A Billion Here, A Billion There
I think it was Everett Dirksen, the gravelly-voiced Republican minority leader of the United States Senate way back when, who, making a comment financial about matters getting out of hand, said something to his effect: A billion here, a billion there. Soon you’re talking real money.
I mention that because I think most people have given up giving any thought to the numbers that come out of Washington. Especially those involved tapping into the seemingly-bottomless reservoir of taxpayer funds. It used to be that the Republicans incessantly spouted the conservative mantras of smaller government and balanced budgets, but that didn’t slow them down when it came to spending money on the military.
During the Bush administration they Republicans spent money like drunken sailors, including giving a trillion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest among us, and starting two wars. Now, the Democrats appear to have been bitten by the same bug, and the drunken sailors have another ATM card with which to loot the future for generations to come.
This rant is birthed by the Obama Administration asking Congress for another $33 billion for their wars. This is on top of a request for $708 billion for the Military Department; and puh-leeze, it hasn’t been about defense since the Second World War.
(That’s $6,443 more from the average taxpayer.) Imagine if that three-quarters of a trillion dollars were spent on rebuilding our nation – putting roofs on leaky schools, providing health clinics for every American, rebuilding our bridges, putting solar cells on every car and building. Why, there’d be money left over. For more good stuff. Year after year.
But to shift from war to peace is going to require a whole new bunch of decision-makers, and the only way our democratic republic is going to respond to such a need is if the people of this country wake up to the criminality of the special interests – those merchants of death – and their toadies on Capitol Hill.
©2010 SetonnoteS
.