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Well, we have witnessed the latest installment of DC kabuki theater. Yet we don't even know the full outcome of this little play. Details of the deal, other than the monetary figures, are scarcely known. Yes, 38 billion is to be cut, Planned Parenthood is saved, for the time being, and other riders have been scrapped. woohoo.
Yet what is missing from this bill is the simple fact that the largest single drain on our economy, our military budget, emerges virtually unscathed. While the poor and middle class are going to continue suffering from decreasing government assistance, while hundreds and thousands of federal employees are going to be rendered jobless in an economy that is anemic at best, the military industrial complex will continue to roll in the dough.
Yes, three whole billions were cut from the military budget. Ooo, ahh, three whole billion. A small fraction of one percent of the entirety of the military budget. While budgets in social and human services are getting cut in half, or worse, the sacred military of our country is receiving a budget cut that amounts to less than one third of one percent. Less than 0.333%.
Call me cynical, call me jaded, but definitely call me underwhelmed.
In an era when the military regularly loses more than three billion on an annual basis, an era when three billion and more is annually paid out to "assets" in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, cutting three billion dollars from the military is an insult, a slap in the face. While people are going to be suffering, even dying from the cuts just proposed to social and human services, the military is going to scarcely miss three billion dollars. Ooo, somewhere, somebody in the military is going to produce a couple less Cruise missiles to throw at Libya or other future imperial excursions. Big whoop.
The fact of the matter is that our military budget is overwhelming our government, our country. It is the one ton gorilla in the room that nobody wants to take on. The simple fact is that if we continue down this path, sacrificing the lives of ordinary Americans on the altar of the military, our country will not long survive.
Over the past sixty years we have watched our country go from a state of prosperity and wealth, a country able and mostly willing to take care of the poor, elderly and those unable to take care of themselves, to a country deep in dept, with a declining standard of living, sacrificing first the poor, the needy, and now the elderly and middle class to continue to fund our military industrial complex.
There is something terribly wrong with a country that pursues this path, something wrong with our morals, our ethics. The primary function of government is to help the people of any particular country pursue a life that provides them with a modicum of comfort and stability, and to step in and help those that can't help themselves. Yet with each passing year, no matter whether it is Dems or 'Pugs in charge, our government continues to neglect this primary duty. Instead, being bought and paid for corporate whores that they are, our politicians gin up this kabuki theater like we just saw, with both "sides" being able to claim "victory" while the only true winner remains the military, and the only true loser are those who simply can't afford to lose anymore.
The fact of the matter is that we could have easily trimmed the Teabaggers goal of sixty one billion from our budget, and more, without hurting one single person in need by simply taking that money out of our bloated military budget. That would have amounted to approximately 5% of our total annual military spending. But rather than caring for our people, and doing the common sense thing of cutting down on our biggest spending item, budgets for social and human services, which have already been slashed, with get cut again, leaving people literally out in the cold with no shelter and no hope.
This is beyond negligence, heartlessness. This is deliberate murder, slowly slaughtering those among us who are in greatest need. Thus the military kills, both at home and abroad. While bombs rain down on Libay, or Afghanistan, or wherever our next imperial adventure is, the military budget at homes sucks all the oxygen out of the room, leaving the poor, elderly and needy gasping for air, dying for lack of simple human compassion on the part of our government.
So when are we going to rise up and do something about it? When are we going to rise up and demand an end to the obscene military spending that is killing all of us? Instead of sighing with relief that "only" thirty eight billion was cut, and Planned Parenthood was saved, for now, we should instead be in the streets, marching on DC, demanding an end to this obscene military spending that is sucking every single one of us dry. $7,600.00. Remember that figure, because it is the amount of money that each and every single household contributes to our military budget, year in, year out. $7,600.00, what could your household do with that money? For some it is the difference between living and dying, and sadly, people are dying because of that number.
So the simple fact is this: Until we put an end to our outrageous military spending, we are going to continue this kabuki theater that we just saw played out. Worse, people are going to continue to slide in poverty, people are going to continue to suffer, and yes, thousands are going to continue to die because our military budget is sucking up all our money, all of resources, all the oxygen out of the room.
It is time to put an end to the madness, now. Instead of wrangling of thirty eight billion, let us start demanding that our military be cut down to a more reasonable size, now. Otherwise, we will continue our slide into death and oblivion.
It is that simple. It isn't kabuki theater, it is reality.
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