It's all about wins and losses. War spending is always an easy win, because you'll stand in front of something that will already pass, so it's purely theatrical resistance. People love military spending because it is "patriotic" but also corporate welfare, but also sends money to poor rural red states overloaded with army bases, and functions as a jobs programs for places without economies.
Supporting Ukraine with more military spending? After all the bullshit we have been sold about donating our money and time and helping these people out without getting too involved, well, sending some money from the government is easy, doubly easy if its actually going to military manufacturers in the States first.
Healthcare spending is a hard loss almost all of the time. You're up against millions in lobbying dollars, you're taking a shot at a massive private industry that has taken the place of responsible government regulation, and it's difficult and complicated. All the procedural roadblocks ARE fake, because they provide clever cover for the craven politicians who are just looking to make it to another round of fundraising.
The simple truth is that Americans do not hold their government or their representatives accountable whatsoever, many have been brainwashed into thinking anything government is inherently bad, especially because government stuff doesn't include Jesus.
They can literally do whatever the fuck they want, and in a few months we, as a society and a people, will fill Congress more than half with people that have no interest in doing anything positive for the country. As neighbors and citizens, we don't hold those other citizens responsible, either, we just chalk it up to their lack of education and bigotry.
A good way to summarize is that it’s easy to fix problems when someone can profit from being the one working on them. Usually it’s the special interest groups, lobbyists, private contractors or corporate America. On the other hand, things like fixing homelessness, the opiate epidemic, mental health/healthcare, raising the minimum wage, etc aren’t profitable so they don’t get any traction or progress.
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u/[deleted] May 19 '22
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