Until we stop over-spending and under-earning the debt ceiling will increase.  Money is going to have to be shuffled around.  But I can’t believe the talk about using Social Security money to make ends meet.

On Friday, Dennis Kucinich had this to say to the House of Representatives:

The huffing and puffing over the debt crisis is reminiscent of Washington’s tumult over the Wall Street bailout:

Panic the public with claims that the sky is falling! Then start to drop things from the sky: in this case, threats that Social Security checks will not be set out.

We must avoid default, but Social Security didn’t cause the debt crisis. Social Security had nothing to do with the debt crisis. Withholding Social Security checks or cutting Social Security benefits would represent a default to the American people and an abandonment of the principles of economic justice that created Social Security.

The White House wants a ‘Big Deal.’ A $4 trillion debt deal. But that deal must not come from cuts to Social Security or Medicare.

Millions of senior citizens, who in their lifetime built this country, who fought for this country, who depend on these Social Security checks as an economic lifeline want to see if their concerns are a big deal to us.

I realize I’m wading in unfamiliar waters here.  I don’t know too much about our federal budget or our political process.  But I’m going to trust that Dennis Kucinich knows what he’s talking about.  His words resonate with that I’ve been reading.  I think we need to bring our outsourced jobs back to America, slow down our runaway consumerism and deflate the military budget.

I vote to bring our troops home to grow food.  I want to see legislation rein in the for-profit corporations hiding behind corporate personhood.  And I think we need laws requiring manufacturers pay the real price for the natural resources they use to make junk we don’t need.

Our culture is all topsy turvy, our values are skewed in favor of individual freedom at the cost of the greater good.  As James Howard Kunstler puts it:

Americans historically have a low regard for the public realm, and this is a very unfortunate thing, because the public realm is the physical manifestation of the common good. And when you degrade the public realm, as we have, then you degrade the common good. This is what lies behind a whole range of social problems, from crime to municipal bankruptcy. Our disregard for the public realm has especially impaired our ability to think about public life, or civic life, let alone civic art. We built a nation of scary places and became a nation of scary people.

In my mind, it really is simple.  We prioritize our spending based on quality of life, keeping in mind the common good.  We as a country, have a choice.  We can continue the same short sighted spiral into bankruptcy or we can begin making mature choices for a civilized and sustainable future.

Our neighbor’s yards are abloom with daffodils  and the mocking birds start yodeling at dawn.  Bob is starting tomatoes and peppers under lights in the back bedroom and has planted carrots and peas in the garden, with onions and potatoes going in next week. I’m having a high time pruning back the pampas grass and washing windows.  Our CSA boxes are overflowing with arugula, carrots, turnips, spinach, chard and lettuce.

Ironically, yesterday was also the seventh anniversary of the day the United States invaded Iraq.

During the past seven years our country has spent about $700 billion dollars in Iraq destroying infrastructure and killing people.  In addition to wounding hundreds of thousands of people, we name among the dead over 4,000 American soldiers, 9,000 Iraqi soldiers and an estimated 100,000 civilians.  And that’s just in Iraq.

Nearly 100,000 American troops remain on the ground in Iraq, with another 68,000 in Afghanistan.  And President Obama is sending another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan this spring in hopes of winning the war there.  A war that has raged for over 8 years, killed over 7,000, wounded more than 11,000 and cost $740, billion.  A war that is logistically un-winnable.

At least one person in Congress is actively pushing to put an end to these wars.  Congressman Dennis Kucinch believes we need to replace the Department of War with a Department of Peace.  Kucinch recently pointed out that according to our Constitution, Congress, not the president, should be deciding when we go to war and when we stop.  He is at the front of an effort to encourage Congress to vote on whether to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.  He also points out that squandering tax dollars on the war in Afghanistan is something we cannot afford to do.

Afghanistan Debate Begins in U.S. House Early This Afternoon – March 10, 2010

“And it should also be of interest to people that we can’t afford this war. When you consider the fact that you have 47 million Americans who don’t have any health care, they don’t have it because they can’t afford the premiums. You have 15 million Americans out of work. You have another 10 million Americans, at least, who could be losing their homes this year due to foreclosure. You would think that we have other priorities. You would think that it would be time for us to focus on things here at home.” – Dennis Kucinich

With so many reasons for us to bring our soldiers home, it seems like a no-brainer.  That is, until we consider the real reason why we’ve continually been at war since 1945.

