I am not an expert on the economy or on balancing anything more substantial than my checkbook, but I do know that many of the programs slashed by House Republicans this week are not the cause of our financial woes. Groups specifically targeted include homeless veterans, low income women and children, those benefitting from mosquito nets and HIV testing, and those displaced by war and persecution.
A ruby red House passed a budget that would cut US assistance to refugees by 45%, reducing support from $1.685 billion to $823 million. Should the Senate accept these reductions, the number of refugees currently depending on the US for clean water in camps or an opportunity to start new lives in this country will be greatly and tragically reduced.
It is no exaggeration to say that these cuts will cost lives. True, these lives are not American lives, but the world’s most powerful country has an obligation to provide humanitarian assistance as it is able. And we are able. As tough as times are for many Americans, we have not been reduced to living in tents, risking rape in order to collect firewood, or subsisting on a couple tablespoons of oil and a cup of cornmeal a day. Our children can still go to school. Most importantly, we are still living in the country we call home. As tough as many of our lives have become, we are still living in abundance.
Our continued willingness to fight and finance two wars while increasing military spending confirms we are not yet living in scarcity. The Republican bill provides $526 billion in defense spending, up from $523 billion in 2010. Republicans want to cut a relatively small but vital humanitarian program nearly in half but increase already hefty military spending? The United States has the biggest military budget in the world, outspending China, the second biggest spender, six times over. It can be safely said that shifting a few dollars from defense to humanitarian assistance isn’t going to break the Pentagon. (Check out this video that explains a similar sentiment using Oreos as props. Yum.)
In addition, maintaining humanitarian funding goes a long way to improving the image of the US around the world. We hear a lot of talk about winning hearts and minds, but it is hard to believe the sincerity of those words when military spending increases as humanitarian assistance decreases.
I don’t know about you, but my heart isn’t won at the barrel of a gun.
