Left I on the News

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the $1 trillion cost of a proposed health care bill. How are we going to pay for it? What about the increase in the deficit it will cause?

But don't forget to read the fine print. That $1 trillion? It's over a ten-year period. You know what costs $1 trillion every year? The "defense" budget that not only is doing nothing to "keep us safe" but in fact is doing precisely the opposite, not just for Americans but even more so (much more so) for people in targeted countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and more.

Was there a discussion of "how are we going to pay for it" when the U.S. government decided to invade Afghanistan or Iraq? Was there a discussion of "how are we going to pay for it" when President Obama decided to escalate the war in Afghanistan or start a new war in Pakistan? Not a peep. Not once was the subject of money raised in advance of those actions. But health care, something where $1 trillion dollars will save the lives of far more people than would likely be lost in any hypothetical attack on the U.S., and would do so every single year? There, suddenly, the "how are we going to pay for it" question is first and foremost.

Funny thing about that.