I believe that we need to have a "discussion" about what we are willing to defend and what that defense means. In a situation like Ukraine, we have given $70 billion in assistance already (with a request for $60 billion more) and the EU has given *$96 billion (they asterisk it themselves which leads me to believe that figure is being inflated and the DOD puts the military assistance at around $35 billion). Our allies in Europe don't have the military equipment but they do have money.
You know who doesn't have money right now? The country with a $34 Trillion debt that has added another $500 billion to that debt with FY24 deficit spending already (FY24 began on Oct 1). That is a pace to add more than another trillion to that debt by the end of September. This aid package we are debating to send Ukraine is another $60 billion in unfunded debt. Those saying that some American kids will have to fight Russia in the future have it all wrong. We won't be able to go and fight them because we won't have the economic wherewithal to support that.
Everyone clamoring to fund Ukraine's fight with Russia needs to get on the horn with their representatives and tell them it is time to raise revenue in the US or decide the one trillion and 60 billion worth of programs that they are going to cut so that we aren't heaping even more debt on ourselves.
Budget office points to surge in government debt costs after pandemic-era fiscal splurge to prop up economies
www.ft.com
I don't want the Russians to win in Ukraine but I am also put out by the Europeans not caring about things going on in their own backyard as much as we do from thousands of miles away. The Russians aren't going to invade North America. I don't think they have the power to make it past Poland in a land invasion whether we were involved or not. Not based on their anemic attack on Ukraine. And if the Europeans are willing to run to China at the first hint that we won't bankrupt ourselves to provide a defense for them that they aren't bothered to provide for themselves, then this is a shitty alliance built on sand.
Finally, what I do know is that the dollar is our biggest weapon and our spending is threatening its future value. If these things we do are truly important, we should be funding them. And I don't mean that by taxing the rich. I mean a regressive tax like a national sales tax that EVERYONE has to pay. I mean a significant decrease in government benefits paid out to able bodied people when there are jobs available everywhere. If we want to be the world police, we need to get our fiscal house in order. Both parties need to tax us for the things they say we need and then, when we are paying what this truly costs, we can have a real discussion about what we want our government to do.
In the case of Ukraine, I think we have the equipment and Europe has the money. Let them go into a little debt to provide for their own common defense by buying our gear.
