1.6 Trillion Reasons to Bring Them Home
By: BJ Lawson
President Obama’s budget proposal released today has attracted much attention for its stunning price tag: $3.8 trillion, with a projected one-year deficit of $1.6 trillion.
While there are some who downplay the importance of deficits (Dick Cheney comes to mind, as does Marshall Auerback), discerning Americans know that folks singing the praises of stimulatory deficit spending are actually repeating the discredited refrain of the (in)famous financier Jay Cooke. Mr. Cooke authored a pamphlet entitled How Our National Debt May Be a National Blessing before he helped unleash a credit bubble that bankrupted himself and his country in the Panic of 1873.
Somewhat lost in the partisan response to President Obama’s budget, however, is the realization that cutting discretionary spending is not enough. Now more than ever, it should be obvious that we must come home from Iraq, and not sacrifice more people and treasure in Afghanistan. In short, this proposed budget contains 1.6 trillion reasons to bring our troops home.
It has been said that “War is the health of the State.” With respect to war, we have been veritable gluttons over the past few decades. We’ve fought a War on Poverty, War on Cancer, War on Drugs, and War on Terror. What do we have to show for our efforts?
More poverty, more cancer, more drugs, and more terror.
So where is the health? When you drive into any small town in North Carolina, the nicest building is typically the city hall, courthouse, or prison. The police and sheriff cars are usually sweet looking, brand new hot rods with low-profile light bars, and often at events you see public safety personnel rolling around on pricey Segway scooters.
Yet factories are boarded up, commercial building are vacant and falling into disrepair, and our state’s unemployment insurance fund is bankrupt and borrowing from the federal government.
We can no longer afford to police the world, or fund welfare across the world through foreign aid. It’s time to dismantle the welfare and warfare state, eliminate the income tax that punishes work and productivity, and start creating jobs and rebuilding our economy.