Keep America at Peace: Keep the Pentagon Sequester

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/07-3



"Outside of Washington, everyone knows that the Pentagon is throwing our tax dollars around like a drunken sailor," says Naimain.

Keep America at Peace: Keep the Pentagon Sequester
by Robert Naiman
Published on Thursday, November 7, 2013 by Common Dreams

Folks who think that (at the very least) we should be allowed to experience a few years of peace before launching the next military adventure are on the cusp of a major victory in Washington. All we have to do to win this historic victory is maintain the "sequester" cuts to the Pentagon budget that are already planned in existing law. And if we win the next round -- if we avoid any kind of "grand bargain" one more time -- we will likely win forever, because the Pentagon cuts will be an accomplished fact, and when everyone sees that the Earth is still spinning on its axis, we'll all realize that cutting the Pentagon budget is no big deal. The Pentagon will be smaller, the sun will come up in the morning, and life will go on.

~snip~

Democratic and Republican Members of Congress are talking about a new budget plan. Ostensibly, the purpose of this discussion is to come up with an agreed alternative to cutting the Pentagon budget as required by existing law. But cutting the Pentagon budget is in the interests of the vast majority of Americans who would rather that our tax dollars be used for domestic needs -- including by lowering taxes on working people -- than for foreign wars, foreign military bases, and exotic science fiction weapons systems. Moreover, many Republicans are insisting to cut Social Security benefits with "chained CPI" as a price of a deal; many Democrats are insisting to raise taxes by cutting deductions for charitable contributions and home mortgage interest as a price of a deal. So killing this bargain is in the public interest, three times over. It's win-win-win. The best likely deal for the public interest is no deal, because the "sequester" is better for the public interest than any deal being seriously talked about.

You wouldn't get this impression from mainstream media, because mainstream media pundits are, by and large, cheering for the opposing team. From the point of view of many mainstream media pundits, Washington is "dysfunctional" because Democrats and Republicans can't come together to cut Social Security, raise taxes, and protect the Pentagon budget so we can continue to run around bombing, invading, and occupying other people's countries. Because if there's one thing mainstream media pundits love, it's bombing, invading, and occupying other people's countries. So according to them, it's a "grand bargain" to cut Social Security and raise taxes so that we can keep doing that.

The fact that we don't have anyone in the mainstream media cheering for the team that wants to cut the Pentagon budget instead of cutting Social Security and raising taxes gives many people the impression that something bad is happening -- "Democrats and Republicans can't cooperate" -- when from the point of view of the interests of 99 percent of the population, something good is happening: "Democrats and Republicans won't agree to a deal that harms the public interest in three different ways." Watching this mainstream media coverage from the point of view of the public interest is like being a Cubs fan watching a game with the Cardinals on St. Louis TV. Your team hits a grand slam, and the announcer is sad. But that doesn't mean that you should be sad. You should be dancing in the street. When the U.S. didn't bomb Syria, Washington cried. America celebrated.