War focus has led to neglect of domestic concerns
Paul Graham
Another Perspective
As our nation advances towards Baghdad, let us continue to pray for those who suffer directly or indirectly from the war. This war affects families in Iraq as well as families here in South Bend. Both pro-war and anti-war people can, at the very least, simply pray for all those in the Middle East, for peace and for a quick end to the war.
It is imperative that everybody honor the women and men of our military. But as we continue to pray during the fighting in Iraq, we cannot neglect issues that trouble our economy. We cannot overlook the costs this war has on our nation and the questionable solutions put forth by the Bush administration.
There is little question that this war will financially cost our government a great deal. Laurence Lindsay, former economic advisor to President Bush, estimated that this war could cost up to $200 billion, not including reconstruction.
At the same time that these war costs grow, the strain on the national budget increases. Just recently, the Bush administration estimated a deficit of over $304 billion for the 2003 fiscal year. The national surplus has already fallen around $4 trillion, from over $5 trillion in 2001 to about $1 trillion in the 2003 fiscal year. On top of the depletion of the national surplus, the administration's proposed tax cuts are looking to cut $1.3 trillion between fiscal years 2004 to 2013. With all the spending on the military combined with the lack of resources, funding for social programs will be cut or eliminated.
This means sharp cuts in Social Security, education, Medicare and other social programs, leaving millions of Americans helpless. According to the Economic Policy Institute, in 2001 an estimated 41.2 million Americans did not have health insurance, meaning millions of citizens were, and still are, unable to afford doctors or necessary medicine or medical supplies. To compare the cost of the war with the problem of the uninsured, the estimated $200 billion that will be spent on this war is enough to provide health care to all uninsured children in the United States for the next 10 years.
School systems and teachers will suffer as well. Teachers are one of the most valuable resources of our nation, with an average starting salary just under $29,000. Much research on classroom population has concluded that smaller classroom sizes are more conducive to learning. But in Indiana, 1,500 teachers were laid off for budget reasons. The American Federation of Teachers estimates that an additional two million qualified teachers must be hired to reduce classroom sizes. For this to happen, Bush must take a stronger stance on education and provide the money necessary.
While these programs suffer, Bush is pushing for more and more tax cuts. These attempts to stimulate the economy will in the end benefit nobody but the rich of our country, and fail to boost our economy. According to The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, the bottom 60 percent in our nation's income bracket, families earning less than $46,000 per year, would receive on average a $131 tax cut. The top 10 percent, families earning more than $104,000, would receive on average a $5,578 tax break. Tax cuts for this income bracket receive 60 percent of the total share in tax cuts.
These tax cuts will not help those that really need the money. These tax cuts do not create jobs. They do not improve education. They do not help the uninsured afford medical care. It seems as if Bush is not only attempting to fight a war in Iraq, but also a war against the poor and working America by cutting strained social programs and giving the rich major tax cuts.
This "War against Labor" can be seen in the administration's active stance against workers' legal right to organize. On Jan. 9, the Bush administration, in their constant efforts to make our nation secure, revoked the right of baggage screeners at airports from unionizing by declaring that "collective bargaining conflicts with national security needs." On Jan. 30, collective bargaining was also revoked from 1,300 workers at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. Adding to this, the 170,000 plus public service employees that work for the Homeland Security Department and the Justice Department have been stripped of their right to a union.
Collective bargaining is one of the few ways in which workers can incorporate democracy in the workplace through negotiating fair contracts that help determine wages, seniority, working conditions and more. This is a right protected under the National Labor Relations Act of 1933. Labor is in no way a threat to national security. It is tragic that Bush would use the rhetoric of fear and violence to advance a system of greed.
As we think about the implications for this war, we cannot overlook what is happening here domestically. We cannot be fooled that the suffering of the working poor is for security reasons. We must pray for our troops, but we must also act here in our own country.
Paul Graham is a senior sociology major and a Catholic social tradition minor. Contact him at pgraham@nd.edu. His column appears every other Wednesday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, March 26, 2003
