Trump Signs Defense Bill With Watered-Down ZTE Sanctions (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: President Donald Trump on Monday signed a $716 billion defense policy bill that weakened efforts to punish Chinese telecom giant ZTE for violating trade laws. The bill, named for ailing Arizona Sen. John McCain, prohibits the U.S. government and its contractors from buying certain telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from ZTE, Huawei and a handful of other Chinese communications companies. The ban covers components and services deemed "essential" or "critical" to any government system. Some lawmakers had hoped to use the bill to reinstate tough penalties against ZTE, but the compromise bill removed a provision that would undo a deal the Commerce Department struck in June for ZTE to pay a $1 billion penalty to resume business with U.S. suppliers. But lawmakers agreed to abandon that effort in late July. Huawei called the inclusion of its products in the bill "ineffective, misguided and unconstitutional." They added: "It does nothing to identify real security risks or improve supply chain security, and will only serve to stifle innovation while increasing internet costs for U.S. consumers and businesses. We believe that the American people deserve equal access to the best possible connections and smart device options, and will keep working to make this happen."

Comments

Re:also

[110010001000]

They need to keep the corporate welfare queens propped up.

Re:Borrowing the entire defense budget

[bluefoxlucid]

Winston Churchill once demolished a Conservative defense budget, tearing it down to 1/10 its original size. He described his own budget, trimming the number of warships and other such provisions to a fraction of that for which the Conservatives had called.

Churchill's defense budget and his program funded thereby was sufficient to lose two-thirds of its ships and still destroy all of the European naval power, and then land troops and demolish their militaries. He called for a military which could demolish Europe three times over.

The United States wastes a lot of money in performing its functions, producing $2 of results for $5 of spending. Our military could provide greater defense with better technology at lower costs were the entirety of its programs not run by disorganized incompetents. The people doing the work are not specialized in managing the overall picture and, besides, are quite busy enough; and the people running the overall picture are bureaucrats who care little for fiscals, as it is Congress's problem to obtain the money.