Wake up America

America, lets be serious; it’s not the war in Iraq, party discrepancies, or ideology that is our biggest threat.

In recent news the economy is surfacing as the most serious and difficult problem challenging America. It’s hard to fathom that in order for us to balance our national budget we would need 53 trillion dollars.

For most of us we will never know what 53 trillion dollars will look like.

In the documentary film I.O.U.S.A, producers outline what is contributing to this economic mess. The film identifies major problem areas that need to be addressed. There seems to be no easy solution to pay down the debt.

The film starts off by first discussing the national budget, and how every year it increases and we continue to borrow money from other countries that we will never be able to pay back.This will eventually lead us to our demise. Ultimately, the country we owe a debt to is in charge of this nation’s policy.

It’s really foolish to think that we can continue to receive tax cuts or even have our taxes lowered at a time like this.

Within less than ten years we will start paying out more in Social Security than we will receive from the working force. We won’t be able to take care of the people that took care of us.

I think a good start at solving some of our deficit would be to tighten up guidelines for who would qualify for Social Security. Let’s get the alcoholics and drug addicts off our government’s money and put them through a program based system instead.

We could continue to help these people trying to beat their addiction without making it easier for them to not work: and give them responsibility, like getting a job!

It makes me so mad to see some people sitting home on Social Security who really don’t need it or deserve it for that matter when others that have a legitimate disability, just don’t qualify for it.

If we could reform Social Security successfully it would decrease our deficit by $ 7 trillion.

Our saving deficit continues to cease to exist. This country exists by spending more than it makes. To put is simply we don’t live within our means.

Everyone wants to live comfortably and the leaders in this country have a tendency to make us believe that this is realistic.

What national officials fail to tell us is the truth. We shouldn’t be lied to anymore. Fiscal irresponsibility shouldn’t be allowed. It’s not fair to our children who will have to pay back such a large debt.

The ideas of sacrificing to make a better future, has been pushed aside. Our parents taught us to save our whole lives to be able to afford what we want in the future.

Politicians what happened to representing the values of your constituents!

We also need to change our trading habits. This country has a tendency to use more than we produce or export. Living with excess is not only bad for the economy but causing an even bigger environmental problem.

Everything that affects the economy can be connected to other serious problems that we face. Its way past time for our country to take the reins on this and not be foolish: one president is not the solution for this disaster we need so much more reform.

America we cannot sit aside and let our nation continue to destroy itself. As Americans we need to make sure that we are voting for those truly interested in the betterment of this nation and not let those that have been dishonest in the past get their hands on spending our dollars or lie to us about the severity of the problem.

Even if we ended the war in Iraq, ear marks and pork barrel spending was eliminated, and bush tax cuts expired we would still not be able to solve the national debt.

So, wake up America! The economy should be on everyone’s mind.

Melanie L Thomas

19 MArch 2009