Progressive Ponderings: On the Ground in Madison, Part 4

How’s the War Economy Going for You?

by Joe Mayer
Feb. 24, 2011

One of the protestors’ signs in Madison read, “How’s the War Economy Going for You?” Most politicians of both parties are so captivated by our military strength that no thought is given about the effect this growing commitment has on us economically – individually and as a nation. This military mentality, morphing into an American “exceptionalism,” dominates our culture and dismisses the devastation we do to ourselves as well as to our world neighbors.

This year $1.4 trillion of our U.S. budget is discretionary with about 50% ($733 B) going to military and related security costs. This does not include the $170 B budgeted for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As political leaders, both state and federal, scream “we’re broke, we’re broke, we’re broke,” they refuse to include “cuts” to the defense budget. Even when these “cuts” do happen, they come after loading up on requests, so that the cuts actually are INCREASES.

While we believe “we’re number one!” and revel in our “exceptionalism” the world passes us by:

• U.S. ranks 25th in the world in infant morality, 21st in child mortality
• U.S. ranks 37th in the world in overall health care, 17th in life expectancy
• U.S. is the only industrial country in the world without universal health insurance
• U.S. has the highest level of childhood poverty in the industrialized world (1 of 6 children)
• U.S. ranks 49th in world literacy, 13th in college-bachelor degree enrollments
• Of the 650,000 homeless in the U.S. every night, 250,000 are veterans

In the face of these grim statistics both our state and federal governments are cutting programs that help our most vulnerable citizens, with our middle class targeted for further cuts.

Iraqis are emulating their neighbors by protesting an “imposed” democracy by their occupiers. Afghans have never stopped protesting its occupation by either the Soviet Union or the U.S. Our government must decide which side to take in our imposed “nation building,” sometimes regretting the results. Backing dictators in countries we call “democratic” has an imperialistic stench.

As the U.S. itself erupts we need to throw the cost of war on the cutting table. The $170 B proposed for fighting these wars would have provided:

• 2.6 million elementary teachers or
• 2.6 million Police or Sheriff Patrol Officers or
• 22.5 million Head Start Slots for children or
• 30.8 million college students receiving Pell Grants of $5,550 annually or
• name your greatest loss.

Foreclosures, unemployment, lost educational funding, lost health care, environmental devastation, energy depletion, standard of living decline, wealth and income stratification have reached an acute position. The Tea Party, the GOP, and many Democrats say this is the “new normal,” with extreme wealth for the few being pumped up with tax breaks, secret dollars to buy “for sale” politicians, privatization of everything, and a democracy of money, by money, and for money.

One encouraging note: a growing numbers of citizens are responding and making their voices heard. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker may have awakened the sleeping progressive beast.

So, how’s the war economy going for you?

(Part 1 of this series is here, part 2 is here, part 3 is here.)

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