In case you weren’t aware (or to recap), our Dear Leader Mr. Donald J. Trump announced in a series of tweets back in July stating that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the military. Okay. And today, on August 25, he apparently made it official by signing some shit or whatever banning these individuals from the military. It’s still up in the air as to if current military members will still be allowed to serve. This is Everything Sucks, and this is a really stupid policy, but what else did we expect from the president?
The policy makes zero sense. I really don’t see how it is supposed to help anything. Remember, Trump has promised to Make America Great Again, and…how does banning transgender people from the military help anything? I don’t agree with nearly all of the Trump Administration’s policies, but in a distorted way I understand how most can be seen to play into the goal of “making America great again.” Take for example coal and the environment: Trump has undone a bunch of regulations targeted to “bring back coal jobs” and while I’m skeptical of other aspects of the policy (if it’s realistic, if it’s correct given the existence of climate change, if market pressures will allow coal to become popular, etc.) I can still see how this can be seen by supporters to “make America great” by “bringing back” coal jobs. Like I said, I’m doubtful coal will ever be “brought back” or even should be brought back if it is able to be brought back, but I get how people would view Trump’s environmental deregulation as being in-line with his stated goal. If you want coal and really think that’s why the economy sucks it makes sense. But the transgender military ban? What? How does that play into Make America Great at all?
It has been said that the cost of gender reassignment surgeries and medication is one reason for the ban (the primary reason actually. According to a tweet: “…cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”). It doesn’t take a math wiz to realize how tiny of a drop in the budget bucket this really is though. According to this Washington Post article, transgender medical costs in the military could be up to $8.4 million annually. This, according to a study done by the Rand Corp., is an increase of 0.13% over current costs. Another popular fact to bring up (that has been brought up elsewhere) is the current costs of erectile dysfunction to the military: $84 million annually. In case you were wondering, the total military budget in 2015 was almost $600 billion. $10 million is fucking pocket change. And if Trump is really trying to cut costs by cutting transgenders from the military, he’s targeting the wrong thing. It’s like if the manager at walmart was trying to save budget costs by making the staff stop using post-it notes.
Is there another reason? I don’t know. None seem to jump out at me. Trump makes no sense and the only other reason I can see for this change in policy is to simply be a dick to people. I really think the only reason he wants to repeal Obamacare is because the word “Obama” is in the name. There seems to be no real, logical reason to ban transgenders from the military; cost is given as the primary reason but is so small as to be basically zero. If you’re going to cut costs there are countless other ways to save a few pennies. So the only alternative to the ban is to simply be a dick. I really don’t see what else the reason is. Maybe it’s some way to wage war against the PC culture or something? Either way, if you’re the president and you base policy off being a dick, you probably Suck.
Everything Sucks 
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