How is He Going to Pay for It?

I would like to pose a question, Dear Readers, most of whom I know personally.

Why is it that when a Democrat, say Barack Hussein Obama comes up with a plan for long-overdue domestic spending, the Republicans pound their tiny fists on their desks of human bones, and, red-in-the-face scream, “How is he going to pay for it?”  Spittle, bile, and the stench of the decay of their uncaring souls spraying to the four corners.

Meanwhile, Republicans are free to carry on war after war, against the will of the American people, and finance it through deficit spending.  In fact, John McCain promises that he would rather lose an election than lose a war.  But, if a war is so unpopular that continuing to fight it will result in one losing an election, is not the prudent course in a democracy to withdraw, thus satisfying the will of the people?  No, John McCain vows to fight wars against the will of the American people.  And, apparently, he has many wars planned.

The answer to my question is quite clear:  The Republicans don’t want any domestic spending.  Good, effective social programs like social security, medicare, and hopefully, some day, a single-payer health care system, time and time again prove the Republican ideal of a market-based social system wrong.

But, don’t assume for a minute that I’m a Commie.  There’s a place in the world for markets.  There just isn’t a place in the world for unregulated markets, and there certainly isn’t a place in the market where we should gamble away our societal safety nets. A market-based health care system is primitive and unfair. Privatizing social security is absolutely insane.

How is Barack Hussein Obama going to pay for the badly needed domestic programs he has proposed?  I don’t know if he has a plan, but I do.  According to the silly National Taxpayers Union Foundation, the presidential candidates have proposed the following spending:

It’s doubtful that the National Taxpayers Union Foundation is being fair to Senator Obama, but let’s assume they are.  He appears to be proposing $293 billion in new spending.  Okay, so, divide $293 billion by 4 years, and that’s the paltry sum of $73 billion per year.  The US defense-related spending is approximately $1 trillion dollars.

The US defense budget Cut all so-called ‘defense-related’ spending by 8% and it’s more than paid for.

I maintain that an 8% cut in defense-related spending is not unreasonable, given that the second largest defence budget in the world is the United Kingdom, and it’s less than 1/10 as large as the US budget.

I see that Obama has proposed a cut of almost $73 billion, and that’s about 7%.  However, the US government considers a decrease in the rate of increase as a spending cut, so I’m not sure what the Obama numbers actually mean.

Defense-related spending can withstand a real cut.

We can’t afford to be the arsenal of bellicosity any more.

Tags: Arsenal of Bellicosity, Biden, budget, defense spending, democrat, McCain, National Taxpayers Union, Obama, Palin, republican