No, you can't have more. We need the money for bombs.
Too bad, hungry kids. This country, according to the GOP, can't afford to give you any more food stamps than your monthly allotment. Keep hoping that your food pantry hasn't run out.
So sad, long term unemployed. Once time runs out, your checks stop coming. Congressional Republicans don't care if there are no jobs, this country can't afford to send more checks. Tighten that belt some more and pray for a job before you and your family lose your home or starve.
No money for roads, bridges, highways, rural broadband, or an electrical grid that doesn't go down in a brisk wind. Can't afford it.
Too bad, vets. Thanks for your service, but your application for disability or need for health care has to wait. You know, we can't afford it.
I could go on, but this would get too long.
Those are the messages that people have been getting for decades, yet when it comes to war, surveillance, special interests, or the Pentagon, there's always PLENTY of money.
Bomb, bomb, bomb and bomb some more. Plenty of funding for tanks, warships, military equipment, and anything else the Pentagon desires.
Don't worry, military contractors. If you deliberately underbid a contract, we won't really mind your cost overruns. Piles of money are available to pay whatever you end up charging - even for shoddy work or goods. Better yet, nobody goes to jail!
Wall Street and the Banks? No problem. Even when you crash the economy, you have no worries. Plenty for you! Those bonuses are going to keep on coming and the few regulations we'll put in place won't hurt you much. You'll pay a little of the piles of money you have from looting the country, just for show, you know, and nobody goes to jail.
Polluters? No worries! We might charge you small fines, just for show, but you've been gouging America for a century. We'll pay for most of the cleanup, after all. Plenty for that and if there isn't, we'll just ignore it.
I haven't heard even one of the Purveyors of Austerity make a sound about the cost of starting yet another war (which will last another decade) against a group that poses literally no threat to "the homeland".
And then we have Congressional Republicans who spent a few days "working" (no, not really) and decided to take 6 weeks MORE vacation - which they've spent calling people "lazy moochers" If they want to see a lazy person mooching on the tax dollar, I suggest they look in a mirror.
THIS is why we can't have nice things anymore. Outside of our failure to tax the rich and corporate, we need better priorities for where we spend our money.
This space reserved for the tears of the poor, sick and hungry; of the people who can't afford college or can't repay their loans; of the vets we promised to care for when they returned from service; of the outraged working for fairness and justice in this country.
10:20 PM PT: Please note: This diary is not about our current war, but about the hypocrisy of how we are continually told we have "no money" for social programs.
We're spending a million dollars on each missile we fire. Imagine how much that money could help people who are poor, sick, hungry, homeless, unemployed, or otherwise in need. Yet, the same Republicans that vote against extending Unemployment Comp or for food stamps cuts have no problem spending tens of billions for war.
Yes, there are plenty of pro-war Democrats, but none that simultaneously gut social programs or impost austerity in non-military or defense areas.
The whole point of writing this is pointing that hypocrisy out.