Excerpt:
Let’s take a look at two big spending issues, defense and health care reform, and try to put them into perspective.
Recently, Obama signed the defense authorization bill without much objection from anyone. The cost: $280 billion for 2010 only.
Then there’s health insurance reform. Estimated cost per year: $90 billion.
Approximate cost of U.S. House health insurance bill over the next ten years: $894 billion, not including a Congressional Budget Office finding that it will actually reduce the deficit by $104 billion over the next ten years.
Approximate cost of defense authorization over the next ten years: $7 trillion.
People killed by U.S. defense operations per year: N/A, although 135 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq and 452 died in Afghanistan thus far in 2009 and over 1000 were wounded in Afghanistan in the past three months. Afghani and Iraqi civilian casualties cannot be counted due to lack of data.
Americans who die from lack of health insurance each year: Approximately 45,000.
Approximate savings to U.S. taxpayers from House health care insurance bill over the next ten years: $100 billion.
Approximate savings to U.S. taxpayers from defense appropriations bill over the next ten years: $0.
The government will always spend your tax dollars, so the real question is what is best to spend money on. Whatever gives the best ROI is a good place to start. Perhaps spending our tax dollars on Americans in America is a better idea than spending it on occupying third world countries.
Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d1-Putting-government-spending-in-perspective