Political Math
One-third of a day.
James Joyner mentioned the following figure in passing in his post, but I think it is worth noting directly, via Politico (emphasis mine), concerning the $130 million donation to help cover pay for the armed forces.
White House officials said that covering the cost of military pay for the first half of October totaled about $6.5 billion. Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said that based on that figure, the new donation will cover about one-third of one day’s pay for the force.
So, for all the adulation about the generosity of a shadowy great American, I think that the technical political science response to all of this is: whoopee-damn-do.
I know that $130 million sounds like a lot of money, and it is if, for example, a married couple is looking to live the rest of their lives in comfort. But, when it comes to bankrolling the compensation for the most powerful military the world has ever seen, we encounter yet another polisci term used mostly by devotees of obscure philosophes: chump change.
By the by, if billionaires want to contribute to the general welfare, there is an obscure institutional function that could be deployed. It’s called paying higher taxes.
The likely donor is, according to the NYT, Timothy Mellon, grandson of the founder of Mellon Bank and a multi-billionaire. Mathematically, this is probably like most people giving a few thousand dollars, but in terms of any impact on his spending, savings, investments, or ability to transfer wealth to his family, it is tantamount to leaving a very generous tip on an expensive restaurant bill.
And yet it sends a terrible signal to the masses, who should say “thank you, sir!” and be impressed at the largesse, all the while allowing innumeracy to get in the way of a real assessment of what it actually means.
Way too many “odd balls” with unfathomable wealth funding activism aligned with their eccentic, antisocial worldviews, these days. No shortage of people to do their bidding.
It may technically be, as you say, “chump change”, but to people like Mellon their whole life is about getting and keeping money, money is sacred, even in small amounts. On a related subject, I’m apparently supposed to feel comforted that my tax dollars aren’t paying for the Mar-a-Lago North Ballroom. I guess I’m even supposed to believe we won’t pay for security, maintenance, operation, landscaping, etc. James noted yesterday that it sits on top of the bunker, so security costs may rival the cost of the ballroom. If I give 50 bucks to my local congressional candidate, it’s because I want good government. If some billionaire gives $50 million for Trump’s folly, or to pay the military for a few hours, they want, and expect, $100 million back, directly or indirectly. OK, I should make allowance for the fact that Mellon is even older than I am and may not be acting entirely rationally.
A couple of points:
(1) Now imagine that Biden is president and the ‘benefactor’ of this largesse was … say, George Soros? There would be a nationwide Red State bedwetting alert, and FEMA would be called in to provide emergency mobile laundromat units for the clean up.
(2) This is the ‘Let Them Eat Cake-iest’ Administration in American history.
Why not go back to the good old English tradition, where local magnates funded, and were colonels-in-chief of, army regiments?
The answer being, of course, it was a bloody stupid system, that entrenched aristocratic power in the army, produced useless regiments, and yielded a “yeomanry force” suitable for little more than putting down domestic dissent.
See “Peterloo Massacre”.
If the Mellons can afford to bankroll the US military, even if to a relatively trivial extent, that seems to be reasonable argument for higher taxes on the Mellons. And other persons less “public spirited”,
This reminds me of the scene in Austin Powers where Dr Evil gets laughed at when he suggests a one million dollar!!! ransom in the 1990s (he’d been away 20 years) = not much money. I’m involved in a bridge replacement project, 2400 ft (simple bridge over a channelized river, nothing complex (except earthquake safety)) that is about $135M (over $5M just to clean the existing bridge). A traffic signal is $700k-$1M. The cost of a speed hump (bump) has doubled in the past dozen years (now $15k).
$130M is less than the annual payroll of 10 submarines (rough – 130 crew, $100K avg with bonuses – with some annual bonuses (COBO) over $50k).
I’m sure Warrior-in-Chief Hegseth will make sure the money goes only to the warfighters. Womens, fatties, beardos and desk-bound pretend soldiers can go to their local food banks.