Winning the Future, Old School

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Ezra Klein:

The military made out quite nicely in the 2012 budget proposal. The administration is cutting $78 billion from the Defense Department’s budget — known as “security discretionary spending” — over the next 10 years. That’s a bit of a blow, but compare it to the $400 billion they’re cutting from domestic discretionary spending — that’s education, income security, food safety, environmental protection, etc. — over the next 10 years. And keep in mind that the domestic discretionary budget is only half as large as the military’s budget. So if there were equal cuts, the military would be losing $800 billion.

Put another way, Obama has proposed cuts of about 1% from a defense budget that’s already the largest in the world, versus cuts of about 10% from a domestic budget that’s already one of the stingiest in the world. And that’s moderate compared to what Republicans want to do. As Ezra says, this puts a little different spin on “winning” the future, doesn’t it?

This is hardly our only option, though. Adam Weinstein has more on the defense budget here.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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