Obama Seeks to Expand Public Service

[Doug]

Obama said he would boost the size of the active military, but that the nation's future depends on more than just additional soldiers.

"It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school working in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," he said.

Obama reflected on how the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy both made public service hallmarks of their administration and how the nation was the better for such efforts.

He promised to increase AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 and pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011.

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."

Obama called for greater integration with schools, so that young Americans are better prepared to be active citizens. He said he would make federal assistance conditional on school districts establishing service programs and set the goal of 50 hours of service a year for middle and high school students.

"Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously," he said.

For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and repeated his pledge to create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students that would be tied to that level of service.

See here.

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DOUG
We need a larger military? I thought he was going to draw down.

And do we need more public service? How are we going to pay for all this?

[Dardedar]

DOUG
We need a larger military?

DAR
Everyone pretty much agrees (Kerry talked about this too) if you want to go on these adventures, and apparently the US does, then you ought to use professional, properly paid, volunteer soldiers rather than destroy your National Guard and reserves.

I thought he was going to draw down.

DAR
From Iraq. I wait with interest to see how that claim goes.

And do we need more public service?

DAR
Bigtime. Few dollars are as well spent as encouraging the kiddies with a (little subsidizing) to help out in the community or work in Peace Corp. It's one of the most sane thing the US has ever done. And it can be funded with a couple of days of spending in Iraq.

How are we going to pay for all this?

DAR
Borrowed from China like all the rest. How can you ask that question with a straight face?! Bush just signed another $162 billion down payment to continue the wars and you want to raise this question with regard to actual sensible spending? Just that additional $162 billion represents 500x the annual budget of the Peace Corp. I will never begrudge money well spent and the tiny Peace Corp should be expanded 10x or better, 100x. It would change the world. Their budget in 2004 was: $325 million. They have about 8,000 people involved.

That $325 million will pay for one wing on a B1 bomber. Just.

Think of it this way. Water = Money. There is a fire hose blast of water going toward Iraq. The Peace Corp gets a teaspoon worth. When someone wants to up it to a cup, we don't ask "How are we going to pay for all of this."

That's ridiculous!

D.

[Doug]

DOUG
We need a larger military?

DAR
Everyone pretty much agrees (Kerry talked about this too) if you want to go on these adventures, and apparently the US does, then you ought to use professional, properly paid, volunteer soldiers rather than destroy your National Guard and reserves.

DOUG
But our military is so broken we can't afford, in dollars or in blood or in equipment, to go on anymore conquering expeditions. We need to spend like hell to fix the broken military, but if we bring the troops home we don't need to get more of them.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

We do need a larger military, Doug. Our current little - adventure - in Iraq has broken the military and part of fixing it will require more hires of a higher class than we are currently getting. We've got kids on their 4th tours over there. We've also got damn near 1/2 our National Guard over there. Additionally, most of our military support has been outsourced - whether you're talking about Blackwater mercenaries or the Halliburton truck with the water, food, clothing, fuel, arms, ammo, and armor on it. We need to put the military back on a footing that makes them independent in the field. Yes, we need lean, tight forces for dealing with emergencies (preferably in conjunction with U.N. forces) - but we don't have a single independent unit and we don't have a 100% combat-ready unit even among our dependent on the Halliburton truck one. We need a larger, stronger military than we currently have - and to get rid of the no-bid contractors that are currently taking the place of our military.

Ending our Iraqi adventure won't end the money we'll have to spend recovering from it, but it will reduce it bigtime. Shutdown the Iraqi occupation and you've almost covered the deficity. In addition, haul out Al Gore's 1993 report "Reinventing Government" and put it (back) into use. Those two will get us back into a slight surplus situation. Get rid of the tax-giveaways for the wealthy (including corporate welfare) and now you have the money for public service (including but not exclusively the Peace Corps), a WPA-type program to rebuilt and retrofit our infrastructure, AND a "green bond" program to move us off a fossil fuel economy.