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Charlie Rangel volunteering your kids

November 21, 2006

Congressman Charlie Rangel is stepping up the heat on his call for a renewal of the draft.  His reasoning, if you call it that:

“There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought their kids in their communities would be placed in harm’s way,” said Rangel, a Korean War veteran.

Charlie, if you want to get people involved, forget blackmail, forget threatening to enslave their children in warfare.  If you really want to get their attention, pass a constitutional amendment for a balanced federal budget.  Make the government stop whipping out the plastic to go to war; let the tax bill reflect the cost of war, right now. 

The advantage of this approach is it would get the attention of rich people (and congressmen), whose children normally find some way to weasel out of a draft. 

If we’re really threatened and we need to defend ourselves, people will ante up.  But if it’s another one of these corporate-stroking foreign adventures started on lies and sustained by “in for a penny,” no politician in the country would sign off on it. 

Either that, or congressmen are our new front-line troops.  I’d go for that.

Categories: Politics
  1. November 22, 2006 at 11:07 | #1

    So I am assuming you are saying that in this amendment there is a stipulation that all war funding is to come from tax revenue? 

    If this is the case it is a fantastic idea, but has as much chance of ever getting passed as Charlie’s idea.  How many Republicans got campaign financing and other lobbying money from this war.  It’s a stream of funding that Bush aint going to cut off.

    But when Bush is out of office… well I think you may have a chance.

  2. November 29, 2006 at 22:58 | #2

    All too often, other people getting killed is a sacrifice that those who do not face the personal risks are willing to make. Privilege and personal responsibility should go hand in hand, but generally don’t. The above suggestion is a way to even the score.

    On the other hand, directly hitting the constituent’s wallet is a quick way to evaporate support for dubious military adventures. Then again, something like this would make the budget of the Ministry of Propaganda mushroom.

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