The House approves a defense budget of $649 billion for 2012, an increase of $17 billion from this year. Attempts to lower the budget failed, with one of the only successes being lowering funding for military marching bands from $320 to $200 million. But even this cut was challenged because even marching bands are apparently vital to our national security.
Meanwhile, tuition at the University of California is likely to increase by another 9.6%. This is in addition to an approved 8% increase to make up for a $500 million cut to UCs by the California state government.