June 07, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE INSANE MILITARY BUDGET
When the Soviet Union fell in 1989, effectively ending the Cold War, we began to hear talk of a "peace dividend." All the money and resources that went into the Cold War could, theoretically, be used for more constructive things. But it didn't happen. War and the fear of war are just too profitable for some people. Fear is also an effective political tactic, as the Bush administration demonstrated for several years. In a time when we should be scaling back military spending the Pentagon budget is more bloated and wasteful than ever before. We're spending billions on weapons systems to fight a high tech enemy when our enemies use box cutters and improvised explosive devices. This commentary by Robert Dreyfuss is at www.truthout.org:
So hostile is the atmosphere in Congress to cuts of any sort in military spending that even a recent effort by traditional defense critics to suggest ways to reorient the Pentagon's budgetary priorities turned out to involve but the most modest of rebalancings. A coalition of these critics from organizations such as the Institute for Policy Studies, the Center for American Progress, and other left and left-center groups, including such experts as Larry Korb of CAP, Carl Conetta of the Project on Defense Alternatives, and William Hartung of the World Policy Institute, suggested cutting $56 billion from offensive weapons systems, but then proposed to shift fully $50 billion of it into areas such as homeland security, international peacekeeping, and "nation building."
Why, exactly, we need to increase Pentagon spending even in those categories is mystifying, since no country is actually threatening us and - if the Iraqi and Afghani wars were settled - the problem of terrorism could be adequately dealt with by mobilizing relatively modest numbers of CIA officers and FBI and law enforcement agents. The fact that such respected defense critics feel compelled to put forward such a lame proposal is a sign of our crimped times; a sign that, pragmatically speaking, it is simply verboten to criticize Pentagon bloat, even given the current, Democrat-controlled Congress. It's not that the public is pro-military spending either. Indeed, in a Gallup Poll conducted in February, fully 43% of Americans said they believed that the United States is spending "too much" on defense, while only 20% said "too little." Rather, it's a sign that the political class - perhaps swayed by the influence of the military-industrial complex and its army of lobbyists - hasn't yet caught up to public opinion.
And it's important to keep in mind that the official Pentagon budget doesn't begin to tell the full story of American "defense" spending. In addition to the $650 billion that the Pentagon will get in 2008, huge additional sums will be spent on veterans care and interest on the national debt accumulated from previous DOD spending that ballooned the deficit. In all, those two accounts add $263 billion to the Pentagon budget, for a grand total of $913 billion.
Showing posts with label Budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget. Show all posts
Saturday, February 10, 2007
February 10, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
RIGHT-WING HATE
Today's Fresno Bee features a letter from a right-winger aggrieved about "liberal vitriol." The writer was praising a column by reactionary Victor Davis Hanson that criticized Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry had the temerity to criticize U. S. foreign policy. We get the usual homilies from the writer about our being the greatest country, where you're free to pursue your dreams, yada, yada. When the United States lives up to its ideals and respects the Bill of Rights and human rights around the world it is the best country on earth.
But we can not pretend that the U. S. record on human rights is pristine. This was a country founded on slavery and on stealing the land of native Americans. We stole territory from Mexico. Our government has overthrown legitimate governments of other countries and interfered in their affairs.
It's better to face the truth than to adopt the old hear no evil, speak no evil, or see no evil mantra some right-wingers advocate. And, as for vitriol, conservatives have some nerve to criticize when they've constantly attacked people who are different to serve the agenda of right-wingers. Attack gays, attack feminists, attack anyone who doesn't believe in their version of God, attack the poor and working people. So, as the Scripture says, pull the straw from your own eye before you talk about the vitriol of others.
GROSS DISHONESTY
If George W. Bush and his administration are ever honest about anything, it might be a sign of the Apocalypse. This editorial in The Los Angeles Times points out how the administration disguises the true financial costs of the Iraq war. The administration uses "supplementals" to make it appear that the Pentagon budget is much smaller than it really is. If this war is so righteous, such an effort to save western civilization, why can't Bush be honest about the cost? This editorial by Veronique de Rugy is at www.latimes.com:
AT THE SAME TIME that President Bush requested more than $700 billion for the Pentagon budget this week, he managed to create the impression that he was asking for the much smaller amount of $481 billion. The trick he used — socking about $235 billion into two "emergency supplemental" funding requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — didn't fool the public for very long. But the longer the White House and Congress continue to treat "war-related" funding as a separate item from the budget for the Department of Defense, the harder it will be to control a ballooning federal budget.
