So I'm listening to the car radio and the news was reviewing the $289 billion Farm Bill that just passed the House by a 3 to 1 margin. A spokesperson for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition described the bill as a mixed bag, but better than current law. She described new incentives for biofuels, land conservation, and organic farming as reasons to see this bill as progress from the status quo. And then she mentioned that the Bill adds $10 billion over ten years for nutrition programs.
And then that unfathomable number of 12 billion a month popped into my head.
$12 billion dollars a month. That pays for a month in Iraq to damage our standing around the world and continue to breed deep resentment in Iraq and the Middle East. We pay that insane amount every month to damage and destroy American and Iraqi lives. The increase in the huge Farm Bill's nutrition programs for the next ten years would not pay for a month in Iraq. How's that for priorities? How are we doing feeding our own people?
Here's another number: 1000 attempted suicides a month That's the number the VA's head of Mental Health Ira Katz disclosed to a VA media advisor in an email that begins "Shh!"
There you have it. We have Iraq War veterans shamefully underserved for their mental health needs. We have an increase in nutrition programs that amounts to less in ten years than what it costs to fund the Iraq War/Occupation for one month. And the whole of this five year bill, $289 billion dollars, the amount the House has allocated for the most primary essentials of living, food and farming, would only cover two years of a continued Iraq War/Occupation.
But don't worry, W has threatened to veto the bill, even though it passed 3 to 1. Seems he has with his super MBA spreadsheet reading skill has found 10 billion in hidden costs he doesnt like. So someone is looking after the fiscal welfare of the American people after all.
We need a massive restructuring of priorities in Washington. I dare to dream that a President Obama and two strongly Democratic Houses of Congress can begin to that, but we are talking decades people, decades.