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Italics are mine – Frank Trejo – Yesterday’s News Today
The U.S. spends more for war annually than all state governments combined spend for the health, education, welfare and safety of 308 million Americans. Joseph Henchman, director of state projects for the Tax Foundation of Washington D.C., says the states collected a total of $781 billion in taxes in 2008.
For a rough comparison, the total budget for what the Pentagon calls “defense” in fiscal year 2010 will be at least $880 billion and could possibly top $1 trillion. That’s more than all state governments collect. Henchman says all American local governments combined (cities, counties, etc) collect about $500 billion in taxes. Add that to the total state tax take and you get over $1.3 trillion. This means Uncle Sam’s Pentagon is sopping up nearly as much money as all state, county, city and other governmental units spend to run the country. If the Pentagon figure of $1 trillion is somewhat less than all other taxing authorities, keep in mind the FBI, the various intelligence agencies, the VA and the National Institutes of Health (biological warfare) are also spending on war-related activities.
A question that describes the above and answers itself is: In what area can the federal government operate where states and cities cannot tread? The answer is: foreign affairs – raising armies, fighting needless wars, conducting diplomacy etc. And so Uncle Sam keeps enlarging this area. His emphasis is not on diplomacy either. For every buck spent by the State Department, which gets some $50 billion a year, the Pentagon spends $20. As for the Peace Corps, its budget is a paltry $375 million – hardly enough to keep the Pentagon elephant in peanuts.
Nobel Prize economist Josepth Stiglitz and finance authority Linda Bilmes write in their “The Three Trillion Dollar War: True Cost of the Iraq Conflict,” defense spending has been growing as a percentage of discretionary funding (money that is not required to be spent on entitlements like Social Security), from 48 percent in 2000 to 51 percent today. That means that our defense needs are gobbling up a larger share of taxpayers’ money than ever before.”
And they add, “The Pentagon’s budget has increased by more than $600 billion, cumulatively, since we invaded Iraq.” With it’s 1,000 bases in the U.S. and another 800 bases globally, the U.S. truly has become a warfare state. Today, military-related products account to about one-fourth of total U.S. GDP. This includes 10,000 nuclear weapons. Indeed, the U.S. has lavished $5.5 trillion just on nukes over the past 70 years.
No other nation has anything remotely like this menacing global presence. The Pentagon strengthens its grip by running joint “training” exercises with the military of 110 other nations, including outright dictatorships that suppress internal unrest.
The U.S. spends more on weaponry than the next dozen nations combined and is by far the No. 1 world arms peddler. “The government employs some 6,500 people just to coordinate and administer its arms sales program in conjuction with senior officials at American embassies around the world, who spend most of their ‘diplomatic’ careers working as arms salemen,” writes Chalmers Johnson in Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire.
Johnson goes on to say the U.S. military establishment today is “close to being beyond civilian control” and that despite its ability to “deliver death and destruction to any target on Earth and expect little in the way of retaliation” it demands more and newer equipment “while the Pentagon now more or less sets its own agenda” and “monopolizes the formulation and conduct of American foreign policy.”
How long will it be before this tyrannical, anti-democratic colossus that is sucking up as much money for war as all states, counties and cities spend on peace – and which straddles the globe, boosts dictators and beats the war drums – turn on its own people?… end of article
This article was written by Sherwood Ross and posted by the American Free Press in the Feb. 15th issue. * * * * *
How is it we allow 545 criminals in Congress; one in the White House, and nine black-robed thugs who make laws unconstitutionally, commit so many illegalities that are costing us trillions? Why must we worry about our own spending when these criminals spend without accountability?
Once again we must alter the course of history like others before: The conflict with the King in early America that gave us the Declaration of Independence. The War between the States that freed Black Americans. Civil Rights Legislation that leveled the playing field for all Americans. The concocted depressions through the years created by the International Bankers. The victorius effort in stopping Germany in the last declared war….and much more.
We have people in elected positions that don’t give a damn about you and the U.S. Constitution. This is why I periodically remind people that democracy is the worst form of government . It is mob rule. It is a system that is corrupted to no end. All elected officials in Congress should be thrown out of office. We’ve gotten ourselves out of many dangerous issues but this one – reckless spending – will put us in the poor house and quite possibly forever. We’ll join other socialist countries – just as the International Bankers have wanted for so long. ALL CONGRESSES’, ALL PRESIDENTS, ALL SUPREME COURT JUSTICES’, ARE GUILTY OF THIS INJUSTICE. We are no longer a free society. We are economic slaves.
The Tea Party movement for Constitutional government could very well have been labled “Uncle Sam’s Party.” How about referring to it as the “peoples’ lobby”. The only thing exchanged would be the vote. No money for the thieves, no special favors, just the vote. The peoples’lobby would clean-up corrupted officials in all levels of government.
We are in a moment in history when we must pray for a modern-day miracle as the one granted by God for faith and courage displayed by our forefathers fighting the British to save our country. The moment is critical. We must reach to the ends of our souls and pray for strength and commitment needed to save America one more time from destruction from within.
“I AM SORRY I HAVE ONLY ONE BAT TO SWING FOR MY COUNTRY!”
