Today is Tax Day. The media around the country are likely to focus on Tea Party activists and their flashy rhetoric about how no tax is a good tax and that the government has no business spending the people's money. These activists may be loud, but fortunately they do not represent most Americans.
Most of us would tell a different Tax Day story; one where we the people pay taxes to boost job creation and fund vital public services like schools, Medicare, and roads. While we grumble on April 15, we realize that taxes are an investment in our neighborhoods and our neighbors' and our own health and prosperity.
Unfortunately, that's not the whole story, either. Too much of our tax money - about half of it, in fact -- is going to fund wars abroad.
In most polls, the majority of the public wants peace and an end to the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The nearly $1 trillion we've already spent on these two wars could have gone a long way toward creating the jobs needed to reduce our nearly 10 percent unemployment rate.
So today, Tax Day, we should all remember that military spending is crippling job creation and that employed people help create and sustain our communities. Each dollar spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a dollar that could be better spent creating jobs here at home. A 2009 study by the Political Economy Research Institute examined the impact on the economy of $1 billion spent in different sectors. If we spend $1 billion in education, it will spur the creation of 29,100 jobs; in health, 19,600 jobs; in clean energy, 17,100 jobs. Spending $1 billion for the military, only 11,600 jobs are created. While it is true the military-industrial complex creates some jobs, there are more cost effective sectors that provide good, well-paying jobs and buttress our communities.
Of course the financial cost is not the only cost associated with military action. Over 5,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans have died in the last eight and a half years of war. Their deaths cannot be forgotten - or measured in dollars. Morally, we cannot afford to continue funding more death and destruction. Practically, we simply can't afford it any more.
So, use today to inform people in your communities about how the government can more effectively spend their tax dollars. Talk with your co-workers, family members and neighbors. Help them understand that war spending isn't good for our country, and that tax dollars spent on job creation and other human needs will help strengthen the U.S. and save lives.
Secondly, tell Congress how you want your money spent. In addition to the 59 percent of the discretionary budget that already goes to military spending, Congress will soon be asked to approve a $34 billion emergency war funding bill to pay for the escalation of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Tell your representatives in Washington to say NO to the war funding supplemental. Sending more troops will only lead to more violence. U.S. efforts should instead focus on supporting Afghan-led peace building efforts, economic development, and regional diplomacy.
While you're communicating with your representative, tell them to support the "Local Jobs for America Act" (HR 4812), introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), to help create jobs in your community.
While Tax Day makes most people cringe and some race to find receipts and fill out forms, our job is not over when we submit our materials to the IRS. We must also make sure that the government uses our taxes well -- to meet human needs, not to perpetuate war.
The 2009 PERI study can be found here.
James Denselow: Inertia in Iraq
The results of the Iraqi elections at the end of last month deepened a sense of conspiracy and dangerous inertia in the country. Events show that this disillusionment is threatening to reverse the security gains of the previous two years.
Taylor Leake: 27 Ways to Pay Lower Taxes
Tomorrow is tax day and if you haven't already, you will most likely be filing your taxes. But while you are paying your fair share, Walmart is cheating states out of millions of dollars, leaving you and your community to make up the difference.
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Keynesianism
I wish the baggers were smart enough to realized this.
Needless wars(and military in places like Japan) should be reexamined but a few dollars spend in Afghanistan can solve many future problems.
But whatever money we save on wars amounts to pocket change compared to the disaster developing as a result of what is now the new Health care slavery program and the proposed green nonsense(yes, I studied physics unlike the green idiots) which will bankrupt our nation and push any high paying jobs out of the country.
Let's stop crying over money well spent on military as opposed to a complete waste of money in healthcare and green fraud.
Al Qaeda doesn't need Afghanistan; they can go lots of places.
So what's the real reason for being in Afghanistan?
Because we have to have a war going somewhere to satisfy the "defense" industry's demand for more military spending?
The baggers complain about government spending but I have yet to hear any complaints about military spending. I doubt any of them is bright enough to understand the term military Keynsianism.
Eisenhower's first draft used the phrase Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, and it was more accurate.
This past March a couple of us participated in the annual peace march in D.C.: we were shocked: only about 8,000 people showed up for this once-per-year march.
If the tea-party can get tens of thousands in D.C. at a moment's notice, why can't pro-peace people do the same?
Wake up! Wealth is not evil, hard work is not bad, Christianity is not the wrong way, its what is keeping this country afloat while the democrats milk it dry. If you want any hope for this country, vote Republican!
We all know how good voting Republican did. It sucked the life out of our economy. It killed so many more young people lives than were ever lost in 9-11. It took away our civil liberties. It "lost" billions in Iraq. It cost us 1 trillion dollars to fight in someone elses back yard. Laughable.
And that means winding down the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along the lines of the frameworks already emerging, allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for EVERYBODY, regardless of income level, implementing the healthcare bill that just passed, especially in regards to the way it deals with eliminating the Medicare Advantage private insurer drug subsidy, and taking a serious look at resolving the problems with our entitlement programs, which will most likely mean an increase in payroll taxes and raising the eligibility age by a few years.
That's just being a realist
If the entire coutry is still facing massive resistance, even after the end of the surge, the decision moving forward becomes a far clearer one. If the entire country is finally coalscing around Afghan-led forces securing areas, the decision moving forward is clear as well.
Calling for an immediate pullout of Afghanistan and Iraq, and going futher than that, by trying to rally folks to nonsense ideas, like getting our elected officials to refuse to pay for the supplies and equipment that protect our young men and women, is even more ridiculous.
The simple fact of the matter is the SOFA is already in place, and as terms for the SOFA clearly state, US forces will be wholly out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Yes, after the expiration of the SOFA, a new agreement to have a small residual force in the country, for some time beyond the SOFA, could be called for by the Iraquis; still the SOFA holds firm. If 2011 is too far away a date to settle your grievance for a pullout, that's your own problem to deal with.
Bush who obviously wanted to be a "wartime president."