The United Warfare/Welfare States Of America
September 26, 2011 by Bob Livingston
America is a warfare/welfare state.
In fiscal year 2010, the Federal government spent $3.5 trillion. Warfare and welfare made up the vast bulk of the spending.
About 20 percent of that $3.5 trillion — $705 billion — went to defense and “security-related” international activities. That’s governmentspeak for nation-destroying/woman- and-child-killing-bombing/nation-building/installing-dictators-friendly-to-the-U.S.-and-paying-them-to-oppress-their-people-in-the-phony-war-on-terror activities. Out of that $705 billion, about $170 billion financed the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq (see above).
(As an aside: The war in Iraq has been going on for 21 years, the war in Afghanistan for almost 10. Perpetual war is the norm.)
Social Security received another 20 percent of the spending pie. About $707 billion went for retirement benefits for 34.6 million workers and 19.5 million spouses and children of retired workers, surviving children and spouses of deceased workers and disabled workers and their dependents.
Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) consumed about 21 percent of the budget, or $732 billion.
Another 14 percent — $496 billion — went to other safety-net programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), food stamps, school meals, low-income housing assistance, child care assistance and other social programs.
This means that 75 percent of the total United States budget goes to making war or paying people to do nothing. Of course, in theory, the Social Security Trust Fund is supposed to consist of money the government confiscated from workers and set aside on their behalf. But Congressional thieves long ago looted the fund, making it the Ponzi scheme that Governor Rick Perry was reviled for characterizing it as a few weeks ago.
As Perry learned, however, you’re not supposed to mention the obvious. The sacred principals of Ingsoc apply: newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, Social Security is flush with cash, we’re from the government and we’re here to help you, the not-war in Libya will be over in days not weeks, the Federal Reserve is not printing money.
In Washington, the word “cuts” also falls under the category doublespeak. Cuts are not cuts in the sense that regular people understand cuts. Cuts in Washington are actually no more than a reduction in growth. If something that would normally see an annual increase of — say — 10 percent gets reduced to an increase of 8 percent, the politicians cry gloom and doom at the prospect of a massive “cut” in spending.
But why would we expect the elites to cut off their largesse? After all, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan so deftly affirmed a point I have made before: There is no chance of default when we can just print more money.
When George W. Bush entered the White House in January 2001, the Federal government had expenditures of $1.79 trillion and revenues of more than $2.03 trillion. Now, we are told that 2011 projected revenues of $2.28 trillion are not enough to fund a functioning government, even though that was more than enough 10 years ago.
The warfare/welfare state grows out of control. President Barack Obama plays the class warfare game to gin up support for stealing more from the middle class under the guise of “making the rich pay their fair share.” But no one in Washington and none of those trolling for your votes in the GOP beauty contest are proposing cutting anything from the bulk of the Federal spending (except, of course, Representative Ron Paul, whom the mainstream media and Republican Party apparatchik continue to label as a kook in an attempt to marginalize him and force him from the race).
The liberal website Alternet published an excellent exposé on why the elected elites oppose cuts in warfare spending. It demonstrates why they so fear Ron Paul.
If you are pinning your hopes on the Congressional “supercommittee” to cut the budget in any meaningful way, you are delusional at best. The entire supercomittee has been bought and paid for by the military-industrial complex. Committee member Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) put any notion of military cuts to rest right out of the gate when, at a recent forum sponsored by conservative think tanks, he said, “When we had our first meeting the chairman asked, ‘Well what do we think about defense spending (cuts)?’ and I said, ‘I’m off the committee if we’re gonna talk about further defense spending.’” And Kyl gets less from the military-industrial complex than most others on the supercommittee.
Of course, any talk of cutting “entitlement” — welfare — spending is met with instant derision from all sides. Government has created a dependency class that keeps the elites in power. And its policies — combined with those of the Federal Reserve — have grown the class of those who now see no hope beyond becoming part of the dependency class.
We have a “lost generation,” according to a report by The Associated Press. Young adults entering the job market during this prolonged economic disaster are finding few job prospects but are saddled with enormous college loan debt and no way out. Their career choices are mostly limited to tending bar, waiting tables and finding odd jobs. If the slump ever ends — and it’s not likely as long as the government continues to make bad choices (see Japan) — they will be older but will have no experience in their chosen field and will be competing for jobs with new college graduates. It’s a bleak outlook for them.
Meanwhile, Helicopter Ben Bernanke continues to stoke the fires of hyperinflation with his ridiculous money-printing policies. Printing money steals the wealth of society’s producers to the benefit of the elites. It’s a hidden tax. It finds the cash you’ve stored under your mattress or in your savings account and plunders it. Few people understand this.
The elites and the MSM say QE2 and “twists” and stimulus and bailouts are the only way to end the economic disaster. Most of the mindless government-school non-educated zombies walking the streets today accept such drivel without question, bang, banging their heads against the wall in a never-ending quest for something different from what’s always been the same.
“American Idol” and “Dancing With The Stars” are what is important to them. Give them Monday Night Football and beer and chips. No more silly, boring talk of economics, the Federal Reserve, legislative bills.
Welcome to life in the warfare/welfare state. It cannot sustain itself forever. The collapse will be ugly, but it is inevitable.
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