New Budget

The Weird and The Wacky Meet

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Do Your Taxes Really Protect You?

Everyone pays taxes. When you buy a candy bar from the bookstore, you pay taxes. When you go to the movies, you pay taxes. And every time you look at how much the government took out of your paycheck, you know you pay taxes. Yet, where is all this money going?

In February, President Bush unveiled his new budget plan. It calls for more tax cuts, a greater budget for the Department of Defense, and reducing the national deficit. How does he intend to reach these lofty goals? By taking away from social security, education, and other important social programs. According to Reuters.com, both Republican and Democratic senators are concerned about the cuts to social programs in the new budget.

The Department of Defense (D.O.D.) already has a $400 billion budget. How does this compare other countries? TrueMajority.com lays out the facts about how much various nations spend on defense. It turns out that the US spends six times as much as the next highest military spender, Russia, which only spends $70 billion and isn’t our enemy.

Which brings us to terrorism. Our enemies, the so-called axis of evil – Iraq, Iran, and North Korea – only spend $7.5 billion dollars a year, combined, on their military. According to Reuters.com, with the new budget, the US will now spend $421 billion. Why does the DOD need all this money? Can our military forces be that much less efficient than our enemies’?

The House and Senate budget committees are currently in a confrontation with the White House over how to plan out America’s fiscal future. Both sides say there simply isn’t enough to pay for everything we used to be able to afford. This is an outright lie, if you take the time to find out where our money actually goes and set realistic priorities. There would be enough money, if the pie gets divided fairly.

America desperately needs to keep its social programs intact. Unemployment is still too high. And the people lucky enough to have jobs are making less money than they did four years ago. Education is faltering. Now, more than ever, people need the government to be a safety net when times get rough. Yet a safety net requires money, and that means making sure the budget is divided more fairly between social programs and defense. Even taking just 10% of the DOD’s budget would solve all of the fiscal problems. $40 billion goes a long way. In fact, just $1 Billion would solve the social security crisis.

Recently, the Comanche helicopter program was cut from the military budget, saving tens of billions over the course of years, which will now go to other military programs. The Sikorsky factory in Stratford, Connecticut was hit hard by this cut. Why not put this money back into educating the workers who could lose their jobs? Wouldn’t that be a better way to spend the money?

On the one hand, we’re lowering taxes, mostly for the rich. On the other, we’re raising military spending. The resulting deficit is then used as an excuse to shut down vital social programs, while our nation’s wealth is funneled from the poor and middle classes to the rich. This is not just. In fact it’s not even good fiscal policy, because all it does is increase the deficit and make it harder for Americans to find jobs because of a lack of education.

There is a bumper sticker that asks, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Is the US better off? We have tax cuts, but no jobs. A military with double the budget, but no real improvement in security. I think the answer is all too clear: we are not better off.

In November, we go to the polls to elect our nation’s leader for the next four years. Currently, President Bush is using the hunt for Osama bin Ladin as a distraction and gay marriage as a wedge issue, redirecting our attention from the real social and economic problems this country is facing. His political ads are an insult to the memory of the people who died in the World Trade Center bombings, trivializing their lives in an attempt to justify perpetuating current policies.

Whether you’re a conservative or a liberal, the numbers come out the same. When you take an honest look at the budget and see where the money is going, you must conclude that a vote for the current administration is a vote for gross economic inequity, growing deficits and a destruction of our way of life. With this in mind, the choice of presidents is less a partisan matter than one of simple common sense. Vote for common sense.

Not the original graphic

By Amanda Evans

Original Publishing Date: 04/01/04