This is a global phenomenon, not an US one, the US simply has been the most vocal. West-European politicians are mostly Atheist. No clue about the believes of Asian politicians.

Its entirely possible that this is all a big misinformation campaign, Colonel Karl Nell who stated yesterday “non-human intelligence exists, non-human intelligence has been interacting with humanity. This interaction is not new, and it’s been ongoing, and unelected people in the government are aware of that. There’s zero doubt.” At the SALT conference the other day did mention someone else who turns out is from the Isreal space agency... considering the climate... There may be some additional motives at play.

Still even if it 100% fake it deserves to be talked about. For as much as i hate industry leaders they were just told by a highly credible official that non human intelligence is a fact. This will make waves in society for better or worse. How can we hold the oil giants accountable if THEY believe that an extraterrestrial hero will come in to save us from global warming anyway so they can exploit as they please?

There is also the fact that even when its about fairy tales, it has not stopped government from spending large amounts of funds into all kinds of bizarre secret studies (MK Ultra and the monroe tapes anyone). Some of those could still exist. Doesnt a public have a right to know where all the unaccounted spending in the military actually went towards?

So no matter if your standpoint is "i believe" or "this nonsense is distracting us from real problems" Its in the interest of both parties that any previous secret studies are publicly released as quicky as possible so any (lack of/potential) proof is empirically known and we can either move on from this topic or get real answers.

Please explain the harm in what has been done so far in congress regarding UAP? The primary goal so far has been to get oversight of programs that have been over classified over decades that not congress or even the president have been aware of. Regardless of what the programs have been about, alien or not, they’re getting budgeting with absolutely no oversight.

You’re also putting a lot of words in my mouth. No where am I suggesting to take anyone by their word without researching the topic yourself. I sure don’t. If you trust any politician without second thought then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

This argument is significantly weaker than most people who voice it are aware, imo.

Our current understanding of the universe, physics, space travel, etc., leads us to believe your statement. The universe is too big, travel takes too long, we're limited by things like the speed of light, and whatever fuel/energy is required to travel through space.

Speculating here obviously, an intelligent species that is significantly more advanced than us could have a much better understanding of physics and the universe, to an extent that we couldn't even comprehend. This is the definition of "more advanced". They could be a little more advanced, or so far beyond us that we could never even comprehend their abilities or motives for anything. Kinda like how you will never be able to teach a chimpanzee calculus, it's brain simply isn't capable of learning the concepts, ever, no matter how much time you have to try.

We've only really had advanced applied science (according to us, since it's all we know) for like the last 100 years or so? Splitting the atom, the transistor, etc.

Imagine a species that kept advancing for 100s of thousands or 10s of millions of years? Traveling galaxies could be easy for them, we simply don't know.

My reasoning above is also similar why I feel like the Fermi peridox is really unsatisfying. We can't see aliens emitting technosignatures like light or other electromagnetic radiation, or heat signatures or whatever. We're thinking like humans, expecting to see things exactly as we do them. If an alien species is so far beyond us, they could think communication via photons and electromagnetic radiation is archaic, etc.