Would You Rather Have Healthcare Or A New F-35?
by Thom Hartmann
If what conservatives say is true and we're too broke to afford universal healthcare - why are we still spending trillions on useless weapons programs?
The priciest weapons program in American history is about to get even pricier.
According to Bloomberg, ".... acquisition costs for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s [F-35] may rise about 7 percent to $406.5 billion... That's a reversal after several years of estimates that had declined to $379 billion recently from a previous high of $398.5 billion in early 2014."
Think that's bad?
When you add in maintenance and operations costs, the TOTAL cost of the F-35 -- which is still indefinitely grounded -- is now estimated to be around $1.1 trillion.
According to University of Massachusetts Economist Gerald Friedman, a single-payer healthcare system would cost about $1.5 trillion every year. That is not a lot of money in the Federal budget.
So we can spend millions on this useless weapons program that soldiers don't even like, but can't "afford" single-payer healthcare? I don't get it.
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