When the baby boomer generation realizes that the economy is headed to bankruptcy, they will wake up. US has 6.4 trillion in debt, plus another 1.1 trillion in debt (if sunset clauses are rescinded), and add to this the $200 billion a year price tag for the Iraq invasion and occupation, plus the new $406 billion military (defense) budget and you see where this is headed. . PeaceAware PRIORITIES:

PeaceAware | AhimsaAware | DemocracyAware | EconomyAware | EducationAware | FactAware | FaithAware | GlobalAware | JusticeAware | MediaAware | ^{© 'PeaceAware.com'}

One of PeaceAware's key actions is to look at the transfer of jobs from the New Mexico economy to the so-called "Global" one. This is supposed to be progress, but look what it has done to Alamogordo, to the women of "Presto" More...

Nationwide 2,000,000 jobs lost in this economy under the Bush Administration. Go to http://whitehouseforsale.org/ and read about how the Bush campaign supporters are profiteering in the most recent energy bill. "As Bush’s “Dash for Cash Tour” Tops $100 Million, 24 New Contributors Added to List of Rangers and Pioneers The Bush-Cheney re-election campaign’s unprecedented $100 million fundraising effort over the past six months has relied on super-donors – 309 contributors who have attained elite status with the Bush organization, including 24 new bundlers named this week."

Sept - 2003 - $87 billion can perform some pretty impressive feats. For example, according to Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, it would only cost $6 billion a year to provide health insurance to all uninsured children in the United States. You can provide Head Start and Early Head Start to all eligible children for $8 billion annually. You can reduce class size to 15 students per teacher in all first-, second- and third-grade classrooms for $11 billion a year. More...

From the National Priorities Project: "This website offers state-by-state breakdowns of how Resident Bush's requested $87 billion in additional war spending could be spent instead to create more jobs and meet community needs at the same time. The fact sheet also provides a graphic illustration of current federal spending priorities, comparing the total amount of war-related spending with spending on basic needs such as food and nutrition, the environment, housing, education, the environment and veterans' benefits."

Read what 87 billion war spending will do to the State of New Mexico

May 2003 - Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate, May 29, 2003 AUSTIN, Texas—It was horrible and sickening, but I could not stop watching the final days of the Texas Legislature. Fellow Texans, the ripple effects of this disaster will come to haunt us all. Just for starters, this budget is going to cost about 144,000 jobs.

May 29 - CBS News reports: "The resident once ridiculed the tax bill he signed Wednesday as 'a little-bitty tax cut' -- today, he hailed it as fuel for an economic recovery... But unless future congresses are willing to yank back benefits like the $1000 per child tax credit, the little bitty tax cut will actually cost not $350 billion, but close to a trillion dollars over the next ten years, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Bill Plante... Democrats also have criticized the package as a giveaway to the wealthy, stressing its cuts on taxes on capital gains and corporate dividends rather than its lower income tax rates and increases in the federal child credit... after a $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, a $96 billion stimulus last fall and the new $350 billion package, it is widely agreed that Mr. Bush now has ownership of the economy for better or for worse." Read Story

The United States has a balance of payments deficit worth nearly 4 percent of GDP and negative net foreign assets (or foreign debt) worth nearly 20 percent of GDP... The United States is the only major country, or country "bloc," to have a substantial trade deficit and this is proving of great advantage to the rest of the world. Read more.

It is significant that despite recession and economic uncertainty, despite deepening budget and balance of payments deficits, the United States is willing to foot the bill for a massive, open-ended military operation. Monthly Review Press

Dec 13 2002 - The U.S. is living on borrowed money. This week it was announced that the country has $1.4 billion a day deficit in its balance of payments, which needs to be met by borrowing from abroad. Even the ballooning U.S. budget deficit is financed by foreigners buying treasury bonds. US Dollars and Iraqi Oil

If this analysis is roughly correct, then the argument is that the U.S. deficit payments are about paying the interest, not bringing down the debt level. If the NeoCons keep military budgets high, then besides education, the area of the budget that will be sacrificed in the years ahead is the Baby Boomers' social security benefits.

• Feb 27 2003 - AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Thursday that delays in making necessary changes in Social Security and Medicare to handle the impending retirement of baby boomers could mean "abrupt and painful" adjustments later on. CBS News
• May 25 2003 - Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system in which younger workers support elderly non-workers. The rub? In 15 years, the cash coming into Social Security will be less than the payments out. And those projections are based on a booming economy -- not a year like this one!
• What will happen? Most likely "the slow chisel." For the next 20 years, hard-working baby boomers (40-55) are creating "surpluses" in Social Security. That's the good news. The bad is that like all trusts, Social Security puts the money into treasuries -- essentially IOUs from the government. Not real assets. When the government needs to meet payments for its programs (education, transportation, defense), it draws down these surpluses. The easy. Reduce benefits to the elderly, hike the retirement age or increase payroll taxes. San Francisco Examiner
• Mar 8 - Democrats have blamed the revival of deficits -- after four years of surpluses under President Clinton -- on Bush's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut that Congress approved in 2001. Republicans blame the faltering economy and an expensive fight against terrorism, saying that dealing with both is more important than balancing the budget. Herald-Leader.
• The UN Security Council voted overwhelmingly May 22 to end nearly 13 years of sanctions on Iraq. The resolution offered by the U.S., Britain and Spain, which passed by a 14 to 0 vote, gives an international legal standing to the coalition forces' broad authority over the management of Iraq, over the formation of an Iraqi government and over billions of dollars in annual oil revenues.
  

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers. As you drive by the weekly peace vigil, take note, we will hoist more signs that as the baby boomers retire, the
money for the pay-as-you-go social security will have been spent on military budget, tax cuts for the wealthy.

Attention SUV drivers. Enjoy those emission-exemptions. Soon the oil will run out, and even the grab for oil in Iraq will not buy you very much time.

Bottom line, Baby boomers are asleep. They will wake up when their Social Security is sacked and when their SUV has no more gas.

See the War Profiteers List: Which corporations are making the big bucks from the Iraq Invasion and Occupation?

IT IS TIME TO RECLAIM DEMOCRACY - IT IS WE THE PEOPLE

Are you willing to make the time to become PeaceAware?

• 2 Minutes - TO BE PEACEAWARE.

• 5 Minutes - TO BE PEACEAWARE.
• 1 Hour - TO BE PEACEAWARE.

Thank you - Every volunteer minute you spend, helps the World Wide Peace Movement