You can tell a lot about someone's values by watching how they spend money. It's a matter of priorities, and the war budget is depriving Americans of much needed services back home, such as education and healthcare.
I guess if Bush's defense policies were actually working, I'd feel differently. But this Iraq war folly is an unmitigated disaster.
Do you feel safer?
(Image courtesy of Clay Bennett)
4 comments:
Do I feel safer? Hell, no. I knew we were in imminent danger the minute I horrifyingly realized that bush was the Republican nominee which in my book, still is.
I never thought I'd live to see the day that fascism would steal over our land but if we don't get these criminals out of office, that's exactly where we're headed.
Great blog!!!
It's more than "values" as one could argue that we need to increase funding in the Homeland Security and Defense budgets to keep America safe and to strengthen our military. This is an admirable value if its intention was genuine. However, this "value" comes at the sacrifice of domestic programs that primarily benefit the poor. When you examine the budget closer you find that there isn't really a lot room to play with since he insists on giving tremendous tax breaks to the wealthy and other special interest groups, so Bush cut from the cut from his least favored programs (and suffer the least political fallout). The budget also includes projected revenues from the sale of drilling rights in the Arctic Nation Wildlife Refuge and the reduced outlays from the privitization of Social Security--none of these have been passed by Congress. The fiscal deficit continues to grow at an exponential pace. He is not doing anything to address the Alternative Minimum Tax (intended as a windfall for wealthy people) that will ensnare millions of middle-income people forcing them to pay higher taxes. Much of the increase in the defense budget goes towards funding the development of out-dated weapons technology that will be obsolete by the time the are finished and are ineffective for fighting the modern terrorists.
Check the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of the budget (http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/fedbud.htm). Check Defense and the National Interest for information on the defense budget (http://www.d-n-i.net/).
Bush's values are protecting the wealthy contributors to his party and special interest groups.
Hi Jay...
Dropping by to check out your site. Please allow me to join in this discussion already in progress.
Before I comment, I should give you my biases up front. I am a former Marine, and I do not support Bush. With that said, I need to say that I was against us going into Iraq at the beginning. We were already committed in Afghanistan and logistically speaking it would create a two-front war. Additionally, it would (and did) create the impression (probably a correct impression) that the West -- primarily America -- was going to war against Islam. Next, president Bush did a horrible job of hiding the fact that he had ulterior motives (though nobody yet knows exactly what the motives are). It was a poor idea, poorly thought through and poorly executed.
Now that we're there, we can NOT cut tail and leave. The decision to go in to Iraq was made. The public spoke (against my better judgment) and decided to go in to Iraq. Now the public wants to change their minds? Wrong answer! They're trying to take the easy way out, which will make things worse over there. People don't realize that it's going to take a long time to get things stable in Iraq. It took about 10 years for things to stabalize in Germany after WWII.
As far as the budget goes, well, the idiot should be taking care of the poor and raising taxes on the rich. After all, it's the poor that will primarily make up the fighting force. Or maybe he's being cagy. "Let's starve 'em, so the military looks like a good option in comparison." "Good idea, Mr. President."
thanks for the feedback guys and gals, sometimes a picture is worth 1,ooo words.
God i wish i could draw!
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