A few months back, when the Prez announced that they were going to give the military budget a good going over, I thought--for a second--that it was a step in the right direction. Get rid of the infamous $20 screws and $500 toilet seats. But, as he's shown in a mere 100 or so days, the Prez isn't thinking anywhere near the same solar system as I am.

He doesn't care about planes that don't work (but we keep buying) or throwing away millions of dollars worth of Chinese-made hats, he wants an anti-missile defense system. He wants his own Star Wars scheme. The cost-cutting he's talking about isn't going to actually take money out of the military budget, it's just going to divert a billion or so bucks so he can say to everyone in the U.S., "I'm protecting you, I'm giving you free money, what else do you want from me? Ain't I yo daddy?"

Wave that free money hand as much as you want while you hit me with the big bill for the missile defense--as far as I'm concerned, I don't want another daddy. I want reality.

Here's the reality about the anti-missile defense system as it stands now. Every test we've done has failed miserably. The system either shot down one of the dummy decoys or never hit anything at all. And to top it all off, actually putting the system together will violate an almost 30-year-old treaty.

The Prez and his frat buddies are calling for the world to either change or scrap this treaty because it doesn't work for us anymore. We've got plans beyond those antiquated terms hammered out years ago (when the Prez wasn't really paying much attention to politics as much as he was acting like his daughters are now). We don't want to play by those rules because, well, we're the U.S. Fuck you all.

Needless to say, most of the world is pissed off. China, who we've been sparring with for the entire 100 or so days the Prez has been in office, says we're starting a new arms race (yep, they're right). Russia and the rest of Europe believe we're arrogant assholes with little use for the rest of the world (yep, they're right). Everyone one else is falling in line with those two powerhouses because they're tired as hell and they're not going to take it anymore.

The U.S. has been on top for a while now. We've got the best economy, the best cable TV and we can buy whatever and whoever we want just to stay on top. But the rest of the world isn't real big on sucking our dicks anymore.

For the first time since its inception, the U.N. voted the U.S. off the Human Rights Committee. We don't have a U.N. ambassador (the Prez didn't make appointing someone to the U.N. anywhere near his first priority), we don't pay U.N. dues, and we use the guise of the U.N. Peace Force to fight wars wherever we feel like (and bar them from doing anything anywhere else without our say so).

If the Prez is trying to piss off the world to create a need for this anti-missile defense system, then it's working. And to further his agenda, he is doing the right thing. It is completely necessary to have an enemy to convince the people that we need a defense system. Who are we defending against if everyone is our friend?

And the Prez has backed down from calling the Star Wars fantasy a shield. Now the Prez and his buddies are saying this is to defend us against accidental missile launches (have we had a ton of those lately? and, by the way, most of these missiles have separate triggers for the nuclear device they are caring, which means they can be disabled by remote) and rogue attacks from small countries (none of whom have the capability to shoot a missile far enough to get it anywhere near the U.S.). They throw up their hands and say, "What's wrong with protecting us against these crazy things that might happen somehow, somewhere, someday?" using that old "insurance" logic.

I have paid for my car a couple times over in insurance payments over the last ten years. I've never gotten any money back out of the insurance company because I've only got liability--and I've never hit anyone with my car. I don't think I want to pay billions of dollars (trust me, this first billion is just the FIRST billion) to maybe (if it works) protect us if maybe (they haven't done it yet and we don't even have a system to stop them yet) they (whoever they are) shoot a missile (if their missile works in the first place) and blow up Houston.

Come to think of it, if they blow up Houston, our economy will perk up enormously. There's all that relocating, rebuilding and filling of suddenly deoccupied old jobs. So who needs a tax cut?

Matt Worley doesn't want to hear the phrase "Everyone who pays taxes deserves a tax cut--that's the American way" from a talking head for at least a week.