Thoughts on America, Part II

Originally posted to MySpace, August 22, 2010

Kelly claims: "The only words in the liberal one-page dictionary seem to be "America is Bad", "Wealth Redistribution", and, of course let's not forget the ever popular "Blame Bush".

Fact: I have never personally said the U.S. is “bad”. If you want a quote from me, use this:

America needs to get its act together.

1. The U.S. has a poverty rate of over 13% (2008, US Census Bureau). Statistics for Germany are comparable (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3344134,00.html). Nevertheless, beggars and the homeless are rarely seen on the street. Not one time in my 18 years over there do I recall seeing a person who clearly had no place to live. Most beggars on the street are punk rockers who have chosen not to be productive members of society.

The difference in income between rich and poor in the U.S. is a gap the size of the Grand Canyon (http://extremeinequality.org/?page_id=8). Someday, those with money may be putting up walls around their homes to keep from having to look at the poor. I’ve heard that’s what it’s like in Mexico. There is nothing wrong with the rich getting richer, but opportunities need to be created for the poor to get richer, too.

 2. The U.S. has a sickeningly high crime rate (24^th in the world). Germany is 49^th. Well over 9,000 murders in the U.S. are committed annually with guns, compared to less than 300 in Germany (http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states/cri-crime).

3. School students in the U.S. do not do well when compared to other nations (www.all4ed.org/files/IntlComp_FactSheet.pdf). Fair to middlin’ performance is not going to ensure a bright future for our country. Those few who do get their acts together later on (like you) will not be enough to save us.

4. The U.S. uses by far more oil than any other nation. China is second, and it doesn’t even come close (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption) despite a population more than 4 times as large. Oil is a finite resource. We are going to run out. One day, it will be gone—whether tomorrow, in a year, or in 1,000 years. When that does happen, I would rather be already using alternative energy resources so we are not hostage to OPEC.

I don’t know where you get your statistics, but the U.S. does not have as much oil as you claim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves). Lucky for us, our friendly but moderately socialist (gasp!) neighbor to the north has a buttload of oil, but it’s mostly in the form of sand. I wonder what it costs them to squeeze a barrel of oil out of that stuff.

 5. To round off this nowhere near complete list of issues, there remain health care and health insurance. You have something against people taking your hard-earned money and giving it to those who have done nothing to deserve it, right? Then answer me this: how do insurance brokers and companies justify extortionate premiums and exorbitant deductibles while paying themselves huge salaries and excluding patients with conditions that might actually need some form of medical treatment?

I was recently offered a policy by Celtic Insurance, but it included a permanent rider for anything to do with my back, the one thing for which I might actually need to go to a hospital. God forbid I should pay thousands of dollars a year to them and then actually expect some of that back at a future date. Giving people money and getting nothing in return—how’s that for wealth redistribution?

Want to know why Obama refers back to Bush II so often? Remember: repetition is the mother of learning. German school kids are taken through the horrors of the Nazi regime until they are sick of it. Why? To reinforce democratic thinking and ensure something like the Holocaust will never happen again. By the way, the National Socialist party’s ideology was what we consider “right wing”, i.e., radically CONSERVATIVE.

Too many people in this country haven’t gotten it into their thick skulls yet that Dubya did nothing but ruin our economy and our reputation abroad. Let’s put things in perspective.

1. U.S. economy booms in the 90’s.

2. U.S. budget surplus in 2000: $236.9 billion (United States Government Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2000).

3. Bush takes office, cuts taxes. U.S. attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Economic recession. U.S. sends troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Guantanamo prison activated.

4. U.S. deficit for 2008: $454.8 billion (Financial Report of the United States Government 2008)

There are those who claim that there was no budget surplus during the Clinton era. Let’s assume for one minute their math is correct. Then what in the world was George Bush doing cutting taxes and giving tax refunds? Where were the Republican cries of “We can’t afford that! It’s not paid for!” then?

During his presidential campaign, a German teacher of mine asked me what I thought of him. My response was, “f he makes a mistake anywhere, it will be in foreign policy.” That was long before 9/11. I think involving your country in two wars at the same time counts as getting yourself into deep kimshee.

Afghanistan and Iraq were not even his first mistakes. It was his tax cuts/rebates that left us with no insurance for a rainy day. You of all people should appreciate the value of being prepared for rough times. After all, if you don’t care what happens or what it’s going to cost when something does happen, why take out insurance? No sooner had he handed out the checks than we were attacked and our economy took a nosedive. If that budget surplus from the previous decade had still been there, we might have had the means to fight off a recession. To top it off, Georgie thought it would be cool to invade a couple of countries. “Exit strategy?” What’s that? “Nation building” Come again? By concentrating on Afghanistan, restoring it to pristine condition with a legitimate democracy and making it the envy of the Arab world, we could have given the Iraqis enough incentive to get their own house in order without our involvement.