There are certainly a lot of things that Washington does which should make the average American citizen furious. I would like to point out just four: the hypocrisy of the illegality of purchasing foreign prescription drugs, federal employee salaries, the job-busting cap and trade legislation, and the wanton destruction of the dollar.
The price of prescription drugs in the United States has increased by 9 percent in the last year. Certainly, the ever-increasing cost of drugs is a major reason for the pressure on Congress to reform our health care system. However, currently, it is illegal for Americans to import cheaper prescription drugs from outside the United States. Drugs produced by American companies, but sold in foreign markets are usually between 35 to 55 percent lower in price, due to price controls in other countries. It is an outrage to me that we are not able to take advantage of the stupidity of other governments and import and buy their cheaper American-made drugs. The same bleeding hearts in D.C. who whine about how people are dying because they can’t afford prescription drugs are standing in the way of those folks getting cheaper drugs.
Now, an argument given for keeping importation illegal is that the safety of the drugs cannot be guaranteed. Nonsense! We are talking about countries like Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, which have product protection mechanisms in place. On a personal level, I’ve lived in the developing world for 8 years and my family has never had an issue with unsafe drugs in those countries. The bottom line is that there is an easy way to cut drug costs and provide much needed medication to the financially strapped sick, but Congress refuses to do the right thing.
Recently, USA Today reported that the number of federal employees who make $100,000 or more jumped from 14 percent to 19 percent of all bureaucrats during the first 18 months of the recession. The average federal worker’s salary is now $71,206 compared to $40,331 for private sector employees. To put it in even greater perspective, in December 2007, the Transportation Department had one employee earning $170,000. By June of 2009 the department had 1,690 workers with salaries above $170,000. Substantial pay raises and new salary rules were the reason for the jump in salaries. So while 7.2 million Americans were losing their jobs, not only were financial institutions and car manufacturers bailed out, your tax dollars also went toward ensuring the comfort and security of our ruling bureaucrats. Not only did Uncle Sam not cut back on labor costs as did the rest of America, he handsomely rewarded those who produce very little, if anything, that benefits society. All Americans should be furious.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jordan Richardson
I have a better idea.
2 - Kenn Jacobine
A retro solution - I like it!
3 - Silas Kain
Furious? I've been foaming at the mouth for months, Ken! And you know what? The majority of Americans are so clueless as to the realities of the body politic. Today I wrote to my Congressman and Senators and asked that they reject the entire health care reform package. What the Democrats are trying to shove down our throats does NOTHING to answer the serious issues regarding health care. Nobody gives a damn about the licentious behavior exhibited by members of Congress. No one understands is that OUR representatives to Washington have becomes so seduced by the money and power within the Beltway. Corporations get richer and good people who just go about living their lives get poorer. Regardless of how hard those in the middle class try to work and dig themselves out from under, the corporate giants and Congress are working to keep us prisoner.
Roger and Cindy have opened my eyes to the evils of capitalism in its present form. Barack Obama's failure to seize the opportunity handed to him a year ago only bolsters my opinion that our government and the corporate structure of Wall Street are rampant with corruption and greed. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are about money -- NOT religion. Kabul poppies and Tehran petroleum are all that matter.
Members of Congress don't give a damn about comprehensive health care reform. It's all smoke and mirrors. You can bet your bottom dollar that if science came up with a "cure" for homosexuality, the Far Right would be pumping billions into getting a vaccine out.
The experience of the special Senate Primary Election in Massachusetts last week has become the last straw for me. Voter apathy is fueled by a local news media that failed miserably. The Boston Globe might as well close down because they just do not matter any longer in Massachusetts. Those Bay Staters who DO read newspapers gravitate toward the Boston Herald which is yet another tabloid newspaper filled with superfluous drivel riddled with no information of value.
We here in the United States were born into such fortunate circumstances yet we don't recognize those things which are most important. We take our "freedoms" for granted. We engage ourselves in the lives of celebrity and the bizarre. Parents who remain together have to work two jobs each just to keep a roof over their children and video games in their X-Box. Family values? Unless they're for sale at WalMart, nobody has a clue what family values are.
People get all fired up when Ruvy expresses his opinions. But how many of us have the balls to live in the desert amidst the turmoil? How many of us leave our homes each day not knowing if this will be the day when struck by a stray bullet? How many of us go shopping at the local mall which is surrounded by military and tanks? How many of us even remember the shear horror we felt on that fateful morning on September 11, 2001? America, we're dying. The Declaration of Independence is as useless as a roll of Charmin which slipped into the toilet. Our Constitution is circumvented at every turn and nobody has the wherewithal to do anything about it. This country is in severe trouble. Don't let the politicians and media fool you.
We've got issues that need to be dealt with -- NOW. And we can start by rejecting that which the MSM feeds us. We can turn off Limbaugh's hate radio and hit the streets. We can march on Washington and force the members of Congress to carry out their Constitutionally mandated duties.
