Date: Feature Week of March 30, 2003
Topic: Black Press Business/Economic
Author: William Reed
Article ID: article_ema033003a

WHY SHOULD WHITE GUYS HAVE ALL THE FUN?
Where Are Bucks For Blacks In Bush's War?

President George W Bush has asked Congress for $75 billion in emergency funding to pay for the military campaign in Iraq and to reward key allies and defense contractors.

The package, which includes $63 billion for the Pentagon's Iraq mobilization as well as the ongoing war on terrorism, bears little for Black Americans who oppose the war 3 to 1.

The economics of the war with Iraq represents a time-honored tradition where everyone is equal except when they are of color or without much money.

There are 2.5 million millionaires and 298 billionaires in the U.S. and many of these wealthy Americans are at the forefront to receive even more money from waging the war and rebuilding Iraq.

The 9/11 attack on the U.S. economy caused metropolitan areas to sustain losses of about $191 billion and 1.6 million jobs, but little of this funding will go to build, or secure, urban economies.

The economy lost 308,000 jobs in February, and the number of long-term unemployed is at its highest level since 1992.

The war and its aftermath will also add billions to a federal budget already at a projected $312 deficit.

The budget provides only $4 billion to bolster security in the U.S. against terrorism, but about $5 billion in bilateral foreign aid, including billions for Middle East allies Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey.

It also includes a $3.5 billion down payment on Iraq's reconstruction and for humanitarian relief.

Sixty-one percent of African Americans say they oppose the war with Iraq compared with 20 percent of white Americans.

Overall, 72 percent of Americans said they support military action. In areas where Blacks could gain social and economic benefits from staffing and receiving services, the federal government is only spending $42 billion on education, $26 billion on affordable housing, $6 billion on Head Start, and $1 billion on school construction.

Children's advocates would rather use such money to modernize crumbling public schools, buy health insurance for millions of U.S. kids, and better fund Head Start for the one-third of eligible children who can't get into programs because of under-funding.

The vast amounts of money going to defense contractors and foreign government allies are not only depriving Blacks, but also Americans of all hues.

In the richest country in the world 14 million kids attend schools that need extensive renovation or replacement.

In international test scores, Black, Hispanic and white U.S. eighth graders rank 18 in math and 19 in science, below Slovenia, Singapore, and Hungary, among others.

Our child poverty rate hovers over 15 percent, meaning about one in six kids lives in poverty.

Over 40 million Americans, including about 10 million children, have no health insurance.

While they are not represented in the corporate hierarchies of companies such as the Carlyle Group, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, Bechtel Group and the Fluor Corp., African American do have a high count among the combatants.

Black soldiers account for more than 35 percent of the Army - half of all the Army's enlisted women are Black.

Although little of the war budget will help build, or secure, their communities, African American soldiers represent nearly double their numbers in the population - 21 percent of all America's military branches.

Defense contractors that spend $50 million annually on lobbyists are the primary benefactors of the war.

While the white guys who guide America's defense policies, and run the firms that supply the Pentagon will benefit greatly, Bush's entire $2.13 trillion 2003 budget wipes out what was left of the surplus and skimps on programs for working people and the poor.

Bush's budgets, and his friends, are undermining the nation's social safety net and the government's ability to carry out some of its basic responsibilities over the next two decades.

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© 2000-2003 William Reed - www.BlackPressInternational.com