“Surely the Pentagon has just been ordered to figure out how many refrigerators they will need over the next 5 yrs. and cut the PO’s by the end of January.”
The Beltway and environs live in an alternate universe of never-ending tribute and flowing rivers of booze, all fueling the lifestyles of the (fairly) rich and technocrat.
The denizens also have the temerity to tell you that, they too, are struggling.
Cue the fois gras and tear bottles.
Was in D.C. last March. You can literally feel the money bubbling up through cracks in the sidewalks.
Only when you drive out to around Hagerstown and start seeing closed and boarded-up businesses again do you realize you are back in the real world.