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It's no surprise that 35 Republican members of Congress are mad that an atheist group got the Air Force to take out the "God" part in an agency's motto. What's shocking is the implication that they think bragging about "other people's money" is perfectly fine. The old motto "really calls into question the integrity of the agency itself," says Jason Torpy, the atheist and military veteran who got the change made with a few unanswered emails. "Talk about the mismanagement of government funds."
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office has changed the motto on its patch to "Doing Miracles with Other People's Money." Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia (pictured above) is demanding the Pentagon change it back, The Hill reports, calling the change a "capitulation to pressure" from an atheist group. But Rep. Randy Forbes does not appear to be annoyed in the slightest at the hilariously cynical second half of the motto, which remains completely intact. "Other people's money" is something a lot of conservatives have been talking about recently, what with stimulus packages and jobs programs and a Margaret Thatcher biopic in theaters (Socialists "always run out of other people's money," the conservative icon quipped in 1976.) Certainly, a sort of manly-man in-your-face taunting is common on military patches, even expected: "SURRENDER OR DIE," say, or "DEATH WEARS BUNNY SLIPPERS," or even "PATIENCE MY ASS I'M GONNA KILL SOMETHING." But usually that taunting is directed toward foreign fighters, not American taxpayers.