Michael Moore recently wrote an essay claiming America isn’t broke. The rich have our money. Why, yes, they do. But we don’t even have to go there.
If we have enough money for Afghanistan, Iraq or some no fly zone over Libya, or fences on our border in Texas: we have enough money for what they laughingly refer to as “entitlement programs” All programs, any program, anything the government funds can be called an “entitlement program.”
What, you think you’re entitled to the benefits of serving in public office, like great health care and being paid something for the rest of your life for your “service?”
Certainly that’s as much “entitlement” as anything else they use that phrase for.
Education benefits for soldiers? Health care? Hospitals? Why you should just buck up and be grateful you had a chance to serve your country.
Entitlement programs one and all.
I’m not arguing for or against funding any of this. I’m making a point here. If we have money for any of this we have money for school lunches, for many of the various “entitlement programs” we fund.
Certainly if we have money to give tax breaks to those who earn over a quarter of a mil, we have money for various programs. If we have money to not even consider taxing the churches… money enough to pursue those who smoke a little pot to the fullest extent of the law… if we have money enough for any of these things we have money enough to allow teachers to bargain collectively, to fund activities on the part of an organization that prevent abortion: birth control, sex education, counseling, even if the name of that organization is Planned Parenthood.
Hell, let’s defund the printing, pressing and designing of money. We can all barter, right? Why should anyone be “entitled” to a form of currency? Or Homeland Security? Or police? That’s what your Second Amendment is all about. If you and your neighbors want protection, or justice, do it your damn selves.
OK, maybe you don’t like many of these things. There’s a hell of a lot I don’t like about some of what I just suggested.
You find Planned Parenthood loathsome, for example. You think government shouldn’t be funding them for various reasons. I don’t agree with you, but you have a right to disagree with me for sure. You even have a right to honestly push for everything you want defunded to be defunded. And, yes, there is a deficit. We are borrowing money from the Chinese.
All this, I suspect, we agree on.
But the various programs I used to provide contrast, comparison? Well, we will find some way to fund them, right? Even if we have to borrow money? The FBI, the CIA, firemen, policemen, various wars, weapons, the military, contractors… whatever of this or anything else you support, I’m sure you think we have to find a way to fund them.
So it’s not “we’re broke” that’s the problem. It’s not even borrowing money. It’s simply you don’t want the government paying for these things. But you do want them funding other things. If it’s something you think the government should be doing you would be all for funding it, right?
You have every right to argue your point of view as to what we should be funding as a society, and what we shouldn’t be funding. But if it’s something you think we should be funding, then we’ll find some way to pay for it.
So stop saying it’s because “we’re broke.”
Why?
Because you’re lying.
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
©Copyright 2011
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
All Rights Reserved
True. For senior Pentagon officers, for example, we have an entitlement program that’s costing us billions — it’s called the ‘revolving door.’ An admiral or general leaves the servoce and goes to work for a defense contractor. That officer is only being hired for one of two reasons: either he pushed through a multi-billion dollar program or two for the contractor when he was on active duty or, like Dick Cheney, he has a lot of personal contacts in govt that he can use to swing multi-billion dollar contracts toward his new employer. This sweet deal has cost us trillions since the end of WWII and, in some cases, the costly weaponry or technology never worked as advertised, such as the Star Wars missile defense system, the M247 DIVAD anti-aircraft gun, and the B-2 bomber.
Also, if the GOP is in such an uproar over taxpayer money going to Planned Parenthood to dispense advice with which some taxpayers might not agree, how about allowing those of us against the Iraq occupation and Afghanistan boondoggle to opt out of paying taxes for it? I know, I won’t hold my breath.
And, of course, there are all those precious subsidies and tax loopholes to profitable corporations like ExxonMobil who want a competitive free-market economy for everybody but themselves. I’m sure we could put at least $500 billion a year back into the govt coffers by ending this travesty.
No, we aren’t broke, and we could have more even money to improve the quality of life in this country if we stopped throwing it down the ratholes described above.