Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Taxes that kill

The Warmonger's Lair (i.e., the White House) recently released a nifty tool that allows American taxpayers to see exactly what their taxes are spent for. Check it out here. Punch $100 as a sample amount and see where the money goes.

The biggest drain on the taxpayer, at 26.30%, is "National Defense". Let us hear it again: The United States, an entity with friendly nations to the north and south and oceans on the east and west, spends a quarter of its tax earnings on "defense".

When you put American "defense" spending in the context of taxes, it seems unfathomable why the so-called anti-tax Republicans and Tea Partiers would not have anything to say about it. Indeed, when Obama rebuked so-called fiscal conservative Paul Ryan, he was on the money:
"This is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for."
Presently, Ryan is leading the charge against Obama on cutting federal spending, but defense is not on his radar. Indeed, if the anti-tax lobby wants my respect, it needs to own up to its dirty past during the Bush years and treat "defense" for what it is.

America is fighting three wars today, only one of which would vaguely fulfill the definition of a just war. Former Warmonger-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower warned in 1960 of the military-industrial complex:
"Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
The said citizenry, drugged by the opium of power, happens to be fast asleep.
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