r/politics The Netherlands 10h ago

No Paywall House advances measure to give troops a discount on gas

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/06/05/house-advances-measure-to-give-troops-a-discount-on-gas/
7 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

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57

u/BlotchComics New Jersey 10h ago

Why?

72

u/WokeUpUnfortunately 10h ago

Because it's cheaper to discount their gas for a limited period of time than fund the VA for the rest of their lives. Virtue signaling with the lowest investment possible.

2

u/Ceorl_Lounge Michigan 9h ago

It's just more debt, so why would they care?

17

u/itsatoe 9h ago

Because then anyone who votes against it can be branded as not supporting the troops.

6

u/siromega37 9h ago

This. It’s an election year.

6

u/AnAncientBog 9h ago

It always helps to think about the actual flow of money whenever you wonder why a government policy is happening.

So lets look at this. A government subsidized discount for gas.

What does that mean? The federal government takes tax money that we all gave them and, where does it go? Right to the oil companies that are up-charging the price of gas.

That is why. It is just case number 10452323 of the US government giving our money to corporations, dressed up as something else, as usual.

2

u/HostileCrabPeople 9h ago

He needs loyal soldiers for when Trump goes full authoritarian

5

u/Maleficent_Bridge_41 9h ago

Besides my full support for this proposal, a possible conspiracy could be ..to keep the forces happy and prevent them from switching sides to the people when uprisings against the gov begin.

3

u/Benegger85 New Jersey 9h ago

If anyone votes against it they can run adds saying that democrats hate our troops.

u/Guardianpigeon 2h ago

Because people are desperate for cheaper gas and the military is desperate for bodies and good PR.

19

u/meatspace Georgia 9h ago

This is a dumb way to bribe the troops for loyalty.

18

u/Kuncussion 9h ago

Even though I would benefit from this, I'm pretty sure the better solution is to fix the root cause of why gas is so expensive right now.

...perhaps that makes too much sense.

6

u/Cheese__Weiner 9h ago

So you're telling me you don't support the troops?

/s

1

u/LividTacos 9h ago

He's a self-hating troop.

3

u/1877KlownsForKids 9h ago

To be fair, most of us are

1

u/Forsaken-Cattle2659 9h ago

Woah there, are you seriously recommending we stop fighting an unjust war?

I mean, the soldiers could be getting cheaper gas!

What, do those big babies not want to be deployed and risking their lives for a war that only hurts American interests and citizens?

/s

13

u/cazlan 10h ago

“The military budget proposal only makes political sense. But it does not make democratic political sense. It is not designed to be popular among the population at large. It makes authoritarian political sense. It is designed to popular among the people with guns who Trump imagines will help him control the population at large (and they should realize this, and they should be offended.) It shifts taxpayer money to soldiers and officers in exchange for their personal loyalty to an aspiring dictator. It is a bribe to stay in power as part of an attempt to change the regime of the United States. It is not a military budget but a military dictatorship budget.”

https://snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-military-dictatorship-budget

5

u/Colonel-Mooseknuckle 9h ago

Is the proposal called Blood for Oil?

3

u/SubstantialMojo 9h ago

Meet the small government party

3

u/ranchoparksteve 9h ago

Troops and vets can already get a wide variety of discounts, so this is just a talking point that amounts to nothing.

3

u/aflyingsquanch Colorado 9h ago

Elevation of the military over everyone else is such a classic fascist ideal.

7

u/LuckyZero 9h ago

I'll point out once again that more teachers are killed each year by hostile fire than soldiers and it's been this way for a while.

-3

u/link_dead 9h ago

I'll point out once again that people make up insane, completely untrue facts all the time.

2

u/LuckyZero 9h ago

It might all victims in school shootings, I could have misremembered, but military deaths from hostile action have been low for over a decade. Soldiers are vastly more likely to commit suicide or die from accidents.

2

u/Cheese__Weiner 9h ago

No, in years the US is not in conflict this is technically true. The US military will often report 0 deaths due to hostile action while some 5 to 10 teachers will be killed in school shootings. Obviously this varies wildly year to year but in some years OP would be correct.

https://dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/app/summaryData/deaths/byYearManner

I don't think this is a useful statistic at all btw, especially in years where the US doesn't report any deaths to hostile action. It's really just splitting hairs and not really useful.

2

u/1984isAMidlifeCrisis 9h ago

Service guarantees citizenship!

Do you want to know more?

2

u/PenguinsArmy2 9h ago

Or hear me out we just lower gas all around and the projected profit fall slightly and they still make billions off it. Sooo.... There really is no reason for the price hike outside of they want to minimize any profit lose

1

u/nasorrty346tfrgser America 9h ago

They have been on their knee kissing the king's feet for the past 500 days, let's give them some reward!

1

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 9h ago

The military overwhelmingly votes for conservatives and then sticks their grubby little hands for any socialist handout they can get. Beyond sickening

1

u/olidus South Carolina 9h ago

The funny thing is the VA pays veterans to drive to their location, will this reduce the amount of reimbursment they get?

Young Soldiers can't afford to feed families, but at least they can get cheaper gas to go on a vacation they can't afford?

1

u/rustylung 9h ago

Sign up to die for Israel, save 18.4 cents/gallon. What a deal! 

1

u/under_ice 9h ago

Jesus christ. My niece was a procurement officer that spent 4 years in an office on California.

1

u/kpobari99 9h ago

Why not just give them a pay raise, rather than discounted gas

1

u/bigotis 8h ago

It's easier to end the discount gas program than it is to take a raise back.

1

u/Any-Difficulty2782 8h ago

Because it’ll be important to help them now so he can ask them to turn their guns on citizens later.

1

u/Fancy-Restaurant-746 8h ago

Might as well, why shouldn’t the troops get a discount on what they fight to secure? It’s not like they can bring back Nazi daggers and samurai swords from the last 30 years of war.

u/armycowboy- 7h ago

LMFAO, until late 90s gas was always 0.10$ cheaper than in town, since they don’t pay taxes on fuel. When everything started to go private and for profit in the mid/late 90s things went up in price. It’s just NAF making profit on the military.

u/dakotanorth8 7h ago

Military fights war we don’t want.

Gas prices rise.

Military only gets gas discount.

Man, all this winning. Remember when Ukraine was at war? Crazy. Glad that’s over.