Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about Trump

cutting the Pentagon budget, only not. So, the reporting went out. Trump planned on cutting the

Pentagon budget by 8% per year for the next five years. Once that reporting hit, people had their immediate reactions.

Some said it showed Trump was a peaceful president. Some declared the end of American primacy.

Some were excited to see a bloated budget cut. Me? I was waiting to see the next round of reporting. And sure enough, we have a memo that

seems to indicate the 8% cut is actually a 0% cut. The acting Deputy Secretary of Defense put out a

memo saying there were no cuts, but instead, quote, offsets. If you're not familiar with government budget

speak, that's robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you buy 8% less boots so you can buy more helmets,

that's an offset. You're not cutting the budget, you're moving money around. They're looking to

find $50 billion to fund, quote,

programs aligned with President Trump's priorities. Just as a reminder, specifying a percentage

to cut instead of looking for inefficiencies is literally the worst way to do this.

An 8% cut over that five-year period would be a reduction of about

$300 billion. What's the reality in Congress? You know, the entity that actually determines the

budget and that holds the purse strings. Well, the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman

Roger Wicker from Mississippi recently said the plan was $200 billion.

Hey, that is closer than any of these numbers have been in a long, long time.

White House says $300 billion. Congress says $200 billion. That's almost normal politics.

Oh, I'm sorry. Congress is saying $200 billion. $200 billion. That's almost normal politics. Oh, I'm sorry. Congress is saying $200 billion more, not $300 billion less. So to be clear on this, the reporting says an 8% cut.

Based on the memo, that doesn't look accurate. It looks like they're moving 8% of already allocated funding

to Trump priorities, which is probably border projects and what he's calling the Iron Dome.

The $300 billion over five years seems unlikely, because Congress appears to be going the other way.

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