4 - roger nowosielski
Thanks, Silas, for this vote of confidence. Speaking for myself, I'll try not to disappoint.
However, I wouldn't take such a grim of reality and the future. We ARE undergoing a period of radical change - not only in America but the world at large - and it's only because we're trying to measure to present by our past and past standards that we appear to fail so miserably.
Better times are certainly awaiting, and what we're witnessing right now are birth pains - especially from those who keep on looking at our past rather than the future.
Once humankind will rid itself of all the destructive tendencies promulgating sectionalism and secterianism - from religious to national sentiments - and all those barriers will crumble, the human race will rise united in the absence of all meaningless divisions.
The future is brighter than most of us think.
5 - Silas Kain
I hope so, Roger. I wish to God that I would live long enough to see it.
6 - roger nowosielski
So do I, but the race shall overcome and persevere.
Besides, I don't believe that our lives are in vain. The "human experiment" cannot result in mere death and failure. We ARE immortal.
7 - Silas Kain
Thank you, Spartacus.
8 - roger nowosielski
I hope it's Kirk Douglas, although Russell Crowe wasn't a slouch either.
9 - Ruvy
Wow, Silas!!
Thank you for that vote of confidence and the ton of empathy. I don't want to take anything away from what you said, but each of us, each waking day, does not know if we will go to sleep in our own beds that night - or will be enjoying a more permanent sleep on a slab in a morgue.
American parents don't have to worry about Yassamniks or Arabs attacking them or their homes - but they never know if someone is going to steal their child at a shopping mall. I remember the terrifying undertone of private fear that underlie my life in the States, and the lives of wife and relatives. And now that fear is coming further out, as the so-called "pillars" of your prosperity are crumbling.
Truth, Silas - remember, I don't lie, even if it hurts to be honest: about seven thousand Israelis leave this country each year looking for "better opportunities" - but they are not going to America.
Make the best of your business opps. But bear in mind that it is a wide world out there, and there are more civilized countries than the USA - and that you and your family - and your business associates and their families should benefit if they can.
Your country - what used to be my country - is too far sunk to be worth trying to save anymore.
10 - Deano
(sigh.) oh noes. the sky is falling...again. oh me oh my. who will save us.
Perhaps we could develop a standard BC template for articles like this, something along the lines of:
Those (fatcats/snivialing) (socialists / fascists/dems/tea baggers) in (insert capital city) are (spending/ignoring) the critical (insert issue/desperate need) because they want to destroy (insert country) and/or (freedom/ideals) and (create/build) their (corporatist empire/fascist bastion/socialist workers paradise) and crush (democracy/capitalism/the ordinary (insert country origin) working family).
Why this year alone they've (spent/taxed/stolen) more than (randomly generated number) billions and (pissed it away / spent it wisely for future generations / padded their own pockets) and the (insert appropriate government agency, name, honorific or other identifying factor) (has/hasn't) helped.
We need to (join together / expel / hang) to (make (insert country name) great again/prevent the destruction of our way of life / reduce taxes / stop socialism /end the tyranny).
11 - roger nowosielski
I do agree there. It's not only past saving, it's not worth saving.
12 - Cannonshop
The absolute trust and faith in government to be...what, benign? good? is disgusting.
Folks, they don't represent you unless you hold them accountable. (Sometimes, not even then.)
There is no inherent 'goodness' in someone who'll spend three or more million dollars to get a job that pays a couple hundered grand a year. Being good on television doesn't even make someone particularly smart.
Guess what people are elected on?
13 - Dr Dreadful
@ #10: OK, Deano, sounds like a plan. Here's my offering:
"Those snivialing [sic] tea baggers in Phnom Penh are spending the critical chicken shortage because they want to destroy Nepal and freedom and build their socialist workers' paradise and crush the ordinary Fijian working family.
Why, this year alone they've taxed more than 253,839 billion and spent it wisely for future generations and the Assistant Under-Secretary for Chicken Reproduction and National Defense hasn't helped.
We need to expel to make Azerbaijan great again."
There you go. Makes about as much sense as most stuff on here...
14 - Silas Kain
Oh the sky is falling. Oh help the sky is falling! You know what? Make light of it all you want. The bottom line is we are far from being out of the woods in this economic mess. And now that Congress has all but destroyed comprehensive health care reform, get ready for health care costs skyrocketing next year. These sons of bitches in Washington are completely out of touch with Main Street. They don't give a rat's ass about the day-to-day struggles of working families. Even Barack Obama has lost complete touch with Main Street. Case in point: his little foray into Home Depot this week. Wasn't it nice of the President to go up to VA and walk through the aisles? What about the mom & pop hardware stores who have fallen victim to the super stores? What about the local merchants who are the heart and soul of local economies? Shopping at Home Depot doesn't help Main Street. It makes Wall Street investors wealthy and keeps plenty of Chinese employed in low paying jobs.
