Understandably, the first reaction we get when we tell people we’re going to get the U.S. government to refund to its citizens $6,832,000,000,000 is: “What? We can’t afford that. Our government is already in hock over $28 trillion and every year since 2000, we’ve been running a deficit.”
Aside from the fact that the deficit spending — which has been the focus of overwrought debates, ultimatums, government shutdowns, and a celebrated hand grenade tossed back and forth in the political blame game — is both unnecessary and entirely intentional, the ultimate impact of the Peace Dividend is actually to remedy such fiscal irresponsibility. The Peace Dividend refund drives a whole host of fundamental reforms which will over time help to put our financial house in order. However, that’s a topic for another blog.
The Peace Dividend is paid out over three years. Thus, each year we have to come up with $2.3 trillion each fiscal year.
Here’s how we do it. Here’s how we raise a minimum of $2.3 trillion dollars three years in a row . . .
$370 billion . . . cut from the official DOD budget.
$13 billion . . . cut from Overseas Contingency Operations budget.
$25 billion . . . cut from Homeland Security Department agency budgets.
$32 billion . . . cut from the black budgets of the NSA and CIA.
$102 billion . . . raised from closing tax loopholes and taxing off-shored money.
$469 billion . . . ending unnecessary and counter-productive corporate welfare.
$110 billion . . . raised by making corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
$300 billion . . . raising income taxes on the wealthiest to what they were in 1975.
$177 billion. . . raised from financial transaction tax on public trading.
$220 billion . . . raised via a carbon tax of $49 per metric ton of CO2.
$600 billion . . . raised by issuing domestic-use-only U.S. Peace Dollars.
$400 billion . . . raised issuing Peace Bonds for investing in a peaceful future.
We better slow down! We’re already over $2.7 trillion!
Granted, this plan will have to be fine-tuned by acclaimed and self-anointed experts. But before the proselytizers and pretenders armed with skepticism and hatchets subject us to their pompous, pedantic and patronizing pruning, just bear this in mind . . .
The Peace Dividend is a refund due to American citizens. That is a given. Read the book. It’s all there. We didn’t make this stuff up. The facts are clear. In fact, we got them from the government itself. American citizens have been the victims of the greatest rip-off of tax money in the history of the world. They deserve — and should demand, no excuses, no negotiation, no compromise — a full refund. No analysis can alter this reality.
Yes, it may be unprecedented. It most certainly is controversial. Traditionalists and those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo — because it keeps them wealthy and in the centers of power — will declare it outrageous! Insane! Irresponsible! Impossible!
But the the truth is, what’s outrageous, insane, irresponsible and impossible, is to promote and pursue never-ending war, to keep needlessly killing innocent people — including our own fine young men and women in uniform — and to continue turning America into the pariah of the world community with incessant bombing and support of terrorist proxies. What’s truly outrageous, insane, irresponsible and impossible, is spreading chaos, destruction and death, fomenting terrorist attacks and an unparalleled refugee crisis across the globe. Yes, what’s outrageous, insane, irresponsible and impossible, is the pursuit of a psychopathic agenda of imperial conquest, which has destroyed our democracy and imposed a vulgar, savage regime of paranoia and insecurity here at home, i.e. the insidious and fraudulent War on Terror. This madness must be stopped or America will crumble under the weight of its own hubris and delusions of grandeur.
The point here is a simple one. What’s not lacking here are the mechanics of finding and refunding the money.
What’s lacking is the political will. What’s lacking is any sense of responsibility among our corrupt pay-for-play political leaders. What’s tragically lacking is the public awareness of how far out-of-control the situation is. Were people to wake up to what’s really going on with our military madness, imperial delusions of world empire, and the ruthless oppression of everyday citizens under a systematic, propaganda-fueled, carefully-crafted and entirely orchestrated regime of totalitarian control by a veritable handful of rich and powerful elites, heads would roll!
Maybe we’re naive, but we’re hoping it won’t come to that. With 300 million guns at hand, when things start getting violent, we can only expect a bloodbath to unfold. Our sincere hope is that the urgently required regime change is still possible non-violently. We do this by replacing any uncooperative legislators with ones who understand that their obligations are first and foremost to their constituents, that being elected to represent us, implies that they actually will represent us, putting our welfare and the health of our families and communities ahead of all else.
We propose the Peace Dividend as a decisive test. It’s a line in the sand.
Either “they” are for it or against it.
It’s how we decide who to vote for. If a candidate won’t support it — by signing a legally binding contract to guarantee his or her support — then we find one who will.
The games are over. The rich and powerful plutocrats have had a good run. They’ve bled the country and its citizens dry. Now it’s payback time.
If the politicos who’ve created and perpetuated the mess we’re in can’t own up to the error of their way and fix the problem, beginning with proper redress in the form of a full refund of the money taken fraudulently from good, decent, hard-working Americans, then they are not serious about making the necessary changes, regardless of what they say.
Either they give us our money back, or they get their walking papers.
They do not deserve our support and will be removed — unelected — from office.