2-17-05, 2:36 pm

With Bush propagandizing about the fiscal 'crisis' of Social Security and his critics on the left and right pointing to a bloated $600 billion budget deficit, it is time to look at where all the money went. Clinton’s presidency closed with a $300 billion surplus and rosy dreams about paying down the national debt. (Of course, billions of that surplus were created by cutting or eliminating programs related to welfare.)

So where did all the money go? And why did it go there? As paralysis wore off and people started to question the direction of the administration, the drums of war began to rumble.

The new 'Dunkirk' was suddenly Iraq with WMD that could kill Americans and the friends of Americans within 45 minutes. When the skeptical ne’er-do-wells pointed out that UN inspectors had destroyed most of what Saddam had and that sanctions prevented him from acquiring more, evidence was conjured up, cartoons were drawn, satellite photos were taken, exiles were bribed, and expert testimony was carefully censored.

Meanwhile, No Child Left Behind defunded elementary public education on a massive scale and a new outrageous tax cut for the rich sneaked in the back door, while the rest of us were waving our arms and shouting about fake 'yellow cake' in Niger and Colin Powell’s fabricated report to the UN.

Presto. War. Two years and $210 billion later, we are asking, what happened to all that money? (Never mind the very basic question of why we ended up in a war when the reasons for it were unfounded. Remember that all of the Bush administration’s reasons for war were shown to be false before the war, and since then, the collapse of Hussien’s regime revealed no WMD and no real connections to Al-Qaeda.)

Bush’s 2006 budget provides some answers to our nagging question. It is both an ideological statement and an agenda. The first noticeable element of the budget is that while Bush proposes to cut or eliminate 150 programs, the Pentagon gets a 4.8 percent boost – not counting the money for the war and related expenses. According to the Labor Research Association (LRA), 'The 2006 budget represents a 41 percent increase in military spending since 2001.'

But this is needed to fight terrorism, say Bush’s supporters. Never mind the fact that the 'terror threat level' has been ignored since the election.

People in the world are out to get us and they don’t like our freedom, they retort. A quick comparison, according to LRA, shows that the second largest military spender is China, at approximately $51.0 billion a year, followed by Russia at $50.8 billion, Japan at $41.4 billion and the United Kingdom at $41.3 billion. Iran and North Korea – key states in the 'Axis of Evil' – spend a whopping $5 billion each.

Imagine if public education spending had been increased by 41 percent. Poverty programs? Unemployment and job creation programs? Shoring up Social Security?

According to the National Priorities Project, almost 2.7 million public school teachers could have been hired with the same money so far spent on Bush’s Iraqi 'Dunkirk.' Almost 1.4 million public housing units could have been built. Over 92 million children could have been provided health insurance.

By the end of 2006, $210 billion will have been spent on the war in Iraq. With a $600 billion deficit, where does that money come from? What do you do when you are at the 'Dunkirk' of having to buy groceries for the week or taking your kid to the dentist for a chipped tooth that isn’t covered by your flimsy insurance? You break out the Visa.

Our government has the very nasty habit of breaking out the Visa, not for kids health care, as I noted above, but for extra fighter-bombers, star wars missile defense systems that don’t work, artillery models that are obsolete, wars that aren’t necessary, and so on.

All of this extra deficit spending is coming directly out of the Social Security Trust Fund. Each year, workers pay more into the system than retirees take out. Instead of holding onto that money and keeping Social Security secure, George W. Bush is flashing the cash to every military contractors' lobbyist that slinks into the Oval Office.

And he’s giving it away overseas, too. As long as you’re not a tsunami victim, AIDS victim, or a resident of Darfur. But if you live in Poland where they’re thinking about pulling out of Iraq (remember Bush’s election debate boast that Poland was a great ally?), a 50 percent increase in military assistance might convince you to stick with Bush’s program. Or if you live in Ukraine, $105 million might go along way to not only helping to elect the guy Bush liked better, but getting your new government on the neo-con track.

Our 'Dunkirk' is now. Bush and privatization are on one side and the economic hardship are on the other. Either we hand over the funds needed to protect Social Security to Bush’s corporate backers and for a war we didn’t want, or we fight back. Sign petitions to stop Bush’s plan at the AFL-CIO website and the MoveOn.org website. Get your congressional representatives to pledge to protect Social Security from Bush's privatization plan here.

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