Budget Austerity: F-35 Fighter Jets Without Engines

Dear Mr. President,

This morning’s New York Times called your latest budget proposal “a new offer…to resolve the pending fiscal crisis” (aka “fiscal cliff”, the imaginary disaster if the Bush tax cuts are rolled back and automatic spending cuts occur). Reading the details of your new plan, I got the feeling of déjà vu again—you’re saying one thing and doing just the opposite. Your new plan, almost identical to Boehner’s, includes $800 billion in direct cuts to federal programs, half from cuts in federal health care, plus $122 billion from Social Security by changing the cost-of-living calculation to a chained CPI so seniors feel the pain. And your plan to raise taxes on the rich is a charade: the top tax rate of 39.6% is up a whopping 4.6%? And it only applies to incomes above $400,000 rather than the original $250,000? The article goes on to point out that the current income level where the top tax rate kicks in is $388,350, which means the rich actually got a tax break of $11,650 before they pay higher taxes. That’s sick, Mr. President, giving the 1% a tax break under the guise of taxing the rich. But it’s also your MO. A real tax on the rich would be a marginal tax rate like France’s 75% for incomes over $1.3 million, or 90% like it was back in Eisenhower’s time, or 75% in Nixontimes or 70% before Reagan slashed taxes on the rich in half. Even Business Insider, not exactly a liberal news site, is surprised at your “caving” on income tax rates since the polls are strongly in favor of your original plan and against the Republicans’. (As I keep saying, you’re the best president the Republicans have ever had.) Another article in today’s Times, reports that the Pentagon will resume payments to “our Pakistani partners” for guarding the Afghan border—$688 million for the past 6 months, in addition to the $1.5 billion a year in nonmilitary aid and $2 billion a year in military aid. This, in spite of their “growing nuclear arsenal” and move to make their nuclear weapons more portable. (Why are we not threatening Pakistan with sanctions like we do Iran?) In another article, the Pentagon signed a contract on Friday with Lockheed for 32 more F-35 fighter jets at a cost of $3.5+ billion. Without engines! Engines are now extra? No wonder their profit is doubling on this contract. All this while healthcare, education and social services are cut and our infrastructure crumbles. War profiteers prosper while the rest of us suffer and our president betrays us once again.