On The Leading Edge

The American Workers Party is the organized will of the American Worker.

WTF does that mean? It means simply that the Party reflects the wants and needs of the American Worker. It goes out to the people, listens to them, takes notes, investigates, publishes reports, prioritizes steps and sets goals, engineers ways to achieve goals in the most efficient manner, and works to make progress toward the accomplishment of these goals.

It may sound 'cosmic' but it is really very simple. First things first: when your house is on fire you don't worry about mowing the lawn. Your first priority should be the safety and well-being of your family. Your next priority is putting out the fire. In order to survive and make progress toward our goals we need to get organized, set priorities and take positive action. It doesn't take a 'rocket scientist' to figure out the obvious.

What's the biggest threat to the United States? International terrorism? Illegal immigration? War with China? Homosexual marriage? National healthcare? The collapse of the economic system? The greed and cruelty of the 1% who own and control our nation? The coming corporate capitalist police-state? The errosion of our rights and freedoms? War with Iran? The decline in altruism? Patriotism? Morality? - Where is the fire?

They used to say, "It's the economy, stupid..." Do you agree or disagree?

Before we can come to any conclusions we must have all the facts...

The 'War on Terror' 

Wars fought by the U.S. in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have cost the nation more than $1 trillion, making the "war on terrorism" second only to World War II, according to a congressional report.

The "Cost of Major U.S. Wars" analysis by the Congressional Research Service found that in the nearly nine years since the twin towers fell, the nation has spent an estimated $1.15 trillion on combat overseas, CNN reported. 

By comparison, World War II cost $4.1 trillion when adjusted for inflation. But WW II consumed a massive 36 percent of America's gross domestic product, compared to about one percent for the post-9/11 conflicts, CNN said.

Illegal Immigration

$11 billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.

Illegal households only pay about one-third the amount of federal taxes that non-illegal households pay.

Illegal households create a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion a year. If given amnesty, this number could grow to more than $29 billion.

$1.9 billion dollars a year is spent on food-assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

$1.6 billion is spent on the federal prison and court system for illegal aliens.

$2.5 billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.

About 21 percent of the population of U.S. prisons is classified as “noncitizens” from Mexico, Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. About 5 percent is listed as “unknown.”

The Military

Budget breakdown for 2012

Defense-related expenditure 2012 Budget request & Mandatory spending Calculation:

DOD spending $707.5 billion Base budget + "Overseas Contingency Operations"

FBI counter-terrorism $2.7 billion At least one-third FBI budget.

International Affairs $5.6–$63.0 billion At minimum, foreign arms sales. At most, entire State budget

Energy Department, defense-related $21.8 billion

Veterans Affairs $70.0 billion

Homeland Security $46.9 billion

NASA, satellites $3.5–$8.7 billion Between 20% and 50% of NASA's total budget

Veterans pensions $54.6 billion

Other defense-related mandatory spending $8.2 billion

Interest on debt incurred in past wars $109.1–$431.5 billion Between 23% and 91% of total interest

Total Spending $1.030–$1.415 trillion

Homosexuality

Each citizen subsidizes gays’ pleasure by ‘contributing’ $112/year toward the costs of gay HIV infection. We give $33/year toward the HIV costs of drug shooters’ fun.

“These are voluntary activities,” said Dr. Paul Cameron, Chairman of the Family Research Institute, a conservative think-tank. “We already have to pay plenty for those who get pleasure from voluntarily engaging in homosexual sex or shooting drugs. Gay civil unions would cost us even more.

“Research shows partnered gays are more apt to acquire HIV. Giving them civil unions so gays can pay fewer taxes, get more disease, and thereby cost us more is nuts. We give the married tax breaks because we need them to have and raise children – no kids equals no future. We don’t need and should not encourage the homosexually compulsive to get together. We already ‘donate’ billions every year toward the HIV consequence of gays’ amusement. American taxpayers should say ‘no’ to further gay mooching.

“Gays are more apt to engage in criminality, get STDs, abuse substances, and have accidents. These contribute toward making our total ‘gay tax’ double or triple the gay AIDS tax. Government should not spend money to encourage gays to further injure society and thereby raise our tax burden.”

CDC estimates for 2002 were based on 40,000 new cases of HIV infection/year1– $6.7B in direct and $29.7B in productivity loss (other morbidity costs were not included). The CDC now estimates 56,000 cases/year, and gays are contributing an ever larger share of new infections.2 As 55%+ of new HIV infections are among gays, adjusted for inflation (~3%/year), the estimated cost for gay’s HIV infections in 2010 was $24.9B/yr. or about $208/yr/household at 40,000 cases, $291/yr at 56,000 cases. In comparison, every year the US spends about $500B on K-12 education, and about $40B on the ‘war on drugs.’

Unemployed, Out-Of-School Youth 

A sizable minority of America's youth aren't in school or attached to the labor force. And it's costing taxpayers big.

About 17 percent of America's young people are "opportunity youth" -- or people ages 16-24 who aren't attached to the labor force -- according to a report prepared by researchers for the Corporation for National and Community Service and the White House Council for Community Solutions (h/t Think Progress). Each one of these 6.7 million young people is costing taxpayers $13,900 per year and it doesn't stop there. After 25 years old, they'll cost taxpayers $170,740 over their lifetime, the report found.

That means that in total, those currently classified as so-called opportunity youth will cost taxpayers $1.56 trillion in present value terms over their whole lifetime.

"Both taxpayers and society lose out when the potential of these youth is not realized," the report said.

The Cost of Israel to US Taxpayers

For many years the American media said that “Israel receives $1.8 billion in military aid” or that “Israel receives $1.2 billion in economic aid.” Both statements were true, but since they were never combined to give us the complete total of annual U.S. aid to Israel, they also were inaccurate.

Recently Americans have begun to read and hear that “Israel receives $3 billion in annual U.S. foreign aid.” That's true. But it's still not accurate. The problem is that in fiscal 1997 alone, Israel received from a variety of other U.S. federal budgets at least $525.8 million above and beyond its $3 billion from the foreign aid budget, and yet another $2 billion in federal loan guarantees. So the complete total of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel for fiscal 1997 was almost six billion (USD)...

We could go on forever, but, hopefully, you get the point... Nobody even discusses the less obvious problems. (Maybe its not 'politically correct'?)

Where's the fire?

The world economy (of which we are a part) is collapsing. The American worker is working harder - if he has a job - than he was in the 1970s and 1980s and making less. The top 1% is rolling in clover... making money hand-over-fist... Corporate Capitalism controls our government and politicians... The fire is that the American worker (and the environment, and our children, and our veterans, and our senior citizens) are getting butt-raped by the System almost constantly... and without respite.

If you had a car that wouldn't start in the morning, kept breaking down and costing you more and more money on repairs, wasn't a reliable means to get you where you wanted to go, and was dangerous to the safety of you and your family - what would you do?

You'd get rid of it and get another one! If that wasn't possible, you'd find some other means of transportation!

It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that the System is junk and we need to replace it...

And, that's the Truth!