By Staff
As the $787 billion stimulus bill snaked its way through the House and the Senate and finally landed under the pen of President Obama, my predominant thought has been holy cow – that's a lot of money!
Sen. John Thune was even kind enough to explain to C-SPAN viewers last week how a stack of $100 bills totaling $787 billion, wrapped side-by-side, would encircle the Earth nearly 39 times.
As unsettling as this new financial commitment may be, it is at least an attempt to help more Americans achieve some semblance of economic security.
The stimulus package was aggressively attacked by fiscal conservatives who have been outspoken about the "pet projects" in the bill, and the wasteful programs that will weigh down future generations with massive debt.
Point taken.
But I'd like to ask fiscal conservatives: What about your support, year after year, of a monstrously bloated Pentagon budget?
The Iraq War and subsequent occupation, a "pet project" of the Bush administration and consistently financed by most members of Congress, will very likely cost the American taxpayer more than $3 trillion by 2010, when interest on the debt and much-needed veterans benefits are factored in to the costs of the war.
Even former President Bush, as reported in the Wall Street Journal in December 2008, acknowledges that increased military spending during his tenure in the White House contributed to the federal budget crisis. In the past eight years, U.S. military spending nearly doubled. When nuclear weapons spending and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are factored in, the U.S. taxpayer will be footing a Pentagon bill of an estimated $711 billion in 2009 – approximately $2,300 for every person living in the United States; $711 billion is roughly equivalent to what the rest of the world spends combined. The moral implications of spending half of every discretionary U.S. tax dollar on "defense" aside, it would seem prudent for the fiscally-minded to scour the Pentagon budget to clean up and dispose of wasteful and unnecessary programs.
An ever-increasing military budget does little but provide security to congressional incumbents and military contractors.
According to the Center for American Progress, 87 percent of security resources in the 2009 federal budget are being spent on the military. Only 8 percent are dedicated to homeland security and a paltry 5 percent to non-military engagement.