Budgeting America: More Guns, Less Butter

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! Just as the cherry trees are fixin' to bloom after a cold dreary winter in the nation's (U.S.A.) capitol, Congress is getting ready to heat things up a mite by engaging in that which can be termed "the annual battle of the budget." Don't panic; somehow, they, we, always seem to find a way to work something out, no matter how much acrimony preceeds the working out, no matter how poorly the working out turns out. That's because there is no other choice; the nation MUST have a budget, and even America's politicians are sufficiently percipient to understand that. This time, as always, the conservative republicans want to increase the military budget, and decrease the social safety net, which, as usual, is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. Capitalism is consuming, exploiting, chewing up and spitting out more poor people than ever, another staple of conservative republican policy. They, the poor, need nelp, now. They need to be turned into consumers and producers, and paying them a living wage for the work they do would be a good start, plus reasonable assistance for those who truly need it. Currently, more assistance is needed, not less. These backwards thinking delusional republican cons pretend that the extra military money is desperately needed to "protect Amerca", which is already far and away the best protected nation on Earth, by a factor of many. The United States has hundreds of military bases in dozens of foreign countries, and this is not to "protect America", but rather, this is to make the world a more beneficial place for American "interests", defined as "American corporate interests", aka profiting. By increasing the military budget, the American government is doing nothing other than strengthening the American worldwide corporate empire. By targeting the poor for less government help, the America corporate owned government is victimizing, as usual, that segment of American society least able to fight back, and least important to American corporate interests.