Author name: davidswanson

By David Swanson

On Tuesday President Obama proposed that any increases in federal spending on anything useful, such as healthcare or retirement security, must be balanced by cuts and savings to something else useful, such as healthcare or retirement security.

“The pay-as-you-go rule is very simple,” Obama said. “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.” Except that it’s not so simple. Obama would make an exception to allow Bush’s tax read more

By David Swanson

The greatest war fraud is the funding of war by individuals who claim to oppose it and who vote against funding it whenever a bill is guaranteed to pass. On May 14, 2009, 60 congress members voted against $85 billion to continue the war in Iraq and escalate the war in Afghanistan, plus $12 billion more to buy the Pentagon airplanes it doesn’t want and related extravagances. Of those 60, 51 were Democrats. Some of read more

By David Swanson, http://afterdowningstreet.org

How many years have we pleaded and prodded and pushed and protested to try to find just one senator who would threaten to filibuster war funding for a war that many of them said they “opposed”? And now suddenly we have two senators threatening just that!  We may, in fact, see a filibuster of war money, proving that such a thing is physically possible.

And how many years have we demanded that the House vote down bills to fund wars that read more

By David Swanson

Illustrated by Michael Parenti

Kevin Ovenden contacted me. He works with British MP George Galloway — yes, this hero. Ovenden is currently in the United States helping to put together a convoy of, hopefully, hundreds of vehicles and people to bring medical aid to the besieged people of Gaza.

Americans are invited to take part. The cost of a plane ticket, a hotel for two nights in Egypt, and other expenses is required. I told Ovenden I’d like to go if I can raise the read more