[Peace-discuss] Joe Bauers letter

[Karen Aram]

Agree, its perfect. I will post it on B.


On May 8, 2019, at 10:40, David Green <davidgreen50 at gmail.com<mailto:davidgreen50 at gmail.com>> wrote:

A great letter yesterday from Joe Bauers, a retired high school English teacher:

Letter to the Editor | Tax dollars going to wrong places
Tue, 05/07/2019 - 3:35am | The News-Gazette<http://www.news-gazette.com/users/digitalmedia>

As another tax season has passed, it might be good to see where our tax dollars have gone.

We can start with the things they did not buy us. Our crumbling infrastructure has been cited by a host of politicians, most of whom do nothing about it. A drive down our streets and roads pockmarked by gaping holes proves the point.

Then there's the matter of health care. Ours is the most expensive on the planet, yet with outcomes that are less than exemplary. Private, for-profit insurance and unchecked pharmaceutical greed lead the rocket ride of soaring costs.

If we manage to live to 65, we might partake of America's most popular health insurance, Medicare. Until then, millions of our citizens will be uninsured or under-insured.

What about education? School districts have to scrounge to stay afloat, and our college students are faced with a lifetime of debt, which delights the bankers.

Speaking of them — remember the 2008 financial cataclysm? Our tax dollars went to bail them out, not to reform them. The Obama Justice Department did not think it prudent to prosecute the criminal bankers.

So, if not for these things, then for what? The answer is simple: War. We subsidize a monstrous "defense" industry with our tax dollars. We annually spend around $700 billion-plus, far and away more than the next several nations combined, in endless wars here, there and everywhere.

Where our money goes — or doesn't go — tells a lot about our national character.

JOSEPH BAUERS

Champaign

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