Big Lie the Third--The Economy

``Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.''
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

George Bush you’re looking like Zoolander
Trying to play tough for the camera
What am I on crazy pills? We’ve got to stop it
Get your hand out my grandma’s pocket
We need health care more than going to war
You think it’s democracy they’re fighting for?
--In a World Gone Mad, Beastie Boys

Here comes another ration (feed them death)
‘Cause they're the finest in the nation (feed them death)
When there's nothing left to feed them
When it's freedom or it's death

Let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
--Let Them Eat War, Bad Religion

The Third Big Lie is the economy, subtitled, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," except these are gold bricks we're looking for. It's usually a good idea to look at which way the money flows to figure out why and where the U.S. will intervene in war. What follows is offered simply as a person, non-economist, noticing a few economic indicators from my daily life. The ideas are not rocket science. I will not even address the cost of energy, since it's trend is so obvious.

While unaware and untutored in economic theory, I always have the weekly grocery bill and home maintenance prices to consider. A sheet of plywood has quadrupled in price since Bush took office. This same increase is reflected in building products across the board. One need only look at the grocery bill to figure out the price of food commodities has been trending steeply upward over the course of this administration.

These are the indicators the average taxpayer deals with and understands. Forget estate tax breaks, just consider the cost of items used in daily survival. The cost of beer, potato chips and dip is a fine yardstick by which to gauge the rise in the cost of the basic necessities.

While I'm eating my chips and dip, consider the neediest among us. The Head Start program is geared to help students from such families be competitive in the school environment. This worthy program helps shore these at-risk students up with their more privileged classmates, providing morning meals, tutoring, and other interventions.

The National Head Start Association (NHSA) warned last April, "If Congress does not act to add at least $234 million to the President's 2007 budget for Head Start, most or all of the 2,700 Head Start programs across the United States will end up crippled and perhaps unable to recover."

$234 million is small-time compared to the $700 billion to our Iraqi friends, but it did not pass in Congress, and Head Start is "flat-funded" this year as a result. Their budget will not cover the cost-of-living increases for the year, and no new students can be admitted in 2007. The program has sustained an 11% real cut in funding since 2002.

In an interesting White House report covering such programs as Head Start--"Compassion-2007"--we are told, "A strong economy, together with spending restraint, is critical to reducing the deficit."

Fascinating. So, it's not the Iraq "War" that's spending us into oblivion, rather, something here in the land of compassionate spending which needs some tweaking, in order to pay for the over-sized but oh-so-necessary tax cuts which have really got our economy humming. It doesn't matter how strong your nation's economy is; if you're morally bankrupt, you're lost.

99 Luftballoons--

One riveting section is subtitled, "Marshalling the Armies of Compassion." It says there will be $99 million, up 50% from 2006, set aside to build "small armies of compassion." I don't know what these are, but they sound positively Orwellian. Are these like traveling bands of Jehovah's Witnesses, who feel your pain with you? It boggles the imagination.

In this small, two-paged report (compassion doesn't take very much time in this harried world), the term "faith-based" is used at least three times. There is $250 million for "new healthy marriages initiatives;" I don't know what you get for having an old, unhealthy one. There is also $204 million for "abstinence-only" education programs. So if you're good, if you're part of the faith-based armies of compassion, in for a healthy marriage or abstinence, you've got some funds. But not many.

Disingenuously the report also states, "The Administration supports reauthorization of Head Start to make sure children enter school ready to learn." Problem is, that's giving credit where none is due. Head Start has been a compulsory funded program since 1965. It is not up to the President's compassionate discretion whether to fund or not.

The flow of U.S. jobs overseas, the devaluation of the dollar and increasing trade deficits are some other key items to consider when taking the pulse of the nation's health, economic and otherwise. And while considering this personal economic impact statement, remember the financial cost of supporting the Iraqi adventure.

--Jim and Lisa