Wars that cost trillions of dollars a year to operate.
Military machines and weapons that cost billions of dollars a year to build and they sit waiting to do their jobs.
Death row inmates costing $257,000 a yr to lodge, feed, supervise and supply medical and dental care.
So much money in this world is consumed by governments with the ultimate outcome of death.
Is it any different when patients are denied coverage of new and more expensive treatments, only because health insurance and pharmaceutical companies think about money to owners, stockholders and board members first. Experimental drugs and treatment are denied daily, that is unless you have money. Research is pretty conclusive that has shown the more affluent you are, the better your health care and access. Not just in the States, but worldwide.
Saving our loved ones and providing the best care possible should be worth more than a plane, bomb or even one of those tires off of a 184 billion dollar plane.
Just my little rant.
4 comments:
Caveat before I comment:
I'm registered to neither party.
Comment:
I understand the price tag is irksome. However, not being and maintaining our military might, is the only thing stopping China and Russia from taking over life as we know it.
I truly believe if the US does not maintain that military force and dominance, it won't matter whether or not we can save our family because the US will cease to exist as we know it. We won't have a choice whether or not to develop medicines, or hospitals, or... because we won't have the freedom to do so.
It may not happen in our lifetime but I can easily see it happening in my son's. China owns most of our debt; not Israel, not Germany, not Japan. China. I do not want to imagine a powerful military China along with an economical force with no one to stop them, or keep them in check. Imagine China asking for repayment immediately, the US unable to do so, and then saying they're taking us over without any US capability to say, "Um. No."
BTW, I was going to vote for Wellstone - first Democrat ever simply because he voted against going to war in Iraq. I wish he had lived. I wish we'd never gone there. By no means am I a war monger.
/salute :)
AD2B,
We will have to disagree on this one. I have always been a registered independent and I find both parties somewhat sickening right now. Militarily we outspend, China, Russia, India, France, UK, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Italy combined.
We have 11 aircraft carriers with two more being built. The next closest is Spain and they have two small aircraft carriers. Nobody else has more than one even China and Russia. I know growing up in the cold war produced a different outlook and trust of the world, but we need to move on. A 22-yr-old kids today does not know the USSR, it has not existed in over 20 years. What are we afraid of?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
I'm afraid of history repeating itself from the 30s and 40s when we underestimated the power of Japan (and they us).
China.
China owns most of the US debt. China can dictate world policy, much like the US did when we were the #1 economic power in the world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/15/us-debt-how-big-who-owns
The Chinese = smart, hard working, edgy, dgaf about anyone but prosperity... we thought we were so smart as a country to move our plants to their country; meanwhile, the Chinese figured out either during or shortly thereafter, if they control our money, they control US (as in US and U.S.)
I don't mind having the latest technology to say, "You wake a sleeping giant, you pay the consequences" ...
Much like I don't mind that Mayo is spending $180,000,000 for a proton beam treatment facility, x2, in Jacksonville and Phoenix for cancer treatments.
Staying ahead on the technology trends = US staying in top spots economically and militarily.
Not that I have any say, but if I did, I'm not willing to risk the US way of life to short circuit our military arsenal.
Much <3 (I'm not the typical DFL Minnesotan)
More of that military money should be used not just on caring for the citizens of the country, but on advancing technology.
At different points in the last hundred years we developed and led the world in manufacturing, automobiles, computers, electronics, aeronautics, space travel and medicine. Then others copy us and find a cheaper way to produce it. We need to keep developing the next thing, like alternative energy sources, deeper space travel and the next generation of technology.
Our problem today is we keep looking back instead of forward. Like we have been burning fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) since the stone age. Let's move into the 21st century.
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