Here's how the supplemental shell game works. The official defense budget for 2008 comes to $481 billion. That's a 10% increase over last year and a 62% increase over 2001. And it conveniently fails to include a supplemental request of $141.7 billion, which brings the 2008 defense total to $622.7 billion. On top of that, the president requested a 2007 supplemental in the amount of $93.4 billion, bringing this week's entire defense "budget authority request" to $716 billion (the figure of actual outlays is even higher because it includes billions already committed to the Pentagon).
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
RIGHT-WING HATE
Today's Fresno Bee features a letter from a right-winger aggrieved about "liberal vitriol." The writer was praising a column by reactionary Victor Davis Hanson that criticized Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry had the temerity to criticize U. S. foreign policy. We get the usual homilies from the writer about our being the greatest country, where you're free to pursue your dreams, yada, yada. When the United States lives up to its ideals and respects the Bill of Rights and human rights around the world it is the best country on earth.
But we can not pretend that the U. S. record on human rights is pristine. This was a country founded on slavery and on stealing the land of native Americans. We stole territory from Mexico. Our government has overthrown legitimate governments of other countries and interfered in their affairs.
It's better to face the truth than to adopt the old hear no evil, speak no evil, or see no evil mantra some right-wingers advocate. And, as for vitriol, conservatives have some nerve to criticize when they've constantly attacked people who are different to serve the agenda of right-wingers. Attack gays, attack feminists, attack anyone who doesn't believe in their version of God, attack the poor and working people. So, as the Scripture says, pull the straw from your own eye before you talk about the vitriol of others.
GROSS DISHONESTY
If George W. Bush and his administration are ever honest about anything, it might be a sign of the Apocalypse. This editorial in The Los Angeles Times points out how the administration disguises the true financial costs of the Iraq war. The administration uses "supplementals" to make it appear that the Pentagon budget is much smaller than it really is. If this war is so righteous, such an effort to save western civilization, why can't Bush be honest about the cost? This editorial by Veronique de Rugy is at www.latimes.com:
AT THE SAME TIME that President Bush requested more than $700 billion for the Pentagon budget this week, he managed to create the impression that he was asking for the much smaller amount of $481 billion. The trick he used — socking about $235 billion into two "emergency supplemental" funding requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — didn't fool the public for very long. But the longer the White House and Congress continue to treat "war-related" funding as a separate item from the budget for the Department of Defense, the harder it will be to control a ballooning federal budget.
Here's how the supplemental shell game works. The official defense budget for 2008 comes to $481 billion. That's a 10% increase over last year and a 62% increase over 2001. And it conveniently fails to include a supplemental request of $141.7 billion, which brings the 2008 defense total to $622.7 billion. On top of that, the president requested a 2007 supplemental in the amount of $93.4 billion, bringing this week's entire defense "budget authority request" to $716 billion (the figure of actual outlays is even higher because it includes billions already committed to the Pentagon).
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
February 06, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WORSE THAN VIETNAM
Financial expenditures for the debacle in Iraq will soon exceed what we spent in another debacle in Vietnam. The war in Iraq has already gone longer than the Second World War against the Axis powers. And where are we? Iraq is the world's greatest recruiting ground for terrorists. It's the greatest training terrorists could ask for. To pay for this disaster Bush is slashing health care spending for the elderly and for the poor. Just how is this guy "pro-life"? This article by Ewen MacAskill is at www.commondreams.org:
President George Bush is proposing to slash medical care for the poor and elderly to meet the soaring cost of the Iraq war.
Mr Bush's $2.9 trillion (£1.5 trillion) budget, sent to Congress yesterday, includes $100bn extra for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for this year, on top of $70bn already allocated by Congress and $141.7bn next year. He is planning an 11.3% increase for the Pentagon. Spending on the Iraq war is destined to top the total cost of the 13-year war in Vietnam.
The huge rise in military spending is paid for by a squeeze on domestic programmes, including $66bn in cuts over five years to Medicare, the healthcare scheme for the elderly, and $12bn from the Medicaid healthcare scheme for the poor.
