A Dog Whistle

Ordinarily, I think of myself as a card-carrying liberal. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that Liberal America had a meeting to decide on our current priorities and peace advocates weren't invited. I open my email and it's full of rallying cries about the urgency of taxing the rich. When was it decided that taxing the rich was the marquee demand of Liberal America at this juncture? Were peace advocates invited to this meeting? I see no evidence that we were.

In a different political juncture, I would be happy to march behind the banner of taxing the rich. But at this political juncture, when the war budget is half of federal discretionary spending, and when because of the Budget Control Act and the Supercommittee, we have a historic opportunity to cut the war budget - a much better prospect, at present, than our prospects for raising tax rates on rich people - I ain't marching for this dog whistle anymore.
~ from Why Tax the Rich to Pay for More War? by Robert Naiman ~

Naiman makes a good point...sort of. While I certainly agree that a call to end our various wars is a good one, the efforts to tax the wealthy in a more equitable manner goes beyond current defense spending.

For one thing, we need to consider all the defense and homeland security expenses we've already paid for with BORROWED money. The principle and interest needs to be paid back and it makes sense that the class that supported these expenditures to the hilt should pony up a good deal of the money. We could shutdown the entire military-industrial complex tomorrow and yet this would have no impact on all the money we owe.

Taxing the wealthy at an appropriate rate would also help to rebuild our nation's crumbling infrastructure. We haven't been keeping up with regular maintenance because the money we could have spent went, instead, back into the pockets of the uber-rich.

And, while I would love to see our troops brought home from all over the globe, this will not happen because the "War on Terror" is good for business for many of America's wealthiest corporations. Since they control our government, they certainly aren't going to kick the gift horse in the mouth!! So, since they want continued mega spending on defense, the least we can do is make them pay for a far greater share.

If they come to perceive the cost as being too high, they will be the ones to order the withdrawal!