February 03, 2006
A Gauntlet Has Been Thrown
The House narrowly approved on Wednesday a hard-fought, budget-cutting package that would save nearly $40 billion over five years by imposing substantial changes on programs from Medicaid and welfare to child support and student lending.With its presidential signature all but assured, the bill represents the first effort in nearly a decade to try to slow the growth of entitlement programs, one that will be felt by millions of Americans.
Women on welfare are likely to face longer hours of work, education or community service to qualify for their checks. Recipients of Medicaid can expect to face higher co-payments and deductibles, especially on expensive prescription drugs and emergency room visits for nonemergency care. More affluent seniors will find it far more difficult to qualify for Medicaid-covered nursing care.
College students could face higher interest rates when their banks get squeezed by the federal government.
And some cotton farmers will find support payments nicked. State-led efforts to force deadbeat parents to pay their child support may also have to be curtailed.
But that's not all:
The Senate passed $70 billion in tax cuts [over five years] Thursday, one step in an effort Republican leaders hope will preserve President Bush's tax reductions for capital gains and dividends.
And not to mention:
The White House said Thursday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest ever.Most of the new money would pay for the war in Iraq, which has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.
The additional spending, along with other war funding the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly a half-trillion dollars, approaching the inflation-adjusted cost of the 13-year Vietnam War. [...]
No large-scale reconstruction projects are included in the spending, officials said.
Currently, the Defense Department says it is spending about $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute.
Current spending in Afghanistan is about $800 million a month, or about $18,000 per minute.
Stay with us, folks:
President Bush next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior Pentagon officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.The spending plan would include $84.2 billion for weapons programs, a nearly 8 percent increase, including billions of dollars for fighter jets, Navy ships, helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The total includes a substantial increase in weapons spending for the Army, which will get $16.8 billion in the 2007 budget, compared with $11 billion this year.
So, totting up this week's budget action yields the following equation:
$40 Billion in spending cuts - $14 Billion in tax cuts - $20 Billion to blow the shit out of Iraq ($20 Billion more than in 2005, that is) - $20 Billion in new military spending = $14 Billion in additional debt.
This equation, in the sagacious words of Tom DeLay, "will lower the deficit and bring us to balance".
But even though tax cuts for the rich shift the tax burden to the poor (and, via the deficit, their children and grandchildren) while spending cuts for social programmes ensure that the poor will see fewer benefits from their expanded burden, and military recruiting targets this very same sector; at least all that military spending will take care of those who serve their country, right? Uh, not quite:
After 9/11, hundreds of thousands of America's part-time soldiers answered the call to serve. Along the way, some have asked whether the costs they bear -- from insufficient body armor to mounting debt for their families at home -- is fair.Now, Massachusetts National Guard soldiers are taking the question straight to the top. They have filed a class-action lawsuit claiming they are owed $73 million in food, lodging, and commuting expenses they paid out-of-pocket while activated under state orders to protect sites such as military bases and reservoirs from terrorist attacks.
Nah, your tax dollars are being mainlined straight into Boeing and Lockheed executives' keisters (and, lest we forget, Halliburton's', whose 2005 was "the best" in their eighty-six-year history).
So, are you going to keep paying your Federal Income Taxes, or aren't you? If so, for god's sake why? Do yourself a favour, and consult a War Tax Resistance counselor in your area -- sooner than later.
Meanwhile, even as Oil War #1 falters, it looks to be full steam ahead for Oil War #2. Though #2 is a war from which all manner of Hell could break loose, #3 may already be well into the planning stage.
Maybe Iran will, in agreeing to let Russia enrich uranium for it, pull an Ohio State out of its hat. That would save it some time, but, ultimately, its goose is cooked. (Who wants to bet that the next terrorist attack on American soil will be blamed on the Iranians?) As is Chavez'.
This doesn't mean that future BushWars will be any more successful than his Iraq adventure. But either way, a lot of innocent people will be bombed to kingdome come -- unless Americans drop their car keys to the bottom of a very deep well.
If we really want to, we can stop the American military machine dead in its tracks. It's only a matter of doing so. And unless we do so, it's really not ours to complain.
Posted by Eddie Tews at February 3, 2006 04:15 PM
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