DarrylS

Not sure of the exact number it is reported that somewhere in the middle is the truth, Congresswoman McCollum added an amendment to the recent defense bill limiting this expenditure to 200 million..

McCollum is also the congresswoman who wanted to limit expenditures on NASCAR advertising.. thank goodness for the fiscally responsible democrats to come up with such a concrete idea.

Do we need 4600 full time army men and women to fulfill this function??.. that is 4600 soldiers in the Army alone that we will be paying a pension to for life after 20 years..

May 26, 2011 -- House Passes McCollum Amendment to Limit Pentagon Spending on Military Bands

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

sdaniels7114

This is one of those things where I have to wonder if Congress should really get involved. I'm sure the Army is quite aware that it would have that many more infantry troops or logistics troops or whatever troops if it cut back on band members, yet this is the decision they arrived at. Who's more qualified to make it?

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Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob everyone.

DarrylS

It seems that if the military has to cut back(Oh the horrors), they need to look at everything.. 4600 band members in the Army is nice, but is it a necessary???. Think of the legacy costs for playing in a band.

One of the issues in this defense budget is an appropriation to dig up dead marines remains in Lybia and have them returned to the US for proper burial.

The military is the proverbial golden very fat calf.

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

patsfan13

Agreed.


Part of that is for trumpet players to play taps at fuernals of vets. Retired military is starting to fill in when active duty soldiers aren't available.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

chicowalker

Bugle, no?

There's actually a shortage of able buglers. They often resort to recording now. (story in the last couple years in the WSJ's middle column -- which, btw, is worth perusing for those who don't read the journal regularly -- very eclectic)

patsfan13

Correct not valves on bugles, M Davis on the brain.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

Holy Diver

We all should praise this investment in our future background singers of the Village People.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7fjPQ0A-4k...age-people.jpg




in all seriousness, I hope nobody actually believes that this money was spent on marching bands. This is one of those $400 hammers. Nahmean?

Real World

I'm sure there are tons of individual spending issues we'd find in all departments of the government. I don't mind the congress limiting the spending. I just don't know the ins and outs of marching bands in the military. Is $200 million a lot, a little, enough? I couldn't tell you. Generally speaking, cutting spending when we're broke is a good thing.

As for advertising during Nascar, um, who cares? When marketing you try to spend your dollars in a fashion that best hits your target audience. If you're marketing Depends, you might not want to pay for ads during the X Games for example. However, if you're the military, you might want to target Nascar. Sporting events are probably more in line with the military's target demographic than is something being shown on Lifetime.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897