A classic example of political duplicity is what occurred in the Senate today. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)wanted all 700+ pages of Bernie Sanders' amendment to the bill read on the Senator Floor. That would have tied the debate up for a day or two. As a result, Senator Bernie Sanders withdrew his amendment from consideration. That's how they do business in Washington, folks. If they don't get their way, they railroad the opposition. I understand that the Senate operates under certain rules, but does anyone realize what's up here? The American public has been embroiled in a divisive health care debate with no results. We little folk get fired when we don't do our jobs. I see 535 members of Congress who haven't performed theirs. Why are we not terminating their employment? Oh, I forgot, it's never OUR Congressman. Folks, they get a paycheck from us and get their benefits from special interests. It's a political abortion and we're all responsible.
15 - roger nowosielski
What do you expect, Silas, from a forty-year old punk. He doesn't even know what a ghetto is. Just another "color boy" who had always wanted to be white.
16 - Silas Kain
The problem, Roger, is that nobody has aspirations any more. There's no drive to do better. We've settled for mediocrity. Where are the inspirational leaders like Kennedy, Goldwater, Dirksen and Roosevelt? Poland is looking better by the hour.
17 - roger nowosielski
Americans have lost it, Silas. There has been no leadership for years. This country doesn't inspire anymore and the leaders are listless. No message, no dreams, just empty rhetoric. I'd forgive the mediocre performance for an ounce of inspiration. But there is no passion in him, only cold and calculated opportunism. The years spent in Chicago as "community organizer" haven't thought him a thing - it was nothing but a platform, a launching pad to advance his career.
The man is an empty suit.
18 - Arch Conservative
Kudos to you Roger....
How you kept yourself from breaking out in a rousing chorus of kumbya in post#4 the world will never know........
Things can always get worse......
19 - Arch Conservative
Wait...I thought Silas was one of the people on this site that I don't like....but I agree with everything he's said on this thread.
It's hard to keep track ..............
20 - roger nowosielski
Silas is looking at things squarely, Arch, just like I try to do.
21 - Arch Conservative
Well Roger........looking at the current state of affairs with an objective mind, I fail to see where your hardcore zealous optimism comes from.
Maybe that's just who you are as a person. I don't know you well enought o determine if that's the case.
22 - Silas Kain
If Arch and I are capable of agreeing on something why can't Washington?
Barack Obama has one alternative at present. Unless he stands up before the country and announces that health care reform is dead on arrival he is toast. It's time to stop this ridiculous madness and admit that we are unable to forge reform this year. Let's take it to the people -- district by district. And let the people decide by the voting booth. And to every registered voter who fails to vote, let them, be drafted into the military and sent to the theaters of war. Perhaps then, and only then, will they come to appreciate that which so many before us have sacrificed.
23 - roger nowosielski
Because people in Washington, Silas, are puppets of special interests.
24 - Franco
3 - Silas Kain
We here in the United States were born into such fortunate circumstances yet we don't recognize those things which are most important. We take our "freedoms" for granted. We engage ourselves in the lives of celebrity and the bizarre.
Those who have you, o Liberty, do not know you. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you." - Freedom Hero: Jose Marti
Our Constitution is circumvented at every turn and nobody has the wherewithal to do anything about it. This country is in severe trouble. Don't let the politicians and media fool you.
I fully concur!
The Declaration of Independence is as useless as a roll of Charmin which slipped into the toilet.
I can not agree with that statement. It is not our founding documents that are useless Silas. The document speaks to the sprit of man at his core and in the most profound way, and it was intentional meant to do just that. Lets take a look.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. â€" That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, â€"
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. â€"
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, â€" And for the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
â€" John Hancock
Silas, the Declaration of Independence is not useless, it still stands with all the same vision and strengths it had the day it was written. If we're going to be honest then we have to admit that it is we who are useless if we do not fully exercise the very liberty and the full rights it grants to each of us.
So then the question becomes do we have it in ourselves to mutually pledge to each other our very Lives, or very Fortunes, and our very sacred Honor all packaged together to do what is not only is our full right to do, but it makes clear it is our very duty. Or are we going to surcome to the very evils is warns us about when it says - accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.-
Family values? Unless they're for sale at WalMart, nobody has a clue what family values are.
That is a cop out. The principles (family values) found in both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are the greatest things to come out of men for men that has ever happened.
25 - Ruvy
My my, it sounds like you guys are in a "Ruvy State of Mind".
Now, maybe some of you understand why I believe in G-d and recognize His Hand in all that is happening around me. If I didn't, I'd bed a damned sourpuss all day long. And I'm not - the only time I feel like a sourpuss is when I read the drivel and bullshit that passes for news - and when i see the betrayal of my neighbors and my people unchallenged by the Steel of Matatyahu, as it should be.