Getting Real

 
We liberals get so frustrated that others don't see what to us is a key truth: while the left blames billionaires and powerful corporations for corrupting politics and undermining progress, the right distracts us by ridiculing the poor, minorities, women and the unemployed. We are outraged at the role of money in politics and the corruption it brings. We shout about the Koch brothers and their influence. In return we hear that there are equally powerful campaign donors on the left (George Soros, Hollywood celebrities and who else?) and that working people are tired of "the takers" who expect others to pay for their healthcare, daycare, groceries and housing. We on the left are more concerned with "the takers" on Wall Street and those who vacation on the Riviera than the ones sleeping on the streets in Compton.

Seems that this stalemate could benefit from a little additional reality. Don't you ever wonder how costs might compare between social and environmental programs versus expenditures that benefit particular multinationals or the military? Well, I did. Here's what it looks like. Links are provided for the fact-checkers among you.

Cost of…	2013	Compared to cost of…	2013
Food stamps	$75 billion	Foreign tax credits (2/3 manufacturing)	$118 billion
Medicaid for 49 million Americans	$283 billion	Iraq War (2003-2010)	$1,100 billion
Infrastructure investments proposed by President Obama	$50 billion	Offshore corporate tax loopholes for just TWO well-known companies (Apple and Microsoft)	$45.4 billion
Pell Grants for needy college students	$33 billion	Doubling of incarceration rates since 1990 (rates per 100,000 people)	$16.9 billion
Cuts in education spending	$1.7 billion	Carried interest special tax breaks for banks	$1.7 billion
Non-military foreign aid	$31.2 billion	Oil industry subsidies	$37.5 billion
Total state spending for public colleges	$81.3 billion	Afghanistan War (2001-2014)	$718.6 billion
Federal funding for mass transit	$10.6 billion	Big agribusiness subsidies (90% to top 10 agribusinesses)	$14.9 billion (2012)
Cost to increase wind power to 20% of total electrical needs (now at 4%)	$43 billion	Federal payments to for-profit colleges	$32 billion (2011)
TANF (formerly Welfare) for 4.3 million needy Americans	$14 billion	CIA budget growth in past 15 years	$11.7 billion
US contribution to all United Nations programs	$3.4 billion	Tax shields for Wall Street banks for risky derivatives	$2.7 billion
Difference between what Social Security takes in and pays out annually (not including savings of $2,873 billion in the reserve fund)	$28 billion	Social Security revenue lost because of the $107,000 cap	$100 billion

So for my conservative friends, this is why we think our nation could do a better job of building infrastructure, investing in education, averting disastrous climate change and protecting the health and welfare of our most vulnerable. I for one can't see much benefit for you or me from anything on the right side of the chart above but can get much more excited about maintaining or improving the programs on the left.

So can we talk about real possibilities now?