(HorizonPost.com) – In December 2019, President Donald Trump signed a law that created the United States Space Force (USSF). Its website says it’s “a military service that organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. [sic] and allied interests in space….” Although the legislation establishing the fledgling entity passed through the House of Representatives by the overwhelming margin of 377-48, a group of Democrats headed by Representative Jared Huffman (CA) has introduced a bill to abolish it: the “No Militarization of Space Act.”
Democrats are introducing a bill to abolish the Space Force established by former President Donald Trump as a new branch of the military to defend American national security in the expanding world that is increasingly using satellite technology.https://t.co/dCMdLffMb4
— Newsmax (@newsmax) September 24, 2021
Other signatories to the proposed legislation include Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). They support Huffman’s press release claiming the agency “flagrantly wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.” They would rather see the money spent fixing “climate change and growing economic inequality.” This position seems to be at odds with Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s comments from February 2021, when she said the Space Force had the Biden Administration’s “full support.”
In his keynote address at the Air Force Association’s “Air, Space & Cyber” conference on September 20, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall discussed the dangers of China putting weapons in space. He also spoke of the vital role the USSF plays in countering those weapons and protecting national security.
This issue is developing into a “guns and butter” debate, which simply means: with a finite amount of money to allocate, how do we decide how much to spend between national defense and social programs?
Copyright 2021, HorizonPost.com
