Budget priorities should take care of people

Do we really need to fund more research and development for new ways to kill people? The B-21 bomber development costs are $23.5 billion and the cost for 100 planes will be $55 billion (“family of systems” it will use will cost extra). The cost to ‘update’ our nuclear arsenal — $2.4 billion (are we ever going to use these? I hope not.). The USS Zumwalt, a 600-foot ship will cost at least $4.4 billion. And I’m sure the Marines want something new, too.

When do we come to our senses and realize not everyone in the world is either out to destroy us or needs us to save them? Ever? People like to say we are the richest nation on earth and yet we have people living in poverty. We aren’t even taking care of our own and we are all over the world trying to what....build democracies? And please, please, please. I don’t want to hear that old hackneyed phrase ‘We’re fighting for our freedoms’. Do the people who say that realize how stupid that sounds? The politicians, controlled by lobbyists for the corporations, want to be in control of the world. That’s the opposite of freedom, ours and everyone else.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Budget priorities should take care of people."