WASTED ALLOWANCE

i was given a small allowance as a boy. my parents, i assume, did so to teach me the value of a dollar. i had forced myself to maintain my manners and help out around the household in order to get my grubby hands on some of those sweet greenbacks at the week's end. sure enough, come wednesday, i would come groveling back for more.

"Where'd your allowance go?" mom would ask.
usually, my answer was plucked from a hat holding only three choices.
candy.
video games.
comic books.

instead of holding onto my small wage for something more worthwhile, i wasted it on things i didn't need. bad habits seen through the eyes of a parent, but ones which could lead me to one day becoming our nation's president.

the legislative and executive branches of our government have been butting heads since the congressional elections last year. lately, the arm wrestling has centered around a military funding bill. the president refuses to pass it due to the troop withdrawal deadlines that have been added. there in lies the debate. not the actual dollar amount that the bill will allocate to fund the middle east war effort. everyone is in agreement there. an additional $126.2 billion. not if, but when this bill passes, we, the tax payers, will have spent a total of $456 billion dollars funding this war on terror.

$456,000,000,000.00

that's just for the war effort. today, while looking more into this disturbing bit of information, i came across an article on The Boston Globe's website that proposes some alternate options for spending that money, had we not gotten enveloped in this mess. i summarized it below, but feel free to check out the original here.

• 2,949 Newton North High Schools (the most expensive, state of the art high school in Massachusetts. it educates over 2,000 students and boasts a full dramatic theater, dance studio, pool, TV studio, extensive art department and photography darkrooms, and much more)

• free gas for everyone for 1.2 years

• for 1/6 of the 456 billion (or about 1/2 of the amount stated in the upcoming bill), the federal government could pick up the tab for converting every registered vehicle in the united stated to run on ethanol. a conversion with a measly $500 price tag.

• 14.5 million full 1-year scholarship to Harvard

• medicare benefits for 2008 (with a 2 billion left over for candy)

• according to the World Bank's estimates, $456 billion could keep the entire planet's impoverished both fed and educated without assistance for 5.5 years.

next years descretionary budget will, as of now, be doling out $717 billion to military and department of defense spending. that's approximately 66%. meanwhile, the federally funded NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), which provides financial support and grants toward artistic excellence and education, will be receiving a mere $121 million annually - 1%. almost seven times that will be spent on bullets.