This page was last updated on February 2, 2011.
Military spending must be cut, too; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; February 2, 2011.
Mr. Hum has written more than 57 letters since mid-2004, including a 10-month hiatus from September 2007 to July 2008. Most of Mr. Hum’s letters are no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.
Mr. Hum frequently includes “fellow Republicans” or something similar in his letters and is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, and George Reese.) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.
Given his body of work, for a while I wondered what Mr. Hum would use for subject matter now that Barack Obama is President. Mr. Hum wrote three letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly (here, here, and here), then he reverted to his Bush-bashing habit, as in “Bush earns status as ‘most liberal.’” I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome. Mr. Hum’s last letter was entitled “We need more John Wayne Republicans.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“In 1980, the national debt was less than $1 trillion.
“After Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush, it was $8 trillion. A lot came when President George W. Bush used the Chinese credit card to finance two wars and a Medicare drug prescription program.”
[RWC] You have to give Mr. Hum credit for chutzpah. As I noted above, Mr. Hum wrote three letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly, yet bashes Mr. Bush for “a Medicare drug prescription program.” I opposed Medicare Part D and still do. That said, this program has actually come in significantly under estimates, from $694 million over 10 years to about $395 million over 10 years.
“Then he bailed out Wall Street, and President Barack Obama added a trillion or so to prevent another Bush-Hoover type recession.”
[RWC] Mr. Hum appears to forget Mr. Obama agreed with the misguided bailouts and even named Timothy Geithner as his Treasury Secretary. Claiming Mr. “Obama added a trillion or so” to the debt doesn’t give Mr. Obama proper credit. The White House estimates our debt by the end of fiscal year 2011 will be about $15.1 trillion, or about a $3.3 trillion increase in only two years.
Now let’s go to the “Bush-Hoover type recession” comment. Though a nominal member of the Republican Party (He once belonged to the Progressive Party and almost ran for office as a Democrat.), Herbert Hoover was a Progressive, like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR. Therefore, when faced with the 1929 stock market crash, Mr. Hoover reacted as a Progressive. The big difference between Messrs. Hoover and Roosevelt was FDR did a lot more of what Mr. Hoover started. Leftists would like us to believe the 1929 stock market crash caused the Great Depression. In truth, the “progressive” policies of the Hoover and FDR administrations took what should have been a short-term “normal” recession and turned it into a 10+-year Great Depression.
“We cannot leave the cost of two wars to our grandchildren. We need a 1 percent surcharge on the income tax. If the income tax is $1,000, add $10. If it’s $1 million, add $10,000.”
[RWC] “The cost of two wars?” What about WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, et cetera? When were those wars paid for? Since 1931, we’ve run a deficit for all but about 12 years.
Though I oppose Mr. Hum’s proposal, I need to point out his recommendation would be a drop in the bucket.
“Speaking of war costs, the military took 10 percent of the budget when President Dwight Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex. Today, it takes over 20 percent of the federal budget, and some think it is even more. We spend more on defense than all other nations combined. The Air Force is larger than all others combined, and the Navy has the second largest air force.”
[RWC] I don’t know where Mr. Hum got his info, but according to the White House, national defense averaged just over 57% of the budget during the Eisenhower administration, not the 10% Mr. Hum claims. A higher percentage during the Eisenhower administration makes sense because we had far fewer extra-constitutional spending programs at the time. Mr. Hum’s assertion national defense currently consumes about 20% of the budget appears to be in the ballpark.
“We spend more on defense than all other nations combined?” I don’t know if it’s correct, but Wikipedia claims the “2009 U.S. military budget account[ed] for approximately 40% of global arms spending.” That’s not “more … than all other nations combined.” In any case, who cares? Our spending should be based on our needs, not based on what others spend.
“Before we start cutting Grandma’s Social Security and Medicare, remember the Navy’s 11 aircraft carrier battle groups. With all that firepower, some nitwit president could get us involved in an unnecessary war.”
[RWC] It’s nice to know where Mr. Hum’s priorities lie. Mr. Hum would rather we spend money on extra-constitutional (at best) programs at the expense of real constitutional responsibilities. If we weren’t spending so much on extra-constitutional programs, defense spending as a percent of the U.S. federal budget would actually be a lot higher than it is, as we saw during the Eisenhower administration.
“Don’t laugh. It could happen.”
[RWC] I think Mr. Hum is referring to Messrs. Truman, JFK, and LBJ.
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