The Cost Of Running The World
by digby
Rick Santorum has come up with a great new rationale for not having universal health care that I think could work great for the Tea Party:
Q: Will this spending have an effect on our military?
No European socialist country has any military to speak of, because they can’t afford it. We spend $650 billion a year on the military. You’re going to hear in the next year or so that we must dramatically cut the military because we can’t pay for it: “We can’t afford to be the policeman of the world. America’s role has to change.” The Chinese and the Russians are sitting there licking their chops. This is exactly what the left would like to see, since they see America as an oppressive imperialist country.
Q: The long-term consequences of the healthcare law . . .
It will destroy the country.
I wonder what Americans would feel about all that if they actually realized that the United States has consciously decided to dominate the world militarily, thus enabling our allies to spend more on their own people? I don’t think that’s ever been put to a referendum.
The hardcore Republicans would undoubtedly find such questions outrageous as any discussion of the military in terms other than total support in every possible way is received as a suggestion that America isn’t the greatest country the world has ever known or will ever know. But the rest of the country might find the choice between taking care of Americans vs American Empire somewhat intriguing. Unfortunately, we have almost nobody in politics who will ask such a question.
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