War is Making You Poor

Not to be confused with “War, What is it Good For,” which was Tolstoy’s original title for “War and Peace.”

John Conyers and Alan Grayson are co-sponsoring the “War is Making You Poor Act” (H.R. 5353). This bill would limit defense spending to the exact amount that’s already allotted for the 2011 budget: $548.9 billion.

But the main selling point is: There will be NO federal income tax on the first $35,000 of every American’s annual income. For couples it’ll be the first $70,000.

This tax relief will be made possible by allocating $159.3 billion that was set aside for “discretionary operations abroad.” Alan Grayson said:

“I believe that the thing we need to do is to take that $159 billion that the President has set aside – we’re not saying he has to stop the war, we’re not giving a cut-off date for the war – we’re simply saying you need to fund that out of the base budget of $549 billion. And we take 90 percent of that and give it back to the American people.”

E.D. Kain of the National Review said:

“Each troop we send to Afghanistan costs the public $1 million per year. That’s $1 million siphoned out of the U.S. economy and shipped overseas to the mountains of Afghanistan and the Iraqi deserts…For years many of these costs were hidden, not even included in the Pentagon’s defense budget. This obscures not only the real cost of war, but the costs of all the extraneous programs our tax dollars end up going toward in the name of national defense.”

Grayson adds:

“The costs of the war have been rendered invisible. There's no draft. Instead, we take the most vulnerable elements of our population, and give them a choice between unemployment and missile fodder. Government deficits conceal the need to pay in cash for the war. We put the cost of both guns and butter on our Chinese credit card.”

Here is a petition you can sign if you want Congress to pass the War is Making You Poor Act.

Health Insurance Companies Exempt from Anti-Trust Laws

Did you know about this? I had no idea until I got an e-mail the other day.

The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 exempts health insurance companies from the federal anti-trust legislation that applies to most other businesses. WTF???

This outdated law (if it was ever “in” date) might finally be corrected. Senator Patrick Leahy and Rep. John Conyers have introduced the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act — S. 1681 and H.R. 3596 respectively — to break up the health insurance monopoly and force these companies to actually compete. What a concept.

Whether or not they ever have to compete with that commie government option, they’ll at least be competing with each other. For a change.

It’ll be fun to hear those “free enterprise” “market forces” Republicans shouting and squealing against a bill that promotes competition. And you know they will.

If you’re ready to break up the health insurance monopoly, tell your senators and your congressional representative. Enough is enough.