the War is Making You Poor Act

[audrey_girl]

fyi:

[shiny!]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

For those with slow connections who can't do Flash, could you please give a little summary?

[Rajiv]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

For those with slow connections who can't do Flash, could you please give a little summary?

The War Is Making You Poor Act

Next week, there is going to be a "debate" in Congress on yet another war funding bill. The bill is supposed to pass without debate, so no one will notice.

What George Orwell wrote about in 1984 has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the "military-industrial complex" has come true. War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.

But we're going to change this. Today, we're introducing a bill called 'The War Is Making You Poor Act'. The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars.

Next year's budget allocates $159,000,000,000 to perpetuate the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That's enough money to eliminate federal income taxes for the first $35,000 of every American's income. Beyond that, leaves over $15 billion to cut the deficit.

And that's what this bill does. It eliminates separate funding for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminates federal income taxes for everyone's first $35,000 of income ($70,000 for couples). Plus it pays down the national debt.

The costs of the war have been rendered invisible. There's no draft. Instead, we take the most vulnerable elements of our population, and give them a choice between unemployment and missile fodder. Government deficits conceal the need to pay in cash for the war.

We put the cost of both guns and butter on our Chinese credit card. In fact, we don't even put these wars on budget; they are still passed using 'emergency supplemental'. A nine-year 'emergency'.

Let's show Congress the cost of these wars is too much for us.

Tell Congress that you like 'The War Is Making You Poor Act'. No, tell Congress you love it. Act now.

http://www.TheWarIsMakingYouPoor.com

All we are saying is "give peace a chance." We will end these wars.

Together.

Grayson introduces ‘War Is Making You Poor Act’ to highlight cost of ongoing wars.

Today, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced bipartisan legislation called the “War Is Making You Poor Act,” which aims to call attention to a) how much money is being spent to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and b) how budget gimmicks are used to pay for them. Grayson’s legislation would slash the $159 billion request for supplemental war funding and use that money to deliver a tax break for all Americans. Grayson demands the Pentagon use its currently existing $549 billion defense budget to fight the wars. Speaking on the House floor today, Grayson underscored that the point of his legislation is to highlight the costs of the wars:

GRAYSON: So I believe that the thing we need to do is to take that $159 billion that the President has set aside – we’re not saying he has to stop the war, we’re not giving a cut-off date for the war – we’re simply saying you need to fund that out of the base budget of $549 billion. And we take 90 percent of that and give it back to the American people.

And I think most people would be surprised to learn that that is so much money that we’ve been spending on the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq that every single taxpayer in America will be get his first or her first $35,000 of income completely tax free.

Grayson’s bill, which is currently being co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) Barbara Lee (D-CA), John Conyers (D-MI), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), would also cut the federal deficit by $15.9 billion. “There is no longer any need to go beyond the exorbitant base defense budget,” Grayson said. “It is not necessary. Enough is enough.”

[shiny!]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

Brilliant!!! Thanks for posting this.

[raja]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

Online petition: http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/di...?action_KEY=34

[thunderdownunder]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

While he is absolutely right -War makes you poor - it also enriches an elite, very powerful few. That money is spent to create items that destroy and that destruction creates rebuilding efforts that also enriches a few large companies - Its money multipliers are large. Senator Grayson should learn that if you play with high explosives you may end up being blown up by them.
or as the saying goes It is better to leave sleeping Dogs well alone.
If you didn't have your destructive industries your country would now be knee deep in real poo. Its one third of your economy that will not go quietly.

[ricket]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

While he is absolutely right -War makes you poor - it also enriches an elite, very powerful few. That money is spent to create items that destroy and that destruction creates rebuilding efforts that also enriches a few large companies - Its money multipliers are large. Senator Grayson should learn that if you play with high explosives you may end up being blown up by them.
or as the saying goes It is better to leave sleeping Dogs well alone.
If you didn't have your destructive industries your country would now be knee deep in real poo. Its one third of your economy that will not go quietly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable..._broken_window

[chr5648]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

to bad he's preaching to the choir, most people have gotten desensitized to the war and do not truly know the stakes at hand.

[Ghent12]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

to bad he's preaching to the choir, most people have gotten desensitized to the war and do not truly know the stakes at hand.

