President Throws GOP A Bone To Fix Some Of Our Problems

The chart above shows some of the things President Obama included in his budget proposal for 2016. I totally agree with the first four -- all of them need to be done. They would help pay down the budget deficit and national debt, improve education in this country, fix the funding problem of Social Security (which will show up in about 20 years), and make a start on helping to solve the problem of global climate change.

Of course the Republicans will oppose all of those four proposals. They will oppose them because they would cost the rich and the corporations a bit more money (money they should have been paying all along) -- and taxing the rich or the corporations is not something the Republicans can support. After all, the rich and the corporations are the true constituents represented by the Republican Party. They may tell lies during an election campaign about how they want to help all Americans, but once they get elected they act only to protect their rich buddies.

And that's where number five on the above list comes in. It is a political bone the president tossed into his budget proposal to please the Republicans (in the hope of getting them to agree to at least some of his other proposals). If they want more money to fatten the bank accounts of their buddies in the military-industrial complex (those corporations getting rich off providing products for the military -- most of which are overpriced, and many of which are not needed or wanted by the military), then they're going to have to negotiate on some other things.

The military budget doesn't need to be expanded. We already provide enough money to make up around 45% of the entire world's military spending. It should really be cut instead of expanded, and that could easily be done without hurting our national defense or short-changing our military on anything it really needs. We could accomplish a lot by closing many of our more than 800 military bases around the world, and by eliminating the spending for systems and products that the military neither needs nor wants.

But I understand why the president is throwing the GOP this bone, and it would probably be worth it (in the short-term) if it can get them to agree with some of the other things the president wants -- things that are really needed to get this country back on track.