POLITICS
Spending the Peace Dividend
By Stump Connolly
I think the forces mustering for a pullout of troops in Iraq have got it wrong. Instead of focusing on the monumental blunders and incompetence in pursuing this war, we should find a way to put this sorry episode in our past. Instead of bemoaning the $135 billion a year – roughly $390,000 per soldier – it is costing the United States to maintain the occupation, we should praise Congress’s willingness to spend what it takes to make America a great nation.
In short, we should declare victory and bring the boys home. Then we can focus on how that $135 billion can be better spent on programs that make the country stronger.
If the immediate problem is finding the necessary Republican votes to support the troop withdrawal, let me point out that $135 billion allows plenty of headroom for Congressional horse-trading:
* It is ten times the earmarked pork barrel programs Congress approved last year;
* Seven times the federal subsidies Congress gives annually to corn, soybean, cotton, rice and wheat farmers, most of which goes to large agri-business concerns: and
* Five times the tax breaks big oil companies receive for offshore oil drilling exploration.
There’s no end of ways Congress can misappropriate the peace dividend that would come out of withdrawing from Iraq. But there are also some unique opportunities.
Let’s start with health care. All of the democratic candidates for President have presented plans to extend health care to the 45 million uninsured Americans and reduce health insurance costs for others who pay through company plans. The most extreme, Dennis Kucinich’s universal health care plan (endorsed by Michael Moore) is a radical restructuring of the system into national health system that depends on costs controls and new payroll taxes that would consume the entire $135 billion, and then some. But more modest reforms, like those proposed by Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards, require only $65 to $90 billion.
That still leaves enough surplus from the Iraq peace dividend to:
* Fully fund No Child Left Behind educational programs ($ 9.5 billion);
* Triple President Bush’s budget for exploring alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power, clean coal, ethanol, hydrogen and hybrid cars ($ 2.5 billion);
* Increase spending for homeland security by 20% -- more than twice Bush’s proposed increase ($9 billion); and
* Double Pell grants to low income college students ($14 billion).
If your inclination is not to spend money but to pass along the savings to taxpayers, Congress could still pass Edwards’ health care plan and extend all the Bush tax cuts ($30 billion a year) for what it costs every year to maintain our troops in Iraq.
The war in Iraq has become a drain not only on the lives and resources of our military, but our national will. As long as we are mired in the Iraq debate, it is difficult to contemplate the bold steps that can be taken in other areas to restore American pride and initiative. So let’s stop looking at Iraq as a war we are losing. Let’s consider it $135 billion – and 160,000 men and women – that can be brought back to start rebuilding the country we care about most – our own.
Money is a crude barometer to apply to foreign policy issues that have global impact. But $135 billion is not an insignificant chunk of change, especially when you look at how little good has come from this war.
Where can that money be better spent next year? Saving face in Iraq or saving America at home?