After World War II, it was decided that we needed to create an industry dedicated to manufacturing armaments and machines for defense and the Military Industrial Complex was born.

In his farewell speech to the nation, January 17, 1961, president Eisenhower described the transformation and cautioned the American public that abuse of the new system was a possibility.  In other words, we might simply keep ourselves at war in order to keep the industry alive.

“Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.”

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.” – Dwight D Eisenhower

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

What Eisenhower warned could happen came to pass.  The U.S. now has a complex which keeps our defense budget in the hundreds of billions compared to other countries with budgets in the billions or at most, fifty billion.  In fact, if you look at the defense budgets of all other countries and sort them by amount, it takes the top twenty countries budgets to add up ours.

The military-industrial complex, on an annual basis, accounts for 47% of the world’s total arms expenditures.  We not only fuel our own wars, we provision the rest of the world for wars and conflicts of their own.

It’s been a long winter of destruction indeed, and many of us are itching to see it end.  I’d like to see the makers of swords get busy making plowshares.  I’m ready for spring and I’m ready for peace.

“The hotly-debated HR3200, the so-called “health care reform” bill, is nothing less than corporate welfare in the guise of social welfare and reform.” stated Dennis Kucinich yesterday in Health Care Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Writing the words “affordable” and “choices” into the title of a bill that offers neither is yet another wonderful example of our government’s desire to hoodwink its consumer/citizens into believing they have our best interests in mind.  HR 3200’s title is right up there with terms like “freedom fighters” and the “war on terror.”

What I would like to see regarding health care reform is the passage of HR 676, the  United States National Health Care Act or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.  HR 676 would bring us up to speed with the rest of the industrialized nations regarding truly affordable health care.

We need health care, not health insurance.  Health insurance is a multi billion dollar industry which minds its bottom line by denying claims so they can pay their executives millions of dollars a year.

HR 3200 promises more of the same for-profit doublespeak while inflating the cost of medical care in this country to more than 18% of the GDP at more than $2 trillion per year.  HR 676 eliminates the doublespeak with a single-payer plan available to everyone regardless of pre-existing conditions or ability to pay exhorbitant premiums.

Bob and I were very impressed with Dennis when we campaigned for him on Maui in October of 2003 and have championed him ever since. We found him articulate, warm and extremely well-read. Most importantly, he is passionate about the issues at the top of our list, namely stopping the war, healthcare, the take-over of our economy by global corporations and a skyrocketing national debt.

Dennis Kucinich is a politician who does not flip flop. As a result, he is considered unelectable and is generally overlooked by the press and dismissed by the taxpayers he champions. Read more about this courageous man on Wikipedia.

Here is a sample highlight from his rousing speech:

Wake up America, the insurance companies took over health care.

Wake up America, the pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up America, the speculators took over Wall Street.

Wake up America, they want to take your Social Security.

Wake up America, multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

We get very excited when someone gets up and says what needs to be said. I hope America is listening!

All American troops have been withdrawn from Iraq
The Defense Department has been replaced by a Department of Peace
A single payer system provides everyone with health care
College education is free for every citizen
A minimum 40 mpg has been set for all new passenger cars
The passenger rail system is being rebuilt

Other signs of progress:
The human population is down to five billion and is steadily dropping
Only 5 million children (down from nearly 10 million in 2006) died last year from preventable causes, due to a steadily increasing adoption rate
Air travel has decreased by 30%
There is a huge resurgence in Victory Gardens or Community Gardens
The average food item travels only 800 miles, down from 1500
Worldwide meat production dropped another 5% last year
25% of all new homes have built in composting toilets, water catchments, grey water recycling, solar panels, passive solar and wind power
Traditional Main Street towns are making a come back
Big Box Stores are showing a 20% decline in sales
Farmers Markets are on the increase
Locally owned businesses are booming
And so on…

Ahhhhh – one can dream, can’t they?