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Friday, October 20, 2023

Biden: War, War, And More War

Apparently the moth-eaten puppet in the White House gave a televised talk last night in order to get Americans excited about yet another round of foreign wars and entanglements. I didn't watch it, but I read the transcript. Although he threw a sop to the radical Left by reiterating the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and praised his getting Israel to agree to minimize civilian deaths and allow in humanitarian aid, the majority of his talk had to do with how horrible and barbaric are Hamas and Putin, and that we must act to stop them now before they unleash further evil on the world. He also appeals to the responsibility of empire:

American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with. To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, if we turn our backs on Israel, it's just not worth it.

Especially rich was this line, coming from an Administration that considers MAGA Republicans, school parents, gun owners, and traditional Catholics to be terrorists: "We must renounce violence and vitriol, see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans." But we know that message wasn't directed at "deplorables" but at the factions within the Left, attempting to heal the rift over the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. 

    His proposal--at least right now--is to send Israel and Ukraine a crap-ton more money and munitions. He has promised no American troops will be fighting in Ukraine (he does not make the same promise as to Israel). He also promises that the U.S. will be sending its older stockpiles of weapons to Ukraine and use the money allocated to that conflict to purchase new stock to replenish the U.S. inventories (he does not make a similar promise as to Israel). 

    How much money is he talking about? $100 billion. Our national debt is $33 trillionthe federal deficit for this past fiscal year is $2 trillion, and the federal government spent $711 billion on interest payments for the national debt in fiscal year 2023, so what's another $100 billion! 

    But being true to his roots as a Congress-critter, the request isn't even for these two wars: "Biden's funding request - reportedly $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, along with $10 billion for humanitarian aid, $14 billion for border security and $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific, according to Reuters...." So, $60 billion for Ukraine (on top of the $75 billion we've already spent helping Ukraine), $14 billion for Israel (on top of $3 billion we have already given them and whatever the cost is of deploying U.S. ships and troops to assist Israel) and $10 billion for Hamas? $14 billion to assist more illegals to get into the country. And $7 billion for something on the other side of the world.

    By way of comparison, "[i]n January [2022], Biden announced his administration would distribute $27 billion over the next five years to fix or rebuild thousands of the nation’s bridges. The current estimate to repair all bridges in the U.S. is $125 billion, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers." So for the cost of the Ukraine war alone (including Biden's most recent request) we could have had all bridges in the country repaired and had $10 billion left over.

    Why does Biden care more about Ukrainians than Americans?

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