Thursday, November 05, 2009

A Billion Per Thousand

This little snippet below, highlighted in red, caught my notice this morning in the New York Times.
Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who is chairman of the House appropriations defense subcommittee, cited $40 billion last week as a hypothetical amount for the supplemental financing request. The number represented a standard calculation of $1 billion for every 1,000 troops deployed.

And people say a health care public option is too expensive? Sweet Jesus.

Let's put this in perspective. My hometown in Arkansas needs some help. Seriously. With around 4,000 residents, a Pentagon war budget would get them about $4 billion.

They could build a subway line through town out to the Wal-Mart. And riding it could be free. With what was leftover, they could build everyone in town a new house and provide free medical care and free groceries from the Socialist Supermarket. And I think there would still be enough to provide everyone a car, with a complimentary tank of gas every month, not that they'd need THAT much help, with the subway and all.

But the important thing to remember is that situations in the US are fine and dandy. No one really needs any help. We have no infrastructure needs, everyone has access to transportation to get where they need to go, health care costs are completely reasonable, and no one goes hungry.

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