minutia press.

It's interesting that the conversation about candidates and their positions has shifted from Iraq and the "war" to domestic problems with our economy. We've moved from a topic where there were clear differences between the parties as to what should be done (should we stay or should we go?) to a topic where it's almost universally held that something should be done, and the parties are mostly in agreement about what they will do.

However, except for NPR, I don't hear much mention in the media about any connection between the Iraq activities and our domestic economic problems. At $177M per day, one can't help but wonder to what better use such funds could be put?

Also, except for NPR, I don't hear anybody asking from where the money will come to pay for the tax rebates that both sides of the Aisle seem to think will jump start the economy. Some senator was interviewed about this today on NPR and he told a fine story about the good that the rebate will do. When the interviewer asked where the money would come from, the senator just about fell apart. It's going to be borrowed, he finally said.

Borrowed? From where? We owe China trillions already. The interviewer even asked if the government was just going to print all that money and send it out as rebates. Again, the senator fell apart, saying that Bush's plan and his amendments all amounted to the same kind of thing....but he couldn't really articulate what kind of thing that was.

There is a link between spending in Iraq and insufficient funds at home. There should be some basis for generating tax refunds, in terms of spending cuts or revenue to pay for it.

We are again being sold a bill of good and being steered from the conversation that would have taken place to a conversation where only the public can lose. Brilliant, really.

It seems pretty clear that if we wanted to fix Social Security and Medicare or start national health insurance, the money is there. Or at least it was, until we spent that money on Iraq while our politicians told us there wasn't enough money for these other things. It's pretty disgusting.

Amazingly enough, Mike Huckabee, who I disagree with on just about everything, hit the nail on the head about the rebates. He said something to the effect of "We are going to pay for them by borrowing money from China, and then use that money to buy goods made in China." But everyone sees $600 and gets all excited about the cool stuff they could buy.

And what would we do without NPR?