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What We Could Do With the
Money
Saturday night I was awakened
by partying neighbors and couldn’t sleep too well. I sat and watched as
the counter for the cost of the War in Iraq rolled over to $360
billion. That’s billion…with a B.
I also read the provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. I’ll
write about that at a later date. Suffice to say, just 3% of the cost
of the War in Iraq would fund cuts to Medicare and Medicaid for 5
years. We could have hired 1,791,930 new teachers for one year; 275,
451,000 children could have medical insurance for one year. As of
Sunday night the total cost of the war was up to $460 billion.
So,
the question arises…if we cannot afford to fund Medicare and Medicaid,
if we cannot afford to provide medical insurance for all Americans, if
we cannot afford to hire enough teachers to fill our classrooms, and we
cannot afford to send our youngest to Head Start (the one program that
has proved successful), just where are we getting the funds to the War
in Iraq? If we cannot afford to insure the health of our youngest and
oldest citizens and educate them in between, just how can we afford to
intervene in a conflict that truly is a civil war?
As a nation we had a choice. Don’t inundate me with the “for God and
Country” rhetoric. I have studied history and found every conflict in
the history of man to be for money, power and land. If you must use the
“for God and Country” argument, isn’t in the name of this argument that
we should provide housing, medical care, and education for our own
citizens? What about those in our own country who go to bed hungry
every night? What about those who work two, yes, even three jobs and
still cannot afford to feed their children?
We cannot wait longer. Now is the time we really do have to make some
choices. What future do you see for your children? grandchildren?
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