Morsels from today’s news feeds…
Peter Rothberg of The Nation had this piece up today:
I try to never write off press releases but I got a fax that shocked me this morning. A new report from the National Priorities Project shows that almost 40 cents of every tax dollar that will be paid this year will be spent on past and present military projects!
I knew government spending was out of whack but not this dramatically. This allocation is in contrast to the three-quarters of one penny per dollar spent on diplomacy, economic development assistance and locking down loose nuclear materials and the hundredth of a penny spent on renewable energy and conservation! What spending areas come after the military? Healthcare at twenty-one cents on the dollar and interest on the US debt at nineteen cents per dollar–another proud legacy of the Bush agenda.
At least we’re still paying more for health care than for debt interest. *wry look* But this is a good reply to those chowder-headed Republicans who try
to argue that it’s not that bad to have a federal deficit, or even that it’s “healthy” or “promotes growth” somehow. Bullocks. It’s like driving around with a leak in your fuel line. It costs you vast amounts of money for nothing, and eventually you’ll be out of gas and stranded in the middle of nowhere.
The Nation Online also reports today:
[F]ederally-funded abstinence groups have pooled together their resources and created the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA). And they’ve hired Creative Response Concepts (CRC), the pitbulls behind the “Swift Boat Veterans” ads, as their PR flacks. NAEA promises “proactive ‘rapid response'” to “negative attacks” on abstinence education, a campaign to “promote positive national media exposure” and the mobilization of “local abstinence organizations” in “key congressional districts.”
What does this all mean? Well, if CRC’s track record is any indication, expect vicious, targeted campaigns against vulnerable Democrats and moderate Republicans who vote to cap or eliminate funding for abstinence-only programs. Expect bogus op-eds questioning the integrity of groups like the Institute of Medicine and the American Medical Association, both of whom support comprehensive sex education. And expect media campaigns touting the values of abstinence-only education and offering up the abstinence lobby’s manipulated data.
And yes, as Swenson points out, all of this will be paid for, at least in part, by your tax-payer dollars.