I'm not so sure. I think the phrase, "most people have..." is useless and doesn't apply to most people. ;)

[Rajiv]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

Here was Yves Smith (Susan Webber's) take on Grayson - Alan Grayson’s “The War is Making You Poor Act”

You have to hand it to Grayson, this is a very clever way to get the issue of “why is defense spending a sacred cow” the attention it warrants.

Steve Clemons of the Washington Note on - Alan Grayson's "The War is Making You Poor" Act

Freshman Congressman Alan Grayson (Fl-08), fresh off some real victories in the House on financial regulatory reform and Federal Reserve Bank transparency, is now focusing his attention on America's expensive wars.

He is making a direct connection between the income levels of regular Americans as well as the benefits they do or don't receive and the costly wars underway in Afghanistan and Iraq.

From a press release (pdf) from Representative Grayson's office:

Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-08) introduced a landmark bill last night, called the "War Is Making You Poor Act". The bipartisan bill does three things:

1) It limits the amount of funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2) It eliminates the federal income tax on the first $35,000 of every American's income ($70,000 for married couples), and
3) It cuts the Federal deficit by $15.9 billion.

Congressman Grayson said, "All three of those things need to be done. This bill brings them all together."

Grayson says that the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars need to be paid for out of a reasonably sized defense budget -- and sets up a "supplemental budget" to cut the federal budget deficit and cuts taxes on many American working families.

Read the entire press release (pdf).

I will be offering more commentary on this after I land in Doha, Qatar where I'll be participating in the 5th Al Jazeera Forum.

-- Steve Clemons

Another take from TPMCafe - Alan Grayson's 'The War is Making You Poor Act' or: How great is this?

Grayson is giving us a chance to have a little fun while we oppose funding of the wars
In Iraq and Afghanistan; this was a real shot in the arm for me this morning.

Another war-funding bill will be considered in Congress next week. Grayson claims that
the bill allocates $159 billion for the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

His bill will defund the occupations, and eliminates federal income taxes for the first $35,000 of income for all Americans. It's sheer genius! And fun as all giddy-up!

Watch the video here; you can sign his petition on the next page.

You may be about to say, "Wendy; that bill ain't goin' nowhere". Yeah, but who cares?

Grayson is willing to be considered a Doofus in order to get some focus on the monetary costs of these wars/occupation and change the direction of conversations about the economy, the military budget, and the American taxpayer: us.

Yippy-ki-yo-ki-yay!!!

It will highlight congressional hypocrisy, and allow challenges to the incumbents to succeed as congressperson after congressperson stand up to vote against this bill!

[metalman]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

comment in youtube... 'grayson is still the biggest pussy to ever get elected
hes a stinky walking ****'

you have to wonder... why does youtube put up with that kind of language?

metalman's theory... a honeypot for lowlifes. collect a database of them... hand the names over to the elites & send them off to war when the time comes.

[Munger]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

Youtube gets 20 hours of video uploaded every minute. It's a combination of limited resources and lack of incentive to monitor.

They try to crowd-source it -- if enough people bury it it will be hidden.

[chr5648]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

I'm not so sure. I think the phrase, "most people have..." is useless and doesn't apply to most people. ;)

'most people' is a vague phrase, but if people did care, they would be out there protesting, trying to get change, or even talking about the situation. I see none of this, this leads me to believe people don't care/desensitized. I maybe wrong the logic is similar to some back of the envelope calculation.

Or maybe we are a blood thirsty and violent society and want war?

I believe the empirical evidence around us speaks for itself.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

you tube....honeypot for lowlifes.

"There's no draft. Instead, we take the most vulnerable and give them a choice between unemployment and missile fodder.”

(This will be Nixon’s legacy.)

Eventually some big mob may be in the streets.

Won’t be students. Won’t be union. Won’t be pensioners.

Who then?

Tubers with narcissistic blight?

[coolhand]

Re: the War is Making You Poor Act

So are we, the US, evil, spending massive amounts of $ to kill Afghans & Iraqis, slowly impoverishing our own citizens as we go, or does this data simply further support the assertions of those who have said the US will not be able to survive in its current form much longer in the future without Iraqi oil?