The Carroll Standard

Taylor: Money, Jobs, Deficits---and Wars

Good evening---I'm getting an earlier start on this than normally.

I heard on the news that we are now spending $14 on Iraq and Afghanistan for every $1 here at home---and this at a time when the Baltimore City Council defeated a bill to raise the minimum wage for working city dwellers to $ 10 an hour! Unemployment is now nearing 10% nationally---or at 8 1/2 million people---with the national budget deficit standing at $ 1.47 trillion!

These are sobering figures, indeed! My Republican friends say, "Stop spending!" and there is merit for government to consider such sound advice---but we can't just stand still: we must DO something more proactive to end our current course both at home and abroad.

I am not rash enough to believe that I have all the answers to everything, and no one does, either, especially in American political life today. I ask the advice of others all the time, especially if I know that they disagree with me. Sometimes, the advice I get DOES agree with my own beliefs, however. One of my friends since our college days is a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates who is a far more practical politician than I will ever be. I asked him some basic questions about jobs, the economy, the national debt, and the national budget deficit in Washington, DC. Here is how he answered me:

"I think the answer for now is to 'begin' to reduce the national debt figure---a total of ALL debt---by balancing the budget deficit of two Federal agencies at a time, beginning with the first year with HUD/Housing and Urban Development, which is bloated, and has a zillion---yes, a zillion---contracts with landlords nationwide to fund Section 8. All those dollars need to be re-channelled to loans to purchase homes, which stimulates the economy and builds communities.

"To further answer the question, re-introduce the Blaine Taylor Marshall Plan to rebuild America---high-tech factories, environmental projects to reduce dependence on foreign oil, and support for the Arizona Plan to halt illegal immigration."

I think that this, too, is sound advice, and also takes a more pro-active stance than merely "stop spending." Aside from reading, reflection, and study, I also take time to watch and listen to TV documentaries and dramatic movies of all periods because many of them provide answers to some of the pressing problems that we face now. Two nights ago, for instance, I saw a French documentary on WETA PBS-TV that focused on a new bicycle service in Paris that might well be replicated here. A new company called Velib divided Paris into 400 districts of equal size and population, and studied peak travel times therein. It supplied 10,000 rental bikes to those 400 areas at relative distances. Riders rent the bikes at one location for a given time period, and then deposit them at other locations when they reach their destinations. The system even works in the winter, but not so well in rainy weather. It also compliments the already existing bus and subway system such as many US cities have as well. It doesn't pollute, provides fun and useful transportation for all ages and both sexes, and is an employer that pays taxes. Bikes that are left at the bottom of hills are picked up by trucks and taken back to the tops. The Parisian Seine River is used by a barge that repairs the bikes right in the heart of the city---a movable, waterborne pathway such as exists in San Antonio, which I visited in 2000. I could see such a system operating well in Maryland's smaller cities and towns, and even in Baltimore to an extent. This is innovative thinking at its best, in my view.

I will close on a more somber note. Last night, I saw again the 2002 movie The Sum of All Fears, in which a terrorist bent on fomenting nuclear war between the US and Russia detonates a nuclear bomb in downtown Baltimore during a pro football game attended by the President. While the damage shown was partially realistic, its scope and scale certainly was NOT! Such an explosion would devastate our city and all of Maryland for years and even generations to come---and yet just such devastation is what we as a people are seriously flirting with by backing Israel at the expense of our OWN interests. Pakistan---the next country that we may very well invade---already HAS nuclear weapons, as does Israel. Again, we are flirting with nuclear destruction by our adventurist foreign policy and foolish militarist wars abroad. It's been said that the 2001 destruction of the Twin Towers in New York paralyzed our economy for over a year. Think! What would a concerted series of explosions do to it in several major cities at the same time? Our enemies have demonstrated that they are capable of such unified action, but lack the means. If we are going to invade Pakistan to seize those nuclear weapons, then we should be told so, not lied to by pretending that Islamic Pakistan is really, somehow, our ally, when we already know that it is secretly funding and helping Al Queda. I submit to you that ALL of the economic problems and worries we now have can and will be wiped out in an instant should such a concerted attack occur. Is Israel's security worth our own? I say no. Are they separate and distinct entities? They are. It is time for Israel to defend itself.

As a former combat soldier of the lost Vietnam War, I do not favor either surrender or appeasement, but neither choice faces us. I will have a more positive alternative to offer in the coming days. Meanwhile, I am not alone in wanting to end these wars: today, 70 more Democratic Members of Congress voted against the further funding of our wars for the next two years of $ 33 billion dollars---money that will NOT create jobs or end unemployment. These are 70 MORE Members than voted against such funding the last time a vote was held. The measure passed, but the opposition---of which I am but a part---is growing. Good night.

--Blaine Taylor, Democratic Candidate for United States Senate; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .'; document.write(''); document.write(addy_text83915); document.write('<\/a>'); //-->\n This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.