There is always money for war, but not for the people, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made plain.
When she stated that the US can afford to support Israel and Ukraine in their respective war operations, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen grabbed headlines this week. “America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs, and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,” Yellen told Britain’s Sky News.
“Inflation has dropped significantly after being high and a concern for households. With a 3.8% unemployment rate, the labour market is also one of the healthiest it has been in the last 50 years. She emphasised, “At the same time, America, under the Biden administration, has passed measures that will boost our economy over the next few years.
In addition to the fact that this is obviously untrue on its face, one must also question the basic prudence of this claim given that the House of Representatives currently lacks a speaker and is unable to pass any appropriations for either country. Is this really a cause worth the hard-earned money of taxpayers, even if America could hypothetically afford to sustain both war efforts?
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For instance, I mentioned in my column last week for RT that $24 billion in Covid-19-related funding for childcare centres across the nation had expired the week before (now two weeks ago), which, according to a prediction made last month by the Century Foundation, will affect 3.2 million children, cut $10.6 billion in revenue from lost worker productivity as parents reduce hours or leave jobs in the rush to find new care, and could lead to the closure of as many as 1,500 childcare centres.
Israel’s terror attack by Hamas was not “unprovoked.”The terror strike by Hamas on Israel was not “unprovoked,” as claimed.
But we have the option to think a little bigger. The US has so far promised Ukraine alone over $100 billion, according to estimates. A draught appropriation plan that would send an additional $100 billion to Israel, Ukraine, and the border has now been proposed to Congress by the Biden White House, with the former two receiving the most of the funding. What else could America be able to afford if it can buy weapons for its allies for hundreds of billions of dollars?
The US could implement President Biden’s proposal to forgive federal borrowers’ $10,000 in college debt for just an additional $173 billion, according to estimates. Despite the fact that almost all studies on the topic agree that a single-payer Medicare for All system in the US would not only pay for itself but also save Americans several trillion over a decade (according to even the right-wing Mercatus Centre), it is unquestionably possible to expand coverage in the nation for $200 billion. Last but not least, it is anticipated that the first year of a tuition-free college model in America would cost roughly $58 billion – or about a quarter of what is currently and is proposed to be spent on Ukraine and Israel.
Despite having a technology edge, a strong military, and energy independence, the US is in a sorry situation and may not fare as well as Europe. The standard of living for most people is significantly lower than it was for their parents’ generation; home ownership is unaffordably expensive, retirement planning is a pipe dream, and the capacity to earn more than a subsistence living is out of reach for the majority. Because Washington is unwilling to invest in anything other than the infinitely corrupt military-industrial complex, even the advantages the US enjoys over counterparts in the Global North are being overcome by rivals like China.
The American Empire faces a serious simultaneity problem as a result of its strategy of simultaneously stoking these two proxies, as it faces the possibility of two civilizational wars and, possibly, a third one over Taiwan, which it is moving closer to, without having a realistic chance of winning any of them. There is no imaginable military plan that Washington could use to deal with Russia and the entire Muslim world at once, with China maybe being an added bonus. This is demonstrated by the disastrous proxy fight in Ukraine alone, let alone Israel.
We now revert to the original query: even if America could theoretically afford to sustain both war endeavours, is it really a cause deserving of the hard-earned money of taxpayers? It isn’t, of course. The US must prioritise using this money domestically while advocating for diplomacy for the sake of its citizens and humanity. This is made increasingly clearer by the fact that all three conflicts—the two ongoing ones, a potential third, and this one—involve nuclear-armed states. If we want to continue existing as a country or even as a species, it is necessary to critically consider our national priorities.
