What I Want from My Country

The questions came fast and furious from my friend Mark.  He announces to me that he is a conservative with some liberal leanings (pro-choice, pro legalization of Marijuana) and that he’s already, reluctantly, voting for Romney.  Still – knowing that I’m a liberal – he wanted to know what I thought about politics, the country, etc.

Just so we understand - this is a civil conversation.  He’s certainly entitled to his opinion as I am to mine.  In this world of more accelerated conversations, especially when it comes to politics, it seems our leaders want to spend more time yelling and pointing fingers and lying – than they want to have a civil discourse, teach each other something and come to some sort of compromise on how to better this country and this country’s future.  The lines are drawn, let the arguing begin.  But not so with my friend Mark.  He’s curious and I’m willing to talk, but also willing to say that I don’t have all the answers.

As I explained what I thought about the state of U.S. of A. it finally came down to a basic understanding of what I think that government SHOULD be responsible for and what they SHOULDN’T be responsible for.  Thus what I want from my country:

(Please note, these are in no particular order.)

1.  Protect me and my family and fight the wars.  Of course, these should be just and proper wars.  I can’t possibly defend this country.  Put a gun in my hand and I’m more likely to shoot myself in the foot than the person attacking.  But what this means is to have a solid defense so that if we are attacked – we can attack back.  Let me clarify, though.  This does not go for countries that didn’t attack us, or are not a threat.  This also means going through the discretionary defense budget and cutting funds for things so we’re not just spending money on top of money.  More and more money should be spent on putting “brains on the ground” as opposed to “boots on the ground.”   We’ve got smart people in this government and allies around the world – we should be able to work with our friends to figure out solutions before we put American soldiers in harm’s way.

2.  Regulate, investigate, prosecute and punish financial institutions or companies that do harm to America.  I can’t fight the banks.  My refusing to shop at so-and-so store isn’t going to make a dent in their bottom line.  I can write letters and e-mail and hold a sign but even 100 of us don’t have the power that the government has to regulate and investigate the shadow goings-on on Wall Street, or Big Oil, or the Tobacco Industry or any of those large organizations that find it cheaper to out-source jobs overseas while taking millions of dollars of taxpayer money into their coffers.  If we’re paying Big Oil billions of dollars in tax breaks, tax incentives, etc. – then they shouldn’t be polluting our gulf streams and gutting our work forces.  If we’re subsidizing huge banks and investment firms so they “don’t go under” – they shouldn’t turn around and give huge bonuses to their corporate honchos.  I don’t care if they somehow “wrote it in their contract” or some such crap like that.  When you have a kid, you may give them an allowance as long as they “cleaned their room” or “put away their dishes” or “mowed the lawn.”  Why do we not expect huge organizations to do the same when we’re handing them billions of dollars?  Stop giving them money until they own up and do what has been asked.

3.  Provide healthcare for everyone.  I can’t help everyone.  I can only do so much.  So I expect my government to step up and help those who are hurting and struggling.  I’m more than willing to pay more in taxes to provide healthcare for everyone.  It’s the right thing to do.  30 or 40 million Americans without healthcare?  That’s shameful.  Especially for this supposed “greatest country in the world.”  England has universal healthcare, so does Canada.  And we can’t do that here?  Also, no healthcare company or hospital or medical organization should be FOR PROFIT.  When you put “for profit” in the background, they’re going to do everything they can to make a profit.  It’s a no brainer.  When pharmaceutical companies saw huge potential cash cows from advertising things like boner pills, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication, etc. then the shift went from helping people to helping their bottom line.  That should never ever EVER be the ultimate goal of any hospital or medical organization or pharmaceutical company.  Helping the patient should be the bottom line.  And if my government can do something about that – then it should.

4.  Stay out of my bedroom, stay out of my doctor’s office, stay out of my love life.  The GOP is always the party of small government but hundreds of bills have been introduced on the federal and local levels to make abortion illegal – some forcing ultrasounds, some saying what your doctor is allowed and not allowed to tell you, etc.  It’s all there to make the pregnant woman feel guilt, shame, hurt – even if this decision is already a heartbreaking one, or if she was raped.  I can’t put myself in that woman’s shoes and neither should the government.  The baby is not a baby until it’s born, I don’t care what photos you have from 2 weeks to 20 weeks.  And, by God, if you’re going to fight for that unborn baby – then when it comes out – you should fight for health coverage for that baby until it’s 18 years of age.

5.  Legalize pot, and other now illegal drugs and tax them.  I’m not an advocate of drug use.  I’ve never smoked pot, never smoked a cigarette, etc.  And, guess what, even if