Buddy, Can You Spare $30 Billion?

Stephen Walt at Foreign Policy on guns vs. butter:

Americans have come to believe that spending government revenues on U.S. citizens here at home is usually a bad thing and should be viewed wth suspicion, but spending billions on vast social engineering projects overseas is the hallmark of patriotism and should never be questioned. This position makes no sense, but it is hard to think of a prominent U.S. leader who is making an explicit case for doing somewhat less abroad so that we can afford to build a better future here at home.

Walt doesn't ask a question, but I'll answer it anyway:

Because money spent abroad - regardless of its original purpose - always ends up killing yellow, brown and black people who hate baby jeebus. And money spent at home ends up helping yellow, brown and black people who hate baby jeebus.

Better to spend a hundred billion dollars killing one Taliban darkie than one dollar helping a colored girl in the projects feed her baby.

That this president, elected in a landslide with super-majorities in Congress, cannot makes the case "for doing somewhat less abroad so that we can afford to build a better future here at home" is inexcusable.