Democrats Calling for the Draft Again!

I just watched a video interview of Charlie Rangel on Face the Nation, and I must say, it is unlearned jackasses like these that make me throw my hands in the air and go “UuuuhhhG!

Charlie Rangel Video

You too can see Rangel wanting to bring the Draft back (see above), even wanting to not send the draftees to Iraq, but forcing them to work seaports and the like. CRAZY! He is, let me repeat, he is introducing the bill the next session. Way to go Democrats, another stalwart bill to be introduced into Congress!

He of course got his facts wrong to top it off (nothing unusual)… what was great was that the video wasn’t done loading and I already knew why he was going to bring the draft back. He wants to bring it back partly because he thinks that if the Republicans had thought their kids would be shipped off to Iraq they wouldn’t keep the war effort up. Unfortunately for Rangel, more Republican kids from Senatorial families (sons, nephews, daughters, nieces, brothers, etc) are voluntarily joining or have joined the military.

Another piece O’ information Rangel cannot see through the political forest is that most of the volunteers are from affluent neighborhoods, as the following Washington Times (November 8, 2005) article points out:

The Heritage Foundation research paper found that a higher percentage of middle-class and upper-middle-class families have been providing enlistees for the war on Islamic militants since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Researchers matched the ZIP codes of recruits over the past five years with federal government estimates of household incomes in those neighborhoods. Contrary to complaints from some liberal lawmakers and pundits, the data show that the poor are not shouldering the bulk of the military's need for new soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines.

The poorest neighborhoods provided 18 percent of recruits in prewar 1999 and 14.6 percent in 2003. By contrast, areas where household incomes ranged from $30,000 to $200,000 provided more than 85 percent…. About 98 percent of all enlistees from 1999 to 2003 had a high school diploma, compared with 75 percent of nonrecruits nationwide.

Sorry Charlie, your “Bumper-Sticker Slogans” aren’t working out for you to well, at least those who can type into Google the words, “military record number middle-class”, which apparently your staff cannot.

PLEASE, PLEASE Charlie, push this bill through, it will be another mark against this new majority.