TAXES & DEFICITS
Each time the subject of taxes and budget deficits arises, many people immediately think of the waste in government spending on welfare frauds. This knee-jerk response has been taught through propaganda from corporate interests. Welfare fraud is not the reason we have budget deficits. Repeat: so-called "welfare fraud" is not the reason we have budget deficits or high taxes.
The leading official in the Pentagon has admitted that there is bloat in their budget. And when there is bloat in the Pentagon, we are talking many, many billions of dollars. In the pie charts of government spending, social services is miniscule compared to spending on the "bloated" military budget. Few people would argue against Social Security. Amazingly, even fewer people think we should use tax money to help elderly, infirm, disabled, veterans, children, etc. But when it comes to spending money on the military-industrial complex, the sky is the limit!
We should never have invaded Iraq. That trillion-dollar war was unnecessary. Compounding the tragedy is that the former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, is still telling lies about the cause of the war, about the horrible weapons there [never found!], and ongoing distortions. This sleazy man has absolutely no moral or ethical conscience. And the fact that his lies led to the deaths and disabilities of tens of thousands of Americans unnecessarily, is beside the point to him. His former employer, Halliburton, made many millions, hundreds of millions of which have been unaccounted. Halliburton was given all this money without a contract or anyway to check on their expenditures. They are not alone, because Blackwater and dozens of other corporations were given huge sums of money to "fight" an unnecessary war, a war perpetrated by lies and distortions. This has now come to over a trillion dollars, and the costs are rising as the war continues and expenses for disabled veterans mounts. You and I are left to pay for these unnecessary expenses. But we must and should care for these vets. Iraq as a democracy as we know it, is but a misdirected pipe-dream. Civil war will ensue.
We have far too many generals in the military. This has been admitted by leading Pentagon officials. But while right-wingers want to immediately halt welfare expenditures, there is no urgent call for Pentagon re-structuring and re-budgeting. And the way contracts are let out by the federal government is so corrupt as to be nothing short of amazing. Too many in Congress see their role as getting as much pork for their constituency and their funders as possible. The fraud that goes on in pork spending and military-industrial bloated spending makes social service fraud almost insignificant by comparison.
Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, perhaps the president who knew more about the military-industrial complex as any president in U.S. history, warned us about the creeping power of this complex. The creep has turned into a gusher. The government of the United States is now little more than a pawn of corporate interests. And the economy is maniputlated to serve these corporate giants. When some of the huge financial institutions wanted in on the military-industrial hand-outs, they were refused and they came crashing down (after milking Americans for all they could). The military-industrial complex in America is overwhelming us.
The most tragic result of all this is that with untold amounts of money to spend in influencing legislation, these military-industrial giants have succeeded in convincing a huge portion of the American public that somebody else is to blame for deficits and over-expenditures. It is time that the American people are made aware of how their pockets are being raided by huge corporations that buy politicians and now have bought the American public. The very people who stand to lose the most from the military-industrial stealing, are the very people arguing in favor of these corporations and blaming people in need. Of course there is social service fraud and it should be dealt with ASAP, but that is a miniscule part of the budget problems. Our unnecessary military expenditures are driving us to the edge of collapse.
Being an uninformed mouthpiece for the military-industrial complex is a suicidal act by the average American. If you do not know how you personally contribute to allowing huge corporations to steal from the American taxpayer, then you better become informed soon. The America as you may like to preceive it, is fast disappearing. And corporations have made intricate plans for the next America: the one that resembles the fascism of 1930s Germany and Italy. You are selling your soul, not for yourself, but for the benefit of the military-industrial complex. Your children and grandchildren are going down the drain with you.
