Cash for War
Don’t Worry: It’s Not Foreign Aid, It’s Welfare for the War Profiteers
Faced with growing American frustration over more than $150 billion spent on a failed proxy war in Ukraine, President Biden’s handlers have hit on a gimmick to convince us that this foreign aid is actually an investment in our own economy! In his recent television address, Biden explained that as we transfer more weapons to Ukraine, we then will build new weapons at home to replace them. That, explained Biden, means more American jobs and a stronger American economy.
So “Project Ukraine” is not really about foreign welfare, but rather domestic corporate welfare for the military-industrial complex. Should that make us feel any better?
There is no denying that this nearly two-year Ukraine-Russia war has been a boon for the U.S. weapons industry. Profits at the military-industrial complex are back to record highs after a brief slump during the Covid scare. And the money that goes to the weapons manufacturers also saturates Washington, DC: a little of it goes to the think-tanks promoting war, another little bit goes to the political campaigns of candidates who promote war, and so on.
As Connor O’Keeffe reminds us in a recent article at the Mises Institute, the argument that more war spending is good for the economy ignore the “broken window fallacy” as first explained by French economist Frédéric Bastiat in his essay, “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen.”
In the tale, a shopkeeper has a window broken and must pay to have it replaced. The locals view the mishap favorably, as they see the $50 for a new window to be a benefit to the glazier which he will then spend, thus improving the economy as a whole. What is not seen, however, is what the shopkeeper might have done with that same $50 had he not been forced to replace a broken window. Perhaps he would have invested it in a way that created far more wealth and more jobs.
Unfortunately, Biden is not alone in coming up with new gimmicks to enable Washington to operate in a “business as usual” manner.
New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has also been busy trying to convince us that sending money overseas is actually good for our own economy. Over the weekend he appeared on Fox News to tell us that sending another $14 billion to the wealthy nation of Israel is Republicans “trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s resources.” How is that? Well, he came up with the gimmick that they would cut $14 billion from the IRS and send it to Israel.
Said Johnson, “Instead of printing new dollars or borrowing it from another nation to send over to fulfill our obligations and help our ally, we want to pay for it, what a concept, we are trying to change how Washington works.”
See the trick here? They are not “paying for it” by sending the money overseas, and they are not “changing how Washington works” by doing the exact same thing they always do: stealing from the poor at home to send to the rich in foreign countries.
Instead of trying to trick Americans into thinking that foreign aid and corporate welfare are good for our economy, why not just stop breaking all of our windows? Just end all foreign aid and corporate welfare!
Ron Paul, a former U.S. representative from Texas and medical doctor, continues to write his weekly column for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, online at ronpaulinstitute.org.
By: Amy Rose
1 Comments
Tax and Spend
02/19/2024 9:54 am
Recently, Biden’s government has sought $106 billion in the latest aid for arms for Israel and Ukraine, the biggest expenditure since the Vietnam War. This while the bills for the incredibly foolish war in Afghanistan keep coming in, to date $2 trillion.
Now, the US in high-fever pre-election time, is lavishing billions upon Israel. Most of the world is trying to get Israel out of its lethal rampage in Gaza, but the US and its failing colonial partner, Great Britain, continue to wave the banner of empire. Britain, as hardly anyone has noticed, has been bombing Yemen for the past 14 years, supplying warplanes, bombs and mercenary pilots and technicians.
President Biden is growing desperate as the election draws closer. Polls show him way behind Donald Trump. Both Trump and Biden are too old for the job of president. In my old-fashioned view, only military veterans should be allowed to run for high office.
Meanwhile, Biden is splashing around tens of millions on schemes for blacks, who have become his electoral mainstay. Jewish voters who ardently back Israel are said to provide a large proportion of the Democratic party’s finances. They are advocating deeper US involvement in the Gaza Conflict and even more money for Israel, already the largest recipient of US cash.
Pandering to Israel is standard pre-election behavior. In the old days elections were always marked by huge cash grants and the latest US weapons lavished on Israel. And money on the ‘three I’s,’ Israel, Italy and Ireland.
Biden and his aides seem to have lost all concept of money. What’s being dished out to Ukraine and Israel is green paper. This huge amount was not raised in true democratic style but by slapping these mammoth charges on the national credit card – better known as the national debt.
The newly proposed $106 billion for Israel and Ukraine will delight partisans of the two beleaguered nations. But what people forget is that these little green pieces of printed paper are IOUs for the nation’s debt. Much of the war costs we have incurred were for Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine and Israel which, in Washington’s eyes, have become almost one united nation. Talk that Ukraine is fast becoming `new Israel’ appeals to many Israeli voters whose ancestors came from Ukraine or western Russia.
Joe Biden has created a tsunami of inflation with his giveaways to black voters, his open-ended support of Israel’s far right government and now billions more spending. It’s been a financial disaster. Donald Trump understands. After all, it was he who ended the stupid, pointless war in Afghanistan.
Now Biden and his free spenders are inflicting even more runaway debt on the government. The latest, in January 2024, is $34 trillion of debt! We are in hock up to our heads, yet we still keep dishing out the little green paper. This is the behavior of very drunken sailors.