Begging, Borrowing, and Stealing..........

Recently a soldier on his way to Iraq asked Don Rumsfeld why there wasn't enough armor to protect the troops in harm's way. The army says it will spend 4 BILLION dollars to equip all the humvees by June, 2005. The congress and the public leapt with joy. The troops will be protected. Of course, with a budget deficit large enough to drive Alaska through, we might ask where those BILLIONS will come from.

In an unrelated story, it was recently revealed that there has been yet another failure in the trillion dollar, Reagan era (error?) Missile Defense(less) Shield. While it appears that we are still able to launch offensive missiles, our ability to intercept and destroy them is light years away. Of course, in keeping with that noble American spirit of never give up any chance to spend military dollars, the program shall go on.

In yet another unrelated story, George Bush has suggested to Congress that they should be expecting a new budget that calls for across the board freezes or even cuts in all domestic spending programs as an antidote to his record setting budget deficits. This, of course would be the realization of the neo-con philosophy of shrinking the federal government to military-only spending.

Wait! Perhaps these stories are not so unrelated. Perhaps the Progressives should not allow these stories to be unrelated. Perhaps the Progressives should start talking about the failed and unnecessary military spending programs as they relate to the current budget deficit and how that bad money could be used to provide adequate protection for our troops without having to eliminate or slow down funding for education, environmental protection, transportation and infrastructure, healthcare and other domestic programs that are so needed by a civilized society.