The Maverick Tribe

Ok, so the economy is tanking, everyone wants the government to spend, spend, spend, and the nation's bean counters are predicting that we'll soon need to dispense with the "b"  and start using the "tr" to describe how many -illions of dollars the federal budget will be in the hole next year.

But whether you're a Keynesian or not, not all spending is good spending.  Tough economic choices are coming and we'd better start thinking about them.  I'm in favor an aggressive initiative for infrastructure spending, here are three suggestions for cuts that could partially offset that spending:

1.  Surrender in the war on drugs.  It's time to admit to ourselves that as a society we suck at fighting wars against common nouns - drugs, poverty, terror - to name a few.  Billions to hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on the war on drugs - in police work, border patrol, judicial process, and incarceration.  Are Americans using them any less?  This does not mean legalization of every illicit substance, but it does mean taking an honest look at what measures are effective in cutting drug use and which ones are a waste of money.  Nonviolent drug offenders currently serving time should be released from prison.  A pothead might move into your neighborhood.  Deal with it.

2.  Weaken national security.  Even more politically suicidal than #1, but we simply can't afford the amount of money we spend in this country to make us think we're safe.  We're not safe.  Any rational observer understands that much of what the TSA does to the travelling public is little more than aesthetics, directly expensive to taxpayers and indirectly expensive from reduced productivity in the economy.  Some cutbacks may slightly increase the risk of terrorist attacks.  So be it.  If it costs $100 billion to avert death by terrorism of an expected 10 people, while that same $100 billion would save an expected 10,000 people from dying of leukemia, which would you choose?  Obama also needs to be ruthless about wasteful spending in the Pentagon, the discussion of which has been virtually off-limits for the past eight years.

3.  Increase unemployment.  Cuts to our whack-a-mole drug policy and the rituals of our "security theater" will uproot a lot of entrenched economies, public and private.  Prison guards, TSA officials, military contracters will be out of work.  Not to worry, though.  Some construction jobs should be opening up.