The Government always has money for War not for Healthcare.
The United States can pay for war but not for healthcare.
At a recent press conference, Jen Psaki was asked about the idea of free covid-tests. She responded by saying “then what happens if every American has one test, how much does that cost?”. Independent journalist Lauren Elizabeth pointed out in a piece about this issue for Medium that in the U.K. you can order a kit of seven covid-tests for free daily. The Independent reported that tests are free or very cheap all across Europe. But the most interesting part of this exchange is the fact that Psaki asked “how much does that cost”. This is such an insane question given that the United States house just authorized a $778 billion defense budget and the United States Congress also recently voted against blocking a $650 million sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
This just goes to show what anyone who even remotely pays attention to politics already knows- the United States government always has money for war-never for its own people. The United States spends more on the military than China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Australia combined while people die from lack of health insurance. The 2018 increase in the Miltary budget could have made college free for every American.
More than half of Americans who were infected with Covid-19 or who lost money because of the pandemic are now struggling with medical debt. Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people with medical debt grew nine percent. 40 percent of covid infections and 33 percent of covid deaths could have been prevented with a Medicare for all system. Medicare for all could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives over the course of the pandemic. But the psychotic American government would rather spend money on an even bigger military budget to saber rattle with China and give arms to Saudi Arabia to continue its ongoing genocidal war in Yemen than give healthcare to every American during a pandemic.
All this is to say the government does not give a fuck about you. They are more than happy to give all the money in the world to the military-industrial complex while average Americans die from lack of health insurance and go bankrupt from medical bills. Electoral politics is not the solution, elected “progressives” do nothing to stand up to the democratic party that is continuing the same pro-war policies of the Trump administration. Grassroots action is the only way to escape this crisis and force the government to give a shit about its own people.