The USA found an additional 6 billion for Ukraine

In reply to Noddaz :

I think by "found" they mean "printed".

And I'll leave it at that.

In reply to Duke :

No, not really.  "Find" is a bit misleading. The estimates of what the aid would actually cost was to high.  Saying "there is still money left after they thought they would have spent it all" is probably more accurate.

It's kind of like if you had a gift certificate for FM and thought you would have enough to rebuild your motor.  After buying all the parts for your motor, you realize you still have enough for a new interior.  Did you "find" the money for the interior?  meh...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years — about double early estimates — resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages.

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-war-weapons-surplus-funding-72eeb6119439146f1939d5b1973a44ef#

BTW- Nodaz, the links you provide from that site come up in Ukrainian and switching to English looses the article.  I was never able to find the article after switching to English.

aircooled said:

In reply to Duke :

No, not really.  "Find" is a bit misleading. The estimates of what the aid would actually cost was to high.  Saying "there is still money left after they thought they would have spent it all" is probably more accurate.

So the USA found out the Ukrainians can do military stuff for cheaper than we can.

Sounds about right.

In reply to Beer Baron :

I don't think it's not even that.  As far as I know, I am pretty sure we have not given Ukraine any "cash" aid, which is probably a very good thing (there is a weeeee bit of a corruption issue there historically).  It seems to be more of an estimate of value of equipment sent. 

I suspect one of the difficulties is valuing surplus and used or unneeded equipment. E.g. I believe all the M1 tanks we are sending them are not fully modernized tanks in reserve that we almost certainly will never need or use (there was a thing a while back about congress forcing the army to buy tanks it did not want or need).  You could, for example, say unused or mothballed equipment has no value, since we already paid for it and already used it or will never use it (probably shouldn't though)

Yeah, the gas prices, as you noted, are not related.  That was the result of Saudi Arabia and OPEC wanting to make more money and cutting production.

As far as general inflation, maybe, a tiny bit.  Sending old equipment, certainly not.  Having to replace new stuff with a higher defense budget, or paying for new stuff to send, more so.  Not sure defense spending in general has a big inflation affect.  Having to print money to pay for it, or building more debt though, more so.

BRB, sending a link to this thread to frenchy and AnthonyGS

Hey now!   There is no mention of V12's or electric cars here sir!

aircooled said:

Yeah, the gas prices, as you noted, are not related.  That was the result of Saudi Arabia and OPEC wanting to make more money and cutting production.

As far as general inflation, maybe, a tiny bit.  Sending old equipment, certainly not.  Having to replace new stuff with a higher defense budget, or paying for new stuff to send, more so.  Not sure defense spending in general has a big inflation affect.  Having to print money to pay for it, or building more debt though, more so.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- hits two of the three.  Mostly because of the opposite of the first happened some time ago.

ProDarwin said:

BRB, sending a link to this thread to frenchy and AnthonyGS

You shiny happy person!

If they can just find $6 billion like that I need to dig through my couch again, there's got to be a few thousand in there

ProDarwin said:

BRB, sending a link to this thread to frenchy and AnthonyGS

That's kind of funny.  I'm not happy future generations will go further into debt to finance more war, but I'm also not surprised by it.

superfund said:

If they can just find $6 billion like that I need to dig through my couch again, there's got to be a few thousand in there

You'll find a credit card in that couch.  You just charge it up and let someone else worry about the bill.

This makes perfect cents to me.  I have 100 old cars that I have to house and care for that I don't use, they cost me $10k per year to house, insure and maintain.  I also have to keep buying new cars to keep the car producers working, just in case some day I need many more new cars.  All my old cars are worthless because I can't sell them.

Now I find a good cause to Donate my old cars to but I value them at 400 million dollars.  I just donated 400 million dollars but I'm better off for it.  In fact I may find even more things to donate that I don't really need.   This frees up cash that I was spending every month for other stuff, like more cars.

And then my tax audit finds that my donations were only worth $50, but the good news is I can donate more next year.

If you think the cost of standing up to expansionist totalitarian despots is expensive, just wait until you find out the cost of sitting back and watching...

And as pointed out... we already spent the money. We already paid for all these tanks and equipment to be built. They're not being used anymore. They still have value, but only if you can find a buyer. Instead of trying to find a buyer, we're donating them to Ukraine so Pavel and his mates can use them to fight Russians.

The tanks are finally getting to do what they were originally designed for.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

superfund said:

If they can just find $6 billion like that I need to dig through my couch again, there's got to be a few thousand in there

You'll find a credit card in that couch.  You just charge it up and let someone else worry about the bill.

Eh. A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon you're talking about real money.

So, Congress approves a certain amount of money for aid, the Pentagon overvalues their used equipment and sends it, someone decides they want to send more equipment, the Pentagon re-evaluates the value of the previously sent equipment and cuts the value in half, so now the Pentagon can send twice as much equipment without additional Congressional approval?  Am I getting this right?

In the US, we call that a "surplus".  Isn't this a great country?

In 1939, 90% of Americans were against joining the war against Germany and I've always wondered "what excuse could they possibly conjure to argue for standing by and doing nothing while this was happening right across their ocean???"

Well gents, I think I owe you a debt of gratitude as I do believe I've found my answer.

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Yes, and yet this seems to be a managed stalemate of money laundering.  If we need a war, fight a War.

Um, I don't now guys and gals.  Should I insert the train wreck gif here or not?