A Way To Save Some Money
I received a response from Sen. Dianne Feinstein to my email urging her to support a public option in the health care debate. Here's her bottom line:
"I believe that there is much room for improvement in our nation's healthcare system. However, I believe that health care reform should not increase the federal deficit."
I take that to mean that she'll dismiss the public option, as in, "Not in my lifetime, sweetie, nor in yours either."
I find the Senate's sudden preoccupation with the federal deficit rather odd. Back in 2001, most senators (including many Democrats) had no trouble voting for tax cuts for the wealthy, tax cuts which were recently extended. And after we got our two wars going, most were quite happy to fund those wars "off budget" in emergency resolutions, the latest of which was for another $80 billion. They were also willing to bail out corporations and banks which had failed through a combination of greed, deception, and a whole lot of incompetence with huge amounts of taxpayer dollars.
Still, if Congress has decided to get religion with respect to the deficit, I've got an idea, one stolen from Chalmers Johnson (of Blowback fame) who presented it in an essay in the Asia Times Online: close some of our unnecessary military bases abroad.
And what is being done about those military bases, which now number close to 800 across the globe in other people's countries? Even as Congress and the Obama administration wrangle over the cost of bank bailouts, a new health plan, pollution controls, and other much needed domestic expenditures, no one suggests that closing some of these unpopular, expensive imperial enclaves might be a good way to save some money.
On June 23, Kyrgyzstan, the former Central Asian Soviet Republic which, back in February 2009, announced that it was going to kick the US military out of Manas Air Base (used since 2001 as a staging area for the Afghan War), said it has been persuaded to let the US stay.
But here's the catch: In return for doing that favor, the annual rent Washington pays for use of the base will more than triple from $17.4 million to $60 million, with millions more to go into promised improvements in airport facilities and other financial sweeteners. All this because the Obama administration, having committed itself to a widening war in the region, is convinced it needs this base to store and trans-ship supplies to Afghanistan.
I suspect this development will not go unnoticed in other countries where Americans are also unpopular occupiers. For example, the Ecuadorians have told the US to leave Manta Air Base by this November. Of course, they have their pride to consider, not to speak of the fact that they don't like American soldiers mucking about in Colombia and Peru. Nonetheless, they could probably use a spot more money. ...
In fact, I have a suggestion for other countries that are getting a bit weary of the American military presence on their soil: cash in now, before it's too late. Either up the ante or tell the Americans to go home. I encourage this behavior because I'm convinced that the US empire of bases will soon enough bankrupt our country, and so - on the analogy of a financial bubble or a pyramid scheme - if you're an investor, it's better to get your money out while you still can. [Emphasis added]
Snark aside, Mr. Johnson has the right idea. Why do we have 800 military bases strung out around the world. The cold war is over. We're now so closely tied to China financially that they'd be foolish to start anything lest their huge investment in our country go sour. Surely Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia could survive without our "imperial enclaves" there to "protect" them from the evils of communism, an ideology which looks to be in worse shape than our capitalism, although that is, I admit, debatable.
Closing even half of those bases would save billions of dollars each year, maybe as much as a trillion over ten years, and isn't that the magic number that keeps being shoved down our throats whenever we ask for something as necessary as a single payer system?
I guess the health and welfare of Americans isn't as important to the 111th Congress as the health and welfare of the Pentagon and its contractors. Not much of a change there, eh?
"I believe that there is much room for improvement in our nation's healthcare system. However, I believe that health care reform should not increase the federal deficit."
I take that to mean that she'll dismiss the public option, as in, "Not in my lifetime, sweetie, nor in yours either."
I find the Senate's sudden preoccupation with the federal deficit rather odd. Back in 2001, most senators (including many Democrats) had no trouble voting for tax cuts for the wealthy, tax cuts which were recently extended. And after we got our two wars going, most were quite happy to fund those wars "off budget" in emergency resolutions, the latest of which was for another $80 billion. They were also willing to bail out corporations and banks which had failed through a combination of greed, deception, and a whole lot of incompetence with huge amounts of taxpayer dollars.
Still, if Congress has decided to get religion with respect to the deficit, I've got an idea, one stolen from Chalmers Johnson (of Blowback fame) who presented it in an essay in the Asia Times Online: close some of our unnecessary military bases abroad.
And what is being done about those military bases, which now number close to 800 across the globe in other people's countries? Even as Congress and the Obama administration wrangle over the cost of bank bailouts, a new health plan, pollution controls, and other much needed domestic expenditures, no one suggests that closing some of these unpopular, expensive imperial enclaves might be a good way to save some money.
On June 23, Kyrgyzstan, the former Central Asian Soviet Republic which, back in February 2009, announced that it was going to kick the US military out of Manas Air Base (used since 2001 as a staging area for the Afghan War), said it has been persuaded to let the US stay.
But here's the catch: In return for doing that favor, the annual rent Washington pays for use of the base will more than triple from $17.4 million to $60 million, with millions more to go into promised improvements in airport facilities and other financial sweeteners. All this because the Obama administration, having committed itself to a widening war in the region, is convinced it needs this base to store and trans-ship supplies to Afghanistan.
I suspect this development will not go unnoticed in other countries where Americans are also unpopular occupiers. For example, the Ecuadorians have told the US to leave Manta Air Base by this November. Of course, they have their pride to consider, not to speak of the fact that they don't like American soldiers mucking about in Colombia and Peru. Nonetheless, they could probably use a spot more money. ...
In fact, I have a suggestion for other countries that are getting a bit weary of the American military presence on their soil: cash in now, before it's too late. Either up the ante or tell the Americans to go home. I encourage this behavior because I'm convinced that the US empire of bases will soon enough bankrupt our country, and so - on the analogy of a financial bubble or a pyramid scheme - if you're an investor, it's better to get your money out while you still can. [Emphasis added]
Snark aside, Mr. Johnson has the right idea. Why do we have 800 military bases strung out around the world. The cold war is over. We're now so closely tied to China financially that they'd be foolish to start anything lest their huge investment in our country go sour. Surely Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia could survive without our "imperial enclaves" there to "protect" them from the evils of communism, an ideology which looks to be in worse shape than our capitalism, although that is, I admit, debatable.
Closing even half of those bases would save billions of dollars each year, maybe as much as a trillion over ten years, and isn't that the magic number that keeps being shoved down our throats whenever we ask for something as necessary as a single payer system?
I guess the health and welfare of Americans isn't as important to the 111th Congress as the health and welfare of the Pentagon and its contractors. Not much of a change there, eh?
Labels: Budget, Change, Pentagon, Universal Health Care Access
posted by Diane at 3:31 AM
1 Comments:
I'm sure you know it, Diane, but for newcomers here it's worth pointing out that Feinstein's husband is Richard Blum. Blum's company, Perini, is making a fortune on military contracts.
See the Center for Public Integrity's "Windfalls of War" for the details.
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