Barney Frank is the gruff and powerful Chair of the Financial Services Committee in the House of Representatives. He spearheaded the passage of stern financial and banking reforms which are before the Senate for passage, but, due to delays, have already been implemented by regulators.
But Frank's next target is the Pentagon -- that costly sacred cow among Republicans. It's a topic that few dare address, but Frank is correct when he states that America's military over-commitments prevent us from having the type of health care, and other benefits that Europeans and Canadians enjoy.
In an interview with the Post, Barney hammered home the America's unsustainable role as policeman to the world. It's a message that, if it begins to gain traction, will start to bring about a sea-change in American attitudes.
"Iraq has cost $1 trillion," he said in an interview with me at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "It was a Vietnam-scale mistake, not in terms of lives lost, but as a geopolitical disaster which destabilized the region, encouraged the worst kind of radicalism and made us hated around the world. It is one of the single worst decisions in the history of the U.S."
If the U.S. had not waged two wars -- Afghanistan and Iraq -- and continued to keep unnecessary military commitments, the deficit and debt situation would not be an issue, he said. "There would have been enough to improve the quality of life of Americans and bail out the financial sector."
Going broke being the world's policeman
According to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, the U.S. accounted for nearly half of the $1.46 trillion spent in 2008 by the top ten defense spenders. The next highest was China at $84.9 billion.
More than half of the current U.S. federal government's "discretionary" budget is military expenditures. This is equivalent to the level of expenditures in 1946 after the second World War.
Barney continued, "We are defending the Czech Republic and Poland against an Iranian missile attack. We have expensive bases all over the world which are not needed," he said. "We are keeping troops in Iraq until the end of 2011 even though there is no external enemy in Iraq. The problems in Iraq now are entirely internal." He also stated:
There is no threat to the U.S. in the sense of the Soviet Union. China is decades away from being a military issue if it ever does become one," he said. "We should have a policy only of going to the defense of countries that are attacked. As for our own home defense, tell me what a Trident [nuclear] missile does against a shoe bomber? You could cut $250 billion a year from our military budget and take 5 or 10 percent of that to put into increased security at home and we would be a safer country. More airport security and more magnetometers would be more effective. Also more cyber security.
Only Americans? Bah Humbug
He rejected out of hand any arguments by allies that only the U.S. can defend the world against tyranny and terrorism. "The America-must-do-it argument? That's BS. We are everybody else's military. My answer is: do it yourself. Urging us to do more than necessary is just giving others a free ride," he said.
Trimming $250 million from military expenditures would more than cover the cost of universal health care and the extension in other ways of the social safety net and environmental improvements.
"Our debt crisis began when the previous administration tried to finance two wars with tax cuts. We are overburdened. What we face is a debt crisis, due to military over-commitments, which has devastated our ability to improve our quality of life through government programs," Frank continued.
"We would have had $1 trillion now to help fix the economy and do the things for our people that they deserve."