February 14, 2009
War is Biggest Expense
Ruben Navarrette's column ("Stimulus chaos points to business as usual for Congress," Feb. 5) is really off course. I believe he is correct to acknowledge that "... the Bush tax cuts didn't stimulate much of anything." However, he is completely off base to describe the stimulus bill as "wasteful spending - especially when it goes to fund a party's pet causes."
Pet causes? What, like education, healthcare and infrastructure? Navarrette conveniently brushes aside looking at executive bonuses or costly office remodels, but why shouldn't these aspects of a spending package be examined? Instead, Navarrette mocks the Democrats' desire to put funding into childcare on military bases.
How about we stop funding these interminable wars that are the cause of death, destruction and the real drain on our economy? As Rep. Barney Frank stated, "The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the one in Iraq. If we're going to talk about spending, I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinary expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good in my judgment."
Pasadena Star-News 2/14/09
| 