For millions of Americans, every day gets a little harder

“For millions of older Americans, every day gets a little harder.

Even though the costs of medication, transportation, and utilities are rising, we have already denied seniors a modest Cost of Living Adjustment to their Social Security payments for two years.

The war in Afghanistan costs the taxpayers $190 million PER DAY.

We will continue to spend $1.3 billion every week on war in Afghanistan for the indefinite future while we force our seniors to make tough choices between their medications and their food; their rent and their heat; their phone and gas for their car.”

[…]

“How can we continue to spend the people’s blood and treasure overseas when so much is needed at home?  

Are we addicted to war?

Fiscal discipline begins with ending fiscally irresponsible wars. The new Congress must move swiftly to set priorities.”

“It is totally unacceptable to deny seniors their promised benefits. If we have enough to wage war, we have enough to take care of our seniors.

Robbing their Social Security and Medicare accounts is not the answer to our financial crisis.” […]

— Dennis Kucinich,  politicalnews.me — Nov 13, 2010

Kucinich Links Afghanistan to Social Security and Medicare

Thank you, Representative Kucinich, for asking the tough questions.

How can we continue to pay for force “others” to pay for War, with little hope of reaching its goals, when we have Millions here at home that can barely make ends meet — largely because of what those Unpaid for War Debts have done to our Economy.  Have done to our Country.

Good Questions.  When will Americans — Wealthy Americans — PAY FOR our extravagant War Machine that is, in theory, “keeping us safe”  …

Enhanced Safety … Hmmm, that might be WORTH a 3% Tax Increase, eh?

Patriotism, used to cost something in this Country;  now it seems to be only something that “someone else” should pay for …

Here’s another take on the same topic:

The panel’s co-chairmen [debt-reduction commission], Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, identify $100 billion in defense cuts that could be made in 2015. That would be too little and too late, but what’s almost revolutionary is the notion that if we’re ever to get this nation back on sound economic footing, we have to cut what Dwight Eisenhower called the “military-industrial complex” down to size.

The United States accounts for 46.5 percent of the world’s total defense spending, according to a widely accepted recent estimate.

[…]

The Republicans will have to deal with calls to cut Pentagon spending from their side of the aisle.

The debt panel chairmen’s proposed defense cuts, meant to be “illustrative,” include civilian and noncombat pay freezes, a 15 percent cut in procurement, shrinking or eliminating some foreign bases, and $28 billion in “overhead” savings that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already pledged. But Bowles and Simpson don’t state the obvious, which is that a much more effective way to cut defense costs would be to bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to a September report by the Congressional Research Service, the two wars have already cost $1.1 Trillion. That figure doesn’t include an estimated $170 billion for the current fiscal year – and there’s no real end in sight.

— Eugene Robinson, WashingtonPost – Nov 16, 2010

Trimming a bloated defense budget

Thank you, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Eugene Robinson, for pointing out those tough facts.

When is the cost of War, just too dang costly, for those who must bear its burden —

you know, those “someone elses” — who always pick up the tab ?

When is “more of the same” … just too damn much?