Political Draft
Charlie Rangel (D-NY) as he did before, announced that he is going to introduce a bill to reintroduce a draft. The last time, this former Korean War vet, voted AGAINST his own bill after the Republicans rightly decided that this was a mere political ploy.
As it is again. No one wants this, including the military and including his own Democratic legislators. He bases this try on class warefare, again claiming that the poor and disadvantaged "have to" enlist in greater numbers as opposed to the rich and priveleged kids. These have been proved wrong before, and once again, he's wrong. From the folks over at NRO with Heritage Foundation numbers:
The Poor: Not Always With Us? [John J. Miller]
Rep. Charlie Rangel wants to reimpose the draft, partly "as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably," according to the Wash Post. Do you think he means that the poorest Americans should start pulling their weight? This report from the Heritage Foundation recently crossed my desk:
Our review of Pentagon enlistee data shows that the only group that is lowering its participation in the military is the poor. The percentage of recruits from the poorest American neighborhoods (with one-fifth of the U.S. population) declined from 18 percent in 1999 to 14.6 percent in 2003, 14.1 percent in 2004, and 13.7 percent in 2005.
Bolded emphasis are mine. A slippage of 4.3 in 6 years. Sarcasm: when are the poor going to pull their own weight!
This whole thing is akin to the tired argument that we have to roll back the tax cuts to cure the deficit. Look at the numbers from both the IRS and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) - those claims are wrong too.
Political Shenanigans Supreme.
