In recent weeks, the Obama and McCain campaigns have largely forgotten the Iraq War, and so have we. It’s hard to blame us. The near-apocalyptic fallout from the recent economic meltdown commands our full attention. The question on all our minds is how the candidates will respond to the critical blow dealt to the nation’s financial health.
But we need to remember that our economic well-being is profoundly injured by the enormous cost of the war and the even larger amount of taxpayer money lavished on irresponsible defense spending.
Pundits throw fits over the eye-popping amount of money the government desires to repair the economy, yet we will have spent just as many untold billions in Iraq. Even by the conservative estimate of http://factcheck.org, we have to date spent more than $120 billion in Iraq and could exceed $400 billion given the candidates’ cunningly fuzzy withdrawal dates. And we spent $522 billion on defense spending in 2008—more than nine times the budget of the Chinese military in the same time span.
The question is, would this money be better spent elsewhere? In the debate, it is highly unlikely that either Biden or Palin will venture far beyond the realm of rhetorical flourishes and actually discuss the real world costs of our current military outlays. With this in mind, we have provided 10 questions that, in a perfect world, would be answered and used to inform voters of the remarkable amount of good that either candidate could bring to the nation by scaling back military spending.
1. Research shows that public money spent on health care, mass transit and education creates more jobs than investing the same amount in the military.
Question: What percentage of the military budget are you willing to cut to reinvest in job creation programs that support our communities?
2. We spend $11 billion every year on missile defense, yet we have 46 million uninsured citizens.
Question: Why is a shield granted so much funding when such a disproportionate number of our citizens remain unable to afford basic health care?
3. The U.S. spends more than $20 billion annually to maintain its nuclear arsenal while a large percentage of funded weapons no longer have any practical use.
Question: Would you vote to eliminate spending on obsolete weapons systems and use the funds saved to meet urgent domestic needs for health care and education? 4. The “Common Sense Budget Act,” H.R. 1702, would reduce the Department of Defense budget by $47 billion dollars and would invest that money in the health and education of our people.
Question: If elected, will you co-sponsor the Common Sense Budget Act?
5. Sixty billion dollars of the United States defense budget is expended annually on weapons that were designed to thwart Soviet Union aggression during the Cold War.
Question: If elected, which specific obsolete weapons programs would you cancel?
6. The U.S. ranks No. 1 in global weapons exports, yet the railcars found in our subways are built in, and imported from, Europe, Asia and Canada.
Question: Would you be willing to reduce military contracts in order to create opportunities for development in other vital American industries?
7. Many American weapons programs are flawed, yet they continue to receive funding. For example, we have already invested $20 billion in the V-22 Osprey, whose technical failings have cost the U.S. military 30 lives and which we can expect to spend an additional $35 billion before its retirement.
Question: How do you justify the continued funding of these weapons systems when nine million children in the U.S. have no health insurance?
8. Ten billion dollars are spent each month on the occupation of Iraq.
Question: How do you justify this continued expenditure when more than 25 million Americans must use food stamps to feed their families?
9. The Government Accountability Office estimated in 2003 that the Department of Defense could not account for more than $1 trillion in appropriated funds.
Question: Given that 85 percent of the nation’s public schools require substantial repair work and that the U.S. has fallen to 42nd in the world in infant mortality, what will you do to ensure that the Department of Defense is more responsible with its funding?
10. The Department of Defense’s increasingly large budget provides for total defense spending that is greater than that of 192 other countries combined, yet the U.S. ranks 37th in overall health care.
Question: Will you vote to substantially cut the budget of the Department of Defense in order to raise our declining quality of health care?
