But while we are slowly becoming aware of the corporate capture of our governments
Companies, like other special interests often have undo and/or negative influence, but there is no corporate capture of our government.
During this period, Bush has made 41 major speeches to live audiences. Of these, 14 - just over a third - were delivered to military personnel or veterans.
Considering that we are fighting terrorism around the world, fighting in Afghanistant, and fighting in Iraq the number of speaches to or about the military doesn't seem unusual.
This strikes me as an abuse of his position as commander-in-chief
It doesn't strike me as anything that vaguely resembles such an abuse.
This is one of the reasons for a military budget that is now entirely detached from any possible strategic reality.
The budget is not entirely detached from any possible strategic reality. In fact there are some legitimate military/strategic reasons to make it bigger, but those needs always have to be balanced against the cost and the cost is now high and the military need not desprite.
...you find that the US federal government is now spending as much on war as it is on education, public health, housing, employment, pensions, food aid and welfare put together.
Social Security by itself spends more then defense. Social Security is essentially a national pension system with aspects of insurance and welfare. Also part of the Iraq money is not for defense, but is itself aid and education is not primiarly a federal responsibility. Education gets more money on the state level then defense gets on the federal level.
You would expect this sort of allocation from a third world military dictatorship. But all this has come from a civilian leadership.
You would also expect it from a country that is at war (even if not a major war like WWII) and that has a federal system like ours where a lot of the education and other social spending is at the state or local level.
Such is the success of his re-ordering of national priorities, not a single Democrat on the congressional appropriations panel dared to challenge the government's latest request.
Which could be taken as evidence that the request was not unreasonable...
Bush's other big problem, which has quietly tracked him ever since he declared his candidacy, is that he is a draft-dodger who failed even to discharge his duties as a national guardsman
This charge is apparently not true.
Tim |
