We really did.
Now we get to read the bill and find out, exactly, what we've got.
I knew some neighbors back in Texas who bought themselves one of those pot-bellied piglets. And they insisted that she was one, even as she grew bigger and bigger and came to look a whole lot like a bacon pig not much like a small pot-bellied one.
'That pig looks like an eatin' pig.'
'She's not, she's one of those pot-bellied ones. She's big 'cause we fed her a lot when she was little.'
She was big all right - her kids rode the pig around the yard like a fat little pony.
Listened to a talking-head show on WPR a night or two ago. An actual Socialist from Madison [1] was pretty darn happy now that we had to pony up for health care for everyone we'd cut back on foreign adventures abroad. It made me think.
Sure, we can afford to pay for everyone's health care: we're a rich country, after all. We probably can't pay for health care for everyone while funding a military with a global presence and that can deploy pretty much anywhere on a moment's notice.
A world where the United States is just a really big Sweden might be a better world. It will sure enough be a different one.
Without a global American military the dollar .. well it probably won't be a global currency. The other countries that spend 1% of their GDP (hello, Japan) for a self-defense force will see a real need for a force that can go out and defend their interests abroad. Interests will step into a power vacuum. Not all of them will be nice guys and our ability to make them behave will be nil.
If we can't ship a brigade of Marines to Africa on a week's notice to kill people we also won't be able to send a brigade of army dogs to Haiti to succor earthquake victims, or a task force of squids to the Pacific to aid tsunami victims.
We will be better off, perhaps. The rest of the world ... not so much.
[1] I know, you're thinking 'Madison'? I was shocked, shocked to hear from an actual Socialist in Madison.
Now we get to read the bill and find out, exactly, what we've got.
I knew some neighbors back in Texas who bought themselves one of those pot-bellied piglets. And they insisted that she was one, even as she grew bigger and bigger and came to look a whole lot like a bacon pig not much like a small pot-bellied one.
'That pig looks like an eatin' pig.'
'She's not, she's one of those pot-bellied ones. She's big 'cause we fed her a lot when she was little.'
She was big all right - her kids rode the pig around the yard like a fat little pony.
Listened to a talking-head show on WPR a night or two ago. An actual Socialist from Madison [1] was pretty darn happy now that we had to pony up for health care for everyone we'd cut back on foreign adventures abroad. It made me think.
Sure, we can afford to pay for everyone's health care: we're a rich country, after all. We probably can't pay for health care for everyone while funding a military with a global presence and that can deploy pretty much anywhere on a moment's notice.
A world where the United States is just a really big Sweden might be a better world. It will sure enough be a different one.
Without a global American military the dollar .. well it probably won't be a global currency. The other countries that spend 1% of their GDP (hello, Japan) for a self-defense force will see a real need for a force that can go out and defend their interests abroad. Interests will step into a power vacuum. Not all of them will be nice guys and our ability to make them behave will be nil.
If we can't ship a brigade of Marines to Africa on a week's notice to kill people we also won't be able to send a brigade of army dogs to Haiti to succor earthquake victims, or a task force of squids to the Pacific to aid tsunami victims.
We will be better off, perhaps. The rest of the world ... not so much.
[1] I know, you're thinking 'Madison'? I was shocked, shocked to hear from an actual Socialist in Madison.
