A lot of industry relies on NOAA, all the GOP is doing is turning the US into a Third World Country with a huge defense industry and ability to make war.
Once things start getting very very bad for the people, the US will invade other countries to steal their resources and prop up their failing economy.
> with a huge defense industry and ability to make war.
Even that is in jeopardy. The budget remains high, and I doubt it will drop. Recruiting is a big problem. But the ability to produce munitions in quantity any time soon is not likely. The US has depleted a significant portion of its "ammo" in the last few years. There has been a successful effort to improve the ability, but it is still a years long thing. There was an article in The Atlantic[0] by Mark Bowden on this, particularly about the production of 155mm howitzer shells. Interestingly enough, it says that the US doesn't produce any TNT, it gets it all from Poland. That article also references an Army Research Board report[1] from 2023 about the Defence Industrial Base, both government owned and commercial. Here's a quote:
"Fragility across the OIB and commercial DMIB includes World War II-era (or older) facilities, outdated machinery and production techniques, inadequate tooling, foreign sources of supply, poor visibility of suppliers, insufficient tested and validated long lead-items, and workers who have exited or retired. In several cases, key parts required to keep manufacturing lines open no
longer exist and are difficult to replace."
Another example would be the Navy. Aside from the aforementioned munitions problem, the ability to actually maintain the fleet, even at its current size is poor. There was a recent GAO report on the state of US shipyards[2], which I'll quote (emphasis mine):
"The Navy's four public shipyards are critical to maintaining the readiness of its fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines. However, the condition of their dry docks and facilities is poor, and their equipment is generally past its useful life. Further, the Navy reports that without improvements to shipyard infrastructure, it will be unable to support almost a third of the planned maintenance periods for aircraft carriers and submarines through 2040, hindering fleet readiness. In 2018, the Navy estimated it would require $21 billion and 20 years to implement the SIOP; however, the projected costs and scope of the effort have grown."
The US could certainly invade smaller countries, but then what? Occupy them? That didn't work in Iraq or Afghanistan.
> The Trump administration is instead discussing tearing down NOAA
Nah, they're just straight out going to do that.
States are then free to sign up for the SpaceX-in-proud-cooperation-with-Starlink-and-Tesla Extreme Weather Notification Plan, which is only $420M/state/month, and will be available in, well, 2 years or, eh, so. [Announcer's voice speeds up] Not every state may be eligible for participation, see your DOGE representative for full disclaimers and details.
Once things start getting very very bad for the people, the US will invade other countries to steal their resources and prop up their failing economy.