War on America

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan represent a couple of ideological hypocrisies for Republicans that the media seems to largely ignore.

Republicans tend to identify themselves as extremely patriotic more than any other group in America yet they are the first group in the history of this country to go to war without implementing some form of tax to pay for the war. Of course making matters worse, not only did Republicans avoid paying for these wars they actually cut taxes. In the past paying some form of war tax was considered your patriotic duty and a way to support the troops with shared sacrifice.

Republicans are also the group that wants to cut government spending yet every time we go to war we increase the size and cost of government. While it should come as no surprise that this occurs, the real issue is that once the war is over we almost never fall back to spending levels at or below pre-war levels. Essentially by going to war we are permanently increasing the size and cost of government.

As an example of this the base cost of defense spending (not including the cost of the wars) has increase from $407 billion in 2001 to $553 billion in 2011. This steady rise has added over $1 trillion to the deficit. If you add in the actual costs of these wars, Defense Spending accounts for nearly a third of today's national debt. A shocking number for a group that considers the increase in national debt as a greater concern than any other group in the country.

Basically the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan represent a massive increase in the national debt and a permanent increase in the size and cost of government while also managing to be the poorest showing of patriotism for any military activity in our nation’s history.

Ironically the best solution to this problem is declaring war on America, but like it was done in the past. The kind of war where we increase taxes to fund the war effort and cut spending to make sure our resources are best focused on one common goal. The kind of war where the good of the country takes priority over the good of the political party. The kind of war that unites individuals, regardless of status, behind our leader, regardless of ideological differences.

While we do have legislators like Tom Coburn who are willing to work across the aisle, regardless of the political ramifications, the reality is that we have allowed our country to become a place where compromise is a dirty word and the number one objective of nearly every politician is getting elected. The only war really being fought is a civil war over power. This war has no winners, only losers.