More lawmakers should speak out like this. Sen. Nan Orrock says that Eisenhower had it right — “Beware the military industrial complex”. It can distort your whole economy, and it has.
Senator Orrock was elected to the Georgia Senate in 2006, following her service in the House of Representatives for two decades. During her tenure in the House, she was elected as the first woman to hold the position of majority whip. She also served as the Governor’s Floor Leader and is the president of the Women Legislators’ Lobby (WILL).
US military spending versus the rest of the world:
When the US Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for military spending came out in early 2008, Travis Sharp and Christopher Hellman (mentioned earlier) projected the spending of other nations planned for 2008 thus allowing comparison between US military spending and the rest of the world:
Military Spending 2008
As someone commenting on the Real News said, “With well over 700 U.S. Military bases worldwide why not shut all of them down? This number does not even include bases in Iraq or Afganistan. This would save us well over $ 1 trillion a year.”
We could fund health care, (even single payer) and Medicare, and most of the things this country needs if we would only stop funding the military industrial complex. We have about 250,000 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, even as the soldiers begin to pull out of Iraq, and they make a lot more money than the soldiers. We also pay their salaries. What do we get in return? Nothing but lower unemployment numbers, and some protection for people who have no business being in Iraq in the first place. I don’t know what they are doing in Afghanistan. Rebuilding what we destroy?
It’s insane to have a debate about health care that doesn’t include the fact that we can fund all health care for the people of this country if only we’d stop funding the blowing up of other countries, for their oil and other resources. Why do we spend so much on destruction and not much on improving peoples’ lives? Imagine the money we’d have for health care and renewable energy if we could stop our addiction to WAR.
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