Summer Lee is a first-term Democrat Congresscritter. Sworn in January, 2023, she serves District 12, an area including Pittsburgh and some Eastern suburbs. She is supported by the Democratic Socialists of Pennsylvania and is a Bernie Sanders supporter. She received her undergraduate degree from Penn State, which I always heard was a good school, but it’s truly the individual. She has a law degree from Howard University. She is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with more (not better) education and melanin. I tell you all this because this woman is the equal of AOC in terms of lack of understanding and pointlessness.

Summer Lee is the first Black Woman elected to the Pennsylvania State House from Southwest Pennsylvania and the first Black Woman elected to the U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania in history. Huzzah and Mazel Tov. Her platform is “urgency and lived experience”. She is all about housing justice for the housing insecure. Here she is with Joy(less) Reid. Her portion begins at about 1:30:

Yikes, she knows zippity doo dah about the U.S. Constitution. She should be a social justice warrior in Pittsburgh. However, she is the choice of the citizens of Pittsburgh and its environs. Our military is under attack by social justice warriors who endeavor to weaken our military with issues that are not within the purview of the military, you can read Nina’s recent post here.

On Thursday, July 13, 2023, the House held and Oversight Hearing on Defense Spending. Miss Summer went hard on the spending priorities of the Defense Department. From her press release after the meeting:

Summer Lee: I want to thank the Joint Subcommittees for holding this hearing on the financial mismanagement at the Department of Defense. I think this is one of the few areas where I can agree with my Republican colleagues on the need and nature of this oversight. When we dedicate so many of our resources to our military while we nickel and dime our other programs, the least we are owed is transparency and accountability.
When our country spends more on defense than the next ten countries combined, we rightfully have high expectations for how that department functions.Yet year after year as we shovel billions their way – 15% of our total budget – we continue to be disappointed, and the American people are let down.
Mr. Tenaglia, how much did the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act authorize for shipbuilding?
Mr. Tenaglia: I do not have that particular figure the total amount of contract obligations 22 is over 400 million.
Summer Lee: For shipbuilding, it authorized $32.6 billion. Do you know how many school lunches that amount could provide to hungry children in America, where for the 1 and 8 children who go to school hungry that may be the only meal they get? All of them and then some. The school lunch program cost $28.7 billion in 2022.

I think Summer Lee and Mr. Tenaglia were comparing apples to oranges, but in fairness to both of them, the National Defense Authorization Act is written to make apples to apples comparison difficult. The next question is about Viagra and I really don’t care how many bridges in Pittsburgh could be repaired for the cost of the Viagra.

This next part stuck in my gullet, though. How dare she?

Me: How much did the Department of Defense spend on snow crab and Alaskan king crab in 2018?

DoD: I don’t have that amount

Me: $2.3 million. Do you know how much Pgh spends each year on our unhoused folks? Only $1.2 million & they’re not being served gourmet seafood. pic.twitter.com/TxpmvOlCpX

— Congresswoman Summer Lee (@RepSummerLee) July 13, 2023

You have got to be effing kidding me? Assuming 1.3 million military personnel and the figure $2.3 million are both correct, that would mean the Department of Defense spent about $1.77 per personnel. Now, I am quite sure that most E-1’s did NOT get their fair share of Snow Crab or Alaskan King Crab legs. I have a feeling that General Mark Milley and Secretary LLoyd Austin ate more than their fair share.

On the other hand, the homeless (unhoused or housing insecure) population in Pittsburgh is about 774 persons. Divided by $1.2 million equals about $1550.39 per person per year. Most of that is probably eaten in “administrative costs”. And, how is this the Department of Defense’s problem? Oh, it’s not. Miss Lee should have stayed in Pittsburgh and advocated the housing insecure there.

We don’t wonder why the military is having recruiting and retention problems or why they are calling up the Individual Ready Reserve. We wonder why anyone is in the military at all.

By the way, here are a couple of responses to the Snow Crab and Alaskan King Crab leg issue:

We used to pull in in Alaska and get crab before deploying under the ice. The crew loved it, kept their minds off the incredibly dangerous shit we were about to do.

— Christopher Holland (@leastbelogical) July 14, 2023

Steak and lobster we get in the military is usually given before you go into a combat zone and you might die; it’s a presumptuous and preemptive last meal.

— DeepSixOB (@DeepSixOB) July 14, 2023

Miss Lee’s constituents won’t need meals or bridges, if we don’t have a military. That is all.

Featured Image: Mark Dixon/wikimedia/cropped/Creative Commons 2.0