“What Are Our Priorities?”

In principle, I agree with the logic that says that when one must spend money that you don’t have, you must make some cuts in other areas. This is the logic put forth by conservatives on both sides of the aisle in Congress right now.

It is the logic that also dominates too many households in this country today. Unfortunately, for many of these households, the need to pay rent or food means that other items such as medicine are cut. Congress has taken the unexplainable logic of saying that when we must spend extra, say to keep our promises to the people of Joplin to rebuild their city, then we must take the money from some other area, such as any number of social spending areas or loan guarantees for electric cars. By the way, did you notice that some of the disaster relief money that is being held up by this fight about where to cut other spending is money that is going to Ohio? Want to bet that money will somehow appear while other states with more sensible representatives will lose their money?

I have yet to hear anyone from Congress, Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, say that perhaps we should cut the funding for the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. Maybe if we cut some of the money from the 2^nd biggest bureaucracy in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security, we might find that little bit of extra money.

And why is that every time that there is even a suggestion that the rich pay a fair share of their income, there is a cry that it is class warfare. You know what class warfare is? It is going to church in a second-hand suit that someone was kind enough to donate to you while other men in the same church are wearing $2000 suits and the women have diamond rings that reflect so much light that you have to wear your sunglasses to avoid the glare. And then while they make you feel uncomfortable about your clothes (believe, no words were ever spoken but the looks made it clear how they felt), they vote to spend close to a million dollars on a television program because the other big church in town just increased its television budget. The money that those two churches spent could have easily helped resolved other issues, such as hunger, health care, and homeless.

But I guess when your priorities are television ratings or the need to fight another war to prove that you are the biggest and the baddest, I guess it is alright to spend the money that way instead of helping people. What was it that Marie Antoinette said, “let them eat cake”?

Of course, from the viewpoint of those who would prefer that those of us who have to work (or try to work for a living), there is the old Wizard of Id carton in which the people cry, “The peasants are revolting!” And the king replies, “You can say that again.”

As long as we are going to spend money on war and violence, as long as those who have the means refuse to share, our priorities are all wrong. Class warfare will be the least of their worries.

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