Evidence pointing to the collapse of America's financial and societal foundations is everywhere; massive government deficits, costly military actions going on in six nations at the same time, continued unemployment, and a political system so broken and corrupted that it now imperils our democracy. As our leadership in Washington recklessly drives this nation toward a national disaster, an ominous cloud of despair and desperation hangs over America and its people.
I recall hearing President Ronald Reagan, during his inaugural speech in 1981 blame government and say, "Government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem." I must take issue with that statement. Government, in itself, is not the problem; the real problem lies with the inept leaders of our nation who are failing to govern this nation in a competent and ethical manner. As a result, Americans have little to no faith in their government and leaders.
The biggest failure of these leaders is that their priorities are totally out of sync with our most critical problems. We can argue about whether the biggest failure lies with the Congress or the president, or Democrats or Republicans, but that gets us nowhere. The fact of the matter is that our elected representatives have, collectively, taken this nation to the brink of financial and societal collapse.
Can this be true, could this nation that likes to refer to itself as the greatest and wealthiest nation in the world actually be heading toward a collapse of both its financial and societal foundations? That could not be more evident as our government becomes more and more dysfunctional and is unable to properly carry out its legislative functions. Dysfunctional government, coupled with the overwhelming power and influence of Corporate America and its Wall Street associates are causing immeasurable damage to this nation and society.
The process of governing would not be that difficult if the politicians, when confronted with a problem, would simply act in the best interests of the American people. But, in Washington, it doesn't work that way. When confronted with a problem, these politicians first consider what their Corporate masters would want them to do. Then they ask themselves what is in their own best interests. And then, they make their decision. But wait, aren't they forgetting about the American people? Yes, of course, they are.
These ongoing, bizarre debates on the debt ceiling and the nation's deficit of over $14 trillion are making it ever clearer that our financial situation could not be more precarious. Consider that many billions of taxpayer and corporate (yes, some corporations actually pay taxes) tax dollars flow into the nation's treasury every day. In a perfect situation incoming revenues would offset the nation's expenses and we'd have no problems. However, that's not reality.
Did the people of America ever think that they would be endangered by this potential default on the national debt? How did we ever get to the point that our total revenues are not even close to covering our expenses without continuous massive infusions of borrowed dollars? Here's how bad this situation involving our debt crisis actually is. For the month of August the outstanding bills to be paid total $306 billion and, astoundingly, the expected revenue is only $172 billion.
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