Okay, so there were some bills passed in congress lately, and the left is kind of mad over them. I kinda understand the Israel thing, which even I have mixed views on, but Kyle Kulinski went into it today and ranted about how we treat this stuff as an emergency while we just let normal people languish with poverty and medical debt and stuff. As someone who is partial to ending poverty, let me put a stop this this argument right now.
We know how much UBI would cost. It would cost $4 trillion. Even a negative income tax would probably cost $1-1.5 trillion these days. Medicare for all would cost, by my last estimate, $2.4 trillion, although we can debate the numbers. Even my public option alternative would cost $250-500 billion to implement properly.
I totally get it, we're spending money on defense and for every warship or bomb we make, it represents an opportunity cost, but let's face it, we're spending $100 billion or so combined on Ukraine, Israel, AND Taiwan? PUHLEASE! That's nothing. That's an investment.
I get it, foreign policy isn't sexy. Much like the left, I'd rather not do anything foreign policy related and just focus on the home front and improving the lives of Americans. I wanna emphasize that, I get the isolationist desires some Americans have. But...I also understand that we kinda need to fund defense spending. It's not sexy, it's not inspiring, it doesn't spark joy, but...the world isn't a nice place, and national defense is literally one of the state's first priorities. Before we evolved where we did consider using taxpayer money to fund social programs and healthcare, we needed an army to defend ourselves with. And given the size of the US, and the fact that we're a global empire, that doesn't come cheap. We spend $900 billion total, as much as the next several countries combined. but we do that...to be able to take on russia and china, the next couple countries, at the same time. We live in a world where there are some that are hostile to our values and way of life, and if we dont put money into defense and these military ventures, we're just strengthening our adversaries and putting us in a position where we're less safe and secure and to be able to enjoy things like UBI and medicare for all IN PEACE.
Seriously, the fact that we can have talks about this kind of precludes a system in which we're secure enough to focus on these higher needs from a state perspective. If a country cant defend itself, its game over before we even get that far. And our refusal to act is our enemies gain.
Ukraine....we need to fund Ukraine, and that's where the lion's share of the spending went. By funding Ukraine, we dont have to fight russia ourselves, we let Ukraine fight them. And for all of Kyle's talk about how we should just negotiate with putin, you do realize that emboldens putin to attack on the future right? We cant afford to sit around like fricking neville chamberlain here making peace in our time. NO! We need to be like winston churchill who understood just what kind of man hitler was. We need to understand the same about putin and have a zero tolerance policy on this. Our funding of Ukraine should largely be above question from a moral and pragmatic standpoint.
Taiwan, similar thing. Taiwan is China's Ukraine. China didn't invade, but by dumping money into it, we're hardening it as a target and discouraging China from trying anything. That PREVENTS a potential war. I mean thats why i support us spending this money. We spend this money, we let other countries do the heavy lifting, and we dont have to do anything. We're letting them deal with our adversaries. This is an INVESTMENT. This shouldnt be questioned, and honestly, us funding this stuff isnt enough to really threaten our ability to meaningfully fund other programs. I say this as proponents of those other programs. The idea that 4% of our GDP going to military stops us from reining in our 18% GDP healthcare spending is just a bunch of bullcrap. Other countries spend around 9-13% on universal healthcare and are better off for it. Defense spending barely factors into that. So let's stop this insane idea that we can't do both.
Israel....now this is the controversial one. We've beaten it to death. Israel is de facto committing genocide, and us funding them is not a good look. But I myself have lacked the moral courage to refuse to fund them in part because of the same logic behind me supporting the other two. if we didn't support Israel, it might embolden countries like Iran to attack them. And maybe without our help, those massive drone swarms they tried would actually get through and do anything. But because we give them fancy missile defense and stuff, that crap got shot down and their attacks were futile. And maybe if we didnt have a military commitment to support them, Iran, or other countries would swoop in and try to take them over. And THAT would cause a genocide in itself, AND the loss of an ally. So...even if the left has a point about the MORALITY, and I admit, they DO have a point, from a pragmatic perspective, is this really the best move? Idk, it might be best to just hold our nose and support them, i dont give a strong opinion either way.
Given all three of these bills appear to be separate, Ukraine and Taiwan are definitely thumbs up for me. Israel....eh....you could argue either way, and if I were in congress I'd be looking for my constituents for their opinion on that one and probably just voting in line with public opinion. In the abstract I'd probably still give it a thumbs up, but I'd be holding my nose A LOT more here, but if I had a bunch of angry leftists willing to throw me out of office over this, I ain't willing to go down over this. Nor would I be willing to go down if a bunch of angry jewish constituents would be pissed if i DIDNT pass it. Again, I'd just make the most advantageous move for my career honestly in this situation, and listen to what my voters say.
Now...the tiktok ban bill. We discussed this before, and yeah, after talking myself through it last time on here, I concluded I would be against the ban, and given these are, again, all separate bills, I'd oppose a tiktok ban on the basis of supporting freedom of speech. I dont like the idea of banning tiktok, I dont like the idea of setting up a precedent of blocking websites. That's what countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and China, and Russia like to do, and how many of those countries do I wanna emulate? Heck I just spent most of this article arguing for defense spending in order to contain the threat of the above countries. As such, in line with my ethics and commitment to western values like freedom of speech, even when inconvenient, I would oppose such a ban. So I'd shoot that down, and I am dismayed that that passes. The libertarian in my is both internally and externally screeching over that one.
So...that said, of the 4 things...I support 2 whole heartedly, I'm mixed on one, and I'm opposed to one.
If this were all one bill, I'd likely just go thumbs up. Mainly because supporting Ukraine and Taiwan are causes I deem necessary and worthy of our tax money. Israel is more controversial but I still begrudgingly support keeping them safe from foreign threats. The tiktok ban is just a full on NO from me though. No one should be okay with that, even if they have a point about it being filled with foreign propaganda and elevating questionable anti west narratives. What makes the west better than these countries is the ability to tolerate dissent and allow free speech. If you don't support that, then we risk turning into the same enemies we're spending so much time and effort trying to fight against in the first place. So that's my stance there.
But still, I would like to reality check the lefties. They really need to get with the program on national defense. It's not just military contractors getting fat off of tax payer dollars. it's defending ourselves from our enemies...while those guys get fat off of taxpayer dollars. I honestly wouldnt be opposed to like auditing the pentagon at some point, I do get the impression there's a lot of waste in our military. BUT....we're the best for a reason, it's because we spend this much money, and it's because we're the only ones with this level of competency, both from those small foreign wars we hate, but also observing our allies like Ukraine using the money we give them to fight russians.
Really, we have the largest professional fighting force on the planet. We have the most expensive military, but we also have the best. We're basically kanbei in advance wars. And that's a good place to be. BECAUSE of that, we can have a safe environment to have nice things. And we should keep fighting for nice things. We SHOULD push for things like UBI and healthcare and stuff. But keeping our military's lights on...is keeping our lights on. No one likes the bills that keep the lights on. But they're necessary, and if you don't pay them....well have fun with your new PS5 in the dark. Ya know what I'm saying?
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