×
×
homepage logo

Graveman: Spending out of control

By Bill Graveman - | Mar 26, 2009

After spending tera-dollars (that’s trillions) this week, Barack Obama has left Washington in order to change the issue from those pesky ridiculous bonuses paid to AIG and other executives from Wall Street who had to be bailed out.

This is galling precisely because Chris Dodd, Tim Geithner & Co. not only knew about the bonuses from the git-go, but also managed to keep a lid on the subject until after the bonuses were paid. Regular Americans are furious about it, and have every right to be, but instead of ‘fessing up and admitting guilt, Dodd says it’s Geitner, who says it’s Obama, who leaves town and changes the subject.

You can say this is just politics, and, in the end it is. Democrats have forever taken their constituents for fools by giving them sound bytes and half-truths, sometimes outright lies, but current events bring the practice to a new low, even by Washington standards. The Republicans aren’t much better, either.

An even worse outrage than spending my children’s taxes before they’ve even gotten a job is Obama’s plan to bring “change you can count on” to the military: the Obama Administration just unveiled a plan to have medical costs for injured and maimed veterans paid for by private insurance carriers. The plan is these private carriers would be required to reimburse the Veterans Administration for costs incurred in caring for our country’s wounded on the battlefield.

American Legion Commander David Rehbein was “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama to discuss the proposal last week. Does Obama think this will help recruiting? This is a shockingly excessive plan even for a president who was the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate before he was elected.

What a way to thank our military after winning the Iraq War!

Yes, they won the war — and they get no nod of appreciation from the Commander in Chief, not a scintilla of thanks from Congress, just the knowledge that Democrats now consider the members of our military unworthy of government-paid medical care for their battlefield injuries.

This is the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, and senior U.S. officials say that the Iraqi government has met 17 of 18 political, economic and security benchmarks set up by the Bush Administration several years ago. Iraqis have improved their security enough that Americans can now leave.

So, is anyone (except me) willing to throw a victory party for our military? If the Iraqi’s country falls apart, it is not for lack of American effort and blood.

I believe that every American Legion and VFW across the country should announce the winning of the war because Obama won’t and Biden is on record as saying the surge was doomed to failure, and Congress has been taken over by lunatics throwing your (and your kids’ and grandkids’ money) into the toilet of earmarks and liberal, frivolous spending.

OK, well, we won the war anyway. Let’s spend a day thanking our citizen soldiers all across the country. Even if you don’t like the way we got into the war, you can at least be thankful for those who were called upon to fight it.

The smell of barbecued ribs and sauce thickening over hickory fires should waft all across the country, fireworks should be lit, beer consumed (by adults, responsibly, of course) and our vets should be the Heroes of the Day. From sea to shining sea we should thank our veterans of all wars, especially those from World War II who are still alive. We can learn a great deal from the Greatest Generation.

One last thing — has anyone noticed that almost daily our military attacks on the Taliban and insurgent strongholds in Pakistan? Has anyone noticed that Obama is calling for more of our men in uniform in Afghanistan? I am sure if George W. Bush had done this, it would be front-page news. But “Bush Wins The Iraqi War” won’t be on CNN either. Go figure.