. The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal,” the AP reports.
- The futuristic system was ordered by Trump in an executive order during his first week in office. He said then that he expected the system to be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which wraps up in January 2029.
- “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems,” Trump said in his executive order, justifying the need for the missile defense system.
- The CBO’s estimates are in part based on a lack of details from the Defense Department about what and how many systems will be deployed, “making it impossible to estimate the long term cost” of the Golden Dome system, the report says.
- The concept for the missile system is at least partly inspired by Israel’s multitiered defenses, often referred to as the “Iron Dome,” which played a key role in defending it from rocket and missile fire from Iran and allied militant groups as it prosecutes the war on Iran alongside the US.
- The US Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground and space-based capabilities able to detect, intercept, and stop missiles at all major stages of a potential attack. Congress has already approved roughly $24 billion for the missile defense initiative through Republicans’ massive tax and spending measure signed into law last summer.
- Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who requested the estimate from the CBO, said in response to the report that the missile defense project is “nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans.”
- Last May, the president said the Golden Dome would cost $175 billion. The CBO last year estimated that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.
This will be on the backs of taxpayers like everything else Donny does….we get stuck for his bullshit ideas.
There is some concern that all that cash spent maybe in vain….
Even under generous technical assumptions, the viability challenges facing Golden Dome are severe. When it comes to reliably defending the United States against peer and near-peer intercontinental nuclear threats, those challenges are effectively insurmountable. They include the number of interceptors required to reliably defend the United States, with some estimates suggesting ratios as high as 1,600 interceptors for every incoming missile; the ability of adversaries to deploy countermeasures designed to defeat missile defenses; and the risk that a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere or in space could significantly degrade or disable the system’s ability to track and intercept additional threats. As a budget watchdog, one of our guiding principles at Taxpayers for Common Sense is, “if it doesn’t work, don’t fund it.” The evidence presented in this report strongly suggests that Golden Dome will not work.
Read the report by Taxpayers For Common Sense
Just another one of Donny’s lame ass ideas to waste taxpayer money….and people, taxpayers, still support this clown…..why?
Just trying to keep an eye on what our half-ass government will do with the taxes we all pay.
This is NOT what I signed on for….how about you?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
What bothers me more than the golden dome idea is the idea that has been plaguing me lately about all those brave American Military Troops who fought and died in all kinds of wars, foreign and domestic, to protect our Freedoms as a nation. Now that those freedoms are threatened like never before, I am beginning to wonder if all those brave Military American Souls who gave their all for their country might have died in vain.
A disturbing thought John….but I understand why you ask. chuq
We saw what happened to Israel’s Iron Dome when it was swamped by huge numbers of drones and missiles fired from Iran. I suspect the Golden Dome would have a similar failure. Next I am waiting to see what nonsense Trump comes out with on his trip to China. He is bound to say something stupid and offensive to his hosts.
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete I am watching that possibility myself….we know he cannot go without putting that tiny foot in that large mouth. chuq
This “golden dome” is useless in modern warfare. And I mean utterly, totally and completely useless. We’ve seen the future of warfare and it’s low cost, easy to make drone swarms launched in large numbers to overwhelm any potential defensive system. For the cost of a single cruise missile and enemy could deploy 400 autonomous drones, each carrying a bomb large enough to take out a decent sized structure. Which do you think is going to cause more chaos, damage and panic? A single missile, no matter how large the war head might be (excluding nuclear, that is), or 400 individual flying bombs flooding a small area?
This is nothing less than an upgraded version of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program, a big, flashy pipe dream intended to distract people from the fact that he was bankrupting the country with his insane economic policies, and it’s being pushed for the same reason.
And we all know that the accuracy of the estimates of the cost of these weapons systems is an utter joke. Look at the F-35 program. It was originally projected to cost about $200 – $230 billion. It is now estimated that the total lifetime cost of the F-35 program is going to be well over $1.2 trillion. It costs in excess of $42,000 *per hour* to fly an F-35. F-22s are actually far worse than that with an estimated operational cost of $82,000 per flight hour. The next time you see one of those patriotic fly-overs by a squad of fighter planes over an NFL stadium, before you start cheering just remember that they just took several million dollars out of the tax payer’s pockets, your pockets, and basically burned it for no reason except to satisfy someone’s ego.
GF this was a gimme for the defense contractors…..you are right it will be useless and too damn expensive. F35 the Flying Brick. chuq