lifeblood of America
By GUEST COMMENTARY BY JOHN WHITEHEAD
The warnings in Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Address to the Nation concerning the rise of the military-industrial complex are even more relevant today. “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex,” he proclaimed.
And as the colossal war machine continues to grow and its tentacles reach into every sphere of American society, it is, in vampiric fashion, draining the lifeblood of the country. A few recent statistics tell the story.
In four years, the Bush Administration has allocated more than $400 billion to overall military spending, much of this to support the arms industry. For the 2006 fiscal year, the military budget is set at $439.3 billion. However, this does not include 2006 funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars ($49.1 billion) and Homeland Security ($41.1 billion). More than $230 billion has already been spent on the war in Iraq, and it is estimated that before the end of 2006, the cost of U.S. military operations will top the $500 billion mark. This is 10 times the amount estimated by the Administration prior to the invasion of Iraq.
With so much allocated to fighting the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration and Congress have cut funding elsewhere. For the most part, this has meant cutting funds for the poor and elderly. In December 2005, Congress passed a budget bill — with Dick Cheney as the deciding vote — to cut $40 billion in federal spending by ending funding for foster care, child support and student loans. It also imposed new fees on Medicaid recipients and new work restrictions on state welfare programs. Moreover, in the days following Bush’s 2006 State of the Union Address, his Administration began the process of implementing a series of budget measures that will cut even more funding for health care and education in order to allocate greater sums of money for the war machine. Recently, Bush proposed a staggering $2.77 trillion budget for war spending in 2007. The White House also said it planned to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion over what has already been proposed for war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in these countries to $120 billion this year.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, from those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
In contrast to the allocation of funds for the military, Bush has proposed cuts to 141 domestic programs over the next five years — again, mostly affecting the poor and elderly. The Republican-dominated House of Representatives has now approved a $39.5 billion five-year budget cutting package, with more than half coming from Medicare and Medicaid funding. The proposed cut to Medicare alone over the next five years is $36 billion, with much of this consisting of reductions in payments to hospitals and other health facilities.
Currently, the 2007 budget includes the largest cuts ever to educational services for American students. The Bush Administration has again cut funding for the Head Start Program, without giving heed to inflation. Due to this, 19,000 children could be cut from the program or the program could be forced to cut teachers, educational activities and parent educational services, which typically are vital to children succeeding in kindergarten. Predictions in Bush’s analysis of the budget include cutting childcare assistance for 400,000 needy children by 2011.
Also in the area of education, this year’s budget continues to delay fulfilling the President’s promises — and the law — to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act, cutting $15.4 billion in federal funding and raising the amount it has been shortchanging schools and schoolchildren from $40 billion to around $55 billion. For higher education, Bush has frozen the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,050, eliminated the Perkins Loan program altogether and has proposed getting rid of the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP), which provides a match of federal funding to states for need-based grant and work-study assistance. These measures give low-income students less of a chance to attend college and graduate schools. All of this comes at a time when the cost of a college education for most Americans is becoming non-affordable.
Analysts differ on how much of the national debt stems from the military, with estimates ranging from 50 percent to 80 percent. Some analysts believe national bankruptcy is possible.
In commenting on the conjunction of the immense military establishment and the large arms industry, Eisenhower proclaimed in his farewell address: “Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”
And, “we must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grand-children without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
Finally: “We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” (Contact John Whitehead at)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.