Paying For The War

Well, our esteemed leader has come out with a new budget. Cutting programs and funding he said were essential last week in his State of the Union Address.

He wants to make tax cuts permanent for those who make more in a year than most of us will in 10. He wants to cut funding in the education 1/3 of the targted programs are in education). Raise military spending so his administration can focus the nation’s resources on our highest priority — protecting our citizens and our homeland.

He also wants to cut social security benefits. Didn't he learn from last year? Most importantly he wants to take a way the widow/er benefit of $225, for those who lost a spouse in war. Because "eliminating it is not going to cause an appreciable financial hardship to a survivor." Even though, that $225 will help pay for a burial plot, or headstone, or vault. It is an amount that has not been raised since 1951.

Also, here is the real zinger...wounded soldiers are getting billed for missing or damaged body armor. 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV got a bill for $700 for body armor that got cut off him after being blown up by and IED. He was preparing for discharge when approached for the missing armor, and has been threatened with extended service time, if he does not pay.

You gotta love it. There are those who are for this war, but do not want to sacrifice a hair on their head to help it. And there are those of us who are against the war willing to pay higher taxes if it means getting our folks out of harms way sooner and safer. If it means educating the kids, so that our safety as a nation will be protected, by intellectually curious people. There are those who are for the war, but want cuts made in domestic spending to pay for the war. And there are those of us who cry when we find out the assistance guaranteed the soldiers widows/ers is being taken from them.