Mr Bush said: "Today we submit a budget to the United States Congress that shows we can balance the budget in five years without raising taxes ... Our priority is to protect the American people. And our priority is to make sure our troops have what it takes to do their jobs."
Although Democrats control Congress and have promised careful scrutiny of the budget over the next few months, Mr Bush has left in them in a bind, unwilling to withhold funds for US troops on the frontline. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said the days when Mr Bush could expect a blank cheque for the wars were over but she also insisted the Democrats would not deny troops the money they needed. Democrats could block Mr Bush's proposed cuts to 141 domestic programmes.
MOLLY IVINS ON BUSH'S ARROGANCE
Molly Ivins tried to warn the country about George W. Bush. While the major media fawned over the aw-shucks good 'ol boy ways of Bush Molly talked about his sense of entitlement because he was born rich and about his lousy record as Governor of Texas. This column by Bill Gallagher is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Ivins had Bush's number way ahead of the pack. If only the nation had listened. She was especially tuned in to his machismo.
She presciently wrote in her 1999 book with Lou Dubose "Shrub:The Short and Happy Political Life of George W. Bush" about his cowboy arrogance: "For an upper-class white boy, Bush comes on way too hard-ass -- at a guess, to make up for being an upper-class white boy. But it's also a common Texas male trait. Someone should probably worry how all this could affect his handling of future encounters with some Saddam Hussein, but that's beyond the scope of this book."
Ivins richly merits her rest in paradise. The rest of us must worry about the hell we're in, and the madman she warned us of and what he might do next.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WORSE THAN VIETNAM
Financial expenditures for the debacle in Iraq will soon exceed what we spent in another debacle in Vietnam. The war in Iraq has already gone longer than the Second World War against the Axis powers. And where are we? Iraq is the world's greatest recruiting ground for terrorists. It's the greatest training terrorists could ask for. To pay for this disaster Bush is slashing health care spending for the elderly and for the poor. Just how is this guy "pro-life"? This article by Ewen MacAskill is at www.commondreams.org:
President George Bush is proposing to slash medical care for the poor and elderly to meet the soaring cost of the Iraq war.
Mr Bush's $2.9 trillion (£1.5 trillion) budget, sent to Congress yesterday, includes $100bn extra for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for this year, on top of $70bn already allocated by Congress and $141.7bn next year. He is planning an 11.3% increase for the Pentagon. Spending on the Iraq war is destined to top the total cost of the 13-year war in Vietnam.
The huge rise in military spending is paid for by a squeeze on domestic programmes, including $66bn in cuts over five years to Medicare, the healthcare scheme for the elderly, and $12bn from the Medicaid healthcare scheme for the poor.
Mr Bush said: "Today we submit a budget to the United States Congress that shows we can balance the budget in five years without raising taxes ... Our priority is to protect the American people. And our priority is to make sure our troops have what it takes to do their jobs."
Although Democrats control Congress and have promised careful scrutiny of the budget over the next few months, Mr Bush has left in them in a bind, unwilling to withhold funds for US troops on the frontline. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said the days when Mr Bush could expect a blank cheque for the wars were over but she also insisted the Democrats would not deny troops the money they needed. Democrats could block Mr Bush's proposed cuts to 141 domestic programmes.
MOLLY IVINS ON BUSH'S ARROGANCE
Molly Ivins tried to warn the country about George W. Bush. While the major media fawned over the aw-shucks good 'ol boy ways of Bush Molly talked about his sense of entitlement because he was born rich and about his lousy record as Governor of Texas. This column by Bill Gallagher is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Ivins had Bush's number way ahead of the pack. If only the nation had listened. She was especially tuned in to his machismo.
She presciently wrote in her 1999 book with Lou Dubose "Shrub:The Short and Happy Political Life of George W. Bush" about his cowboy arrogance: "For an upper-class white boy, Bush comes on way too hard-ass -- at a guess, to make up for being an upper-class white boy. But it's also a common Texas male trait. Someone should probably worry how all this could affect his handling of future encounters with some Saddam Hussein, but that's beyond the scope of this book."
Ivins richly merits her rest in paradise. The rest of us must worry about the hell we're in, and the madman she warned us of and what he might do next.
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