A recent revision to an Executive Order titled National Defense Resources Preparedness  got me to thinking at what point do the interests of the citizens really matter when it comes to the federal government.  For example, it costs about $7 million for one Minuteman III missile.  What impact on the lives of their citizens would $7 million have in the budget of any small city?  You could purchase, stock and install 25-30 emergency shelters in flood, tsunami or tornado zones with $7 million dollars, but national strategic interests would not be met, just the interests of those citizens whose lives might be saved.


We spend over $8 billion annually on TSA and the money had to come from some budget, so which American citizens “interests” were deemed less important than those of the federal government?  The DHS budget is $57 billion so obviously the interests of this federal agency outweigh those of ordinary citizens to the tune of a lot of money now not available to them.

 

It’s a hard argument to say these new federal agencies have benefited all American citizens commensurate with the cost, since their primary focus is on terrorism, a historically and statistically small problem for most Americans.  Is a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear production capability serve our strategic interests to a greater extent than collateral damage we cause to Iranian citizens?   We don’t seem to worry about Israeli’s nuclear program, why should we decide who can and cannot have the deterrent capacity of nuclear weapons?  We have seen the argument made how the assassination of an American citizen on foreign soil can be justified based upon the threat of that individual to other Americans, so where does the line get drawn?  Would we sanction the killing of 49% of Americans to save the remaining 51%?  When will the cost of rebuilding infrastructure, providing economic opportunities for those willing to work and supporting local public safety and education be higher priorities than the “interests” of our government?