I know Obama has pledged that it will be paid for, and bills in consideration actually do pay for it, but how much does this trillion dollar spending amount to, that scary scary figure that, to use digby's formulation, is giving everyone in the Village the vapors?
First of all, they don’t always say it’s a trillion dollars over ten years, do they, the liars. That makes a bit of difference, doesn’t it. That’s 100 billion for ten years. After ten years of a good health care bill with a public option, and insurance companies kept under control, who knows what the playing field will look like in terms of costs. I can tell you that neither the CBO, nor anyone else, can reliably model the world in another ten years, let alone the b.s. 75 year horizons that the idiots use to scare us when talking about Social Security and Medicare.
So what’s a trillion dollars, $100 billion for ten years?
"Since 2001, changes in tax law have cost the federal government $929 billion, including $860 billion in direct cost and $69 billion in interest." Oh wait, this article was from October, 2005! And where did all that money go? Into a booming economy? Or, more likely, houses on Martha’s Vineyard? It’s gone. Instead of being used to fund a health care system for all Americans, it’s just gone, hoarded or squandered, who knows. Have we heard much complaint? Nope.
Yeah, you knew this was next: "If Congress approves a request for another $87 billion, the Iraq war will have cost about $694 billion." Not including the remaining indeterminate costs, the lifetime medical care of the wounded. Do I hear the media wringing their hands over the cost (let alone the human cost)? No of course not, let’s move on. Throw in Afghanistan and we arrive at $915 billion. So far. Well, at least Afghanistan is important, you say. Sure, but so is health care here at home. The point is, we can do it if we want to. But do we want to?
We all kind of know this, but it’s a shock to see in black and white (from globalsecurity.org)
World Wide Military Expenditures
Country Military spending (billions) Budget Period
World $1100 2004 est.
World w/o U.S. $500 2004 est.
United States $623 FY08 budget
China $65.0 2004
Russia $50.0
France 45.0 2005
So, do we really need to spend even more than the rest of the world, combined, on defense? Sure, we do things (spy satellites, nuclear submarines, nuclear weapons, CIA, smart bombs, etc) that no one else does, and in many cases, I’m glad we do them, but would, say, $100 billion less per year demonstrably make us less safe? Is it better to pour that last $100 billion into the budget or to help millions of Americans in need? Go ahead and get any Democrat to say that.
So what’s $1 trillion over ten years? Not a lot to the media and politicians, when it’s lining their pockets, paying for their campaigns, bailing out their stock portfolios, teaching the Muslims a lesson,paying off their friends on Wall Street, the defense industry, or the insurance companies. When it comes to helping 40 million Americans though, sorry, it’s too much and too scary.