By now everyone knows that Bush has promised to veto legislation by Congress expanding health insurance for poor children. Over 5 years, the new legislation would increase the program by $35 billion, or $7 billion a year. Seems to be a very large chunk of change, right? Well, by now everyone should also know that he is demanding from Congress a budget of over $200 billion for the war in Iraq for 2008. Yes, in ONE year he is demanding for $200 billion in tax payers money. So I pose the question, when is enough enough? In my eyes, providing American children with health insurance if their parents cannot afford it is a much better cause than fighting a battle many believe can never be won. The fact of the matter is there is only so much money out there, only so many programs can be funded. How much longer are we going to allow hundreds of billions of dollars to be burnt in the Middle East fighting a war over ideology and oil?
It is time that we start focusing on social issues to better America. Why should any American, in the so called "most powerful nation in the world" suffer and die from simple ailments such as the flu? The answer is simple, they shouldn't. Why should millions of people a year go hungry or freeze to death in America? Again, they shouldn't. But we are so consumed with defense spending that we cannot open our eyes to see the social problems right in our back yards. Yes, defense spending is necessary, but $200 billion is more than a stretch...
With little more than 35% of the country supporting him, are we really willing to continue down this path of destruction? I applaud Congress for holding out and not folding like those in the past when writing the budget... I just hope they can hold out long enough for some sort of compromise to be struck that is more reasonable than $200 billion for the 2008s loss in Iraq.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/26/cong.budget.deadline.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/25/children.sinsurance.ap/index.html
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3 comments:
I completely agree with your sentiments on the issue. Congress has (at least in the past) given the President a blank check to fight a war nearing its fifth year and from all accounts shows no sign of ending soon. The hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the conflict could have been used a multitude of better ways. It's good to see that finally the majority of Americans are no longer bullied into supporting a failing endeavor in a country that never attacked us.
Right on. This is just another event in a chain showing Bush to be one of the most fiscally irresponsible presidents we've ever had.
It's strange.. he wants to spend all this money on the war and on certain programs of his choosing but he obstinately refuses to raise taxes. It just doesn't work that way. If the war were justified and if his programs would work, I'm sure that the American people would be willing to make sacrifices by paying a bit more in taxes. Unfortunately neither of these things are true.
I personally agree with your views too. We have plenty of problems here that need attention that can’t because we are financially committed to the war in Iraq. The problem is we cannot just bail out of Iraq, that nation is no where near ready to support itself right now. If we were to pull out we probably would be sealing its fate, which would be chaos for years to come. Also if we pulled out or drastically cut back funding it would affect our already poor standing through the rest of the world. We started something in Iraq and we have to finish it. I would much rather see that money go somewhere more useful to the American people.
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