When Budgets Don't Matter

Trey Smith

Here in the US, we are facing a slew of crises.

Our vaunted education system is a shadow of its former self, but we can't do anything about it now because of the massive federal budget deficit.

Unemployment -- whether you go with the government's watered down figures or the more accurate ones -- has decimated communities because less people are paying taxes or spending money they don't have to pump up local economies. It is a serious problem, but we can't do anything about it now because of the massive federal budget deficit.

We are speeding towards a head-on collision with climate catastrophe, and though some recognize the peril our society may soon face, we can't do anything about it now because of the massive federal budget deficit.

Our infrastructure is crumbling beneath our feet. Our roads are strewn with potholes. Tens of thousands of bridges need upgrades. The list goes on and on. We need to get to work on it post haste, but we can't do anything about it now because of the massive federal budget deficit.

Everywhere we look, no matter the immediacy of the crisis, we are told again and again that we can't do anything about it now because of the massive federal budget deficit...except when it comes to the expansion of the national police state! Then, as Andrew Levine surmises, budget deficits don't matter.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of militarized police arrayed against a lone wounded kid who, it turns out, was bleeding almost to death under a tarp covering a boat in someone’s driveway?

Austerity got left behind. Millions for the illusion of “homeland security,” not one penny for anything that actually makes people better off!

Of course, there is one other area in which it doesn't matter either -- the prosecution of imperialistic war. In those two areas, the sky's the limit. Everywhere else? Thwarted by the federal budget deficit.