George Zornick blogs in The Nation about Obama’s Plan to Save the Military From Cuts—at the Expense of Domestic Programs. Here is an excerpt:
“As budget wonks comb over President Obama’s outline for fiscal year 2013, a startling White House plan has become clear: the administration is seeking to undo some mandatory cuts to the Pentagon at the expense of critical domestic programs. It does so by basically undoing the defense sequester that kicked in as a result of the Congressional supercommittee on debt.
…This is a dramatic shift in priorities, and one that not many people are discussing. Given the massive lobbying potential of the defense industry—and the comparably weak advocates for things like Head Start funding—it’s a virtual certainty that, under the White House proposal, these strict spending caps would be met by raiding nonsecurity spending heavily in years to come.”
Defense spending is a long-standing sacred cow. Military defense is the closest thing we have to a religion in our secular society, coming in a close second to money, only because the value of military defense eventually is reduced to a derivative of our love of money and resources. Of course, an overwhelmingly high level of vague threats to our national security, meaning military security, is necessary to successfully beat the drums of war and get the general population to act against its own self-interest in providing for domestic security, meaning health, housing, education, meaningful work, etc.
Pres. Obama, commander-in-chief, reigning over the most powerful nation in human history, not surprisingly, places his pinch of incense on the altar of Caesar, which conveniently happens to be him, and pours untold billions into the sacred cow of so-called defense spending, which has financially and morally bankrupt our government and society. Ignore the prestidigitations of rhetoric. Pay attention to the other hand which is quietly creating accounting devices to rob us of our birthright, our own government by the people and for the people. No, wait, doesn’t he have a Nobel Peace Prize in his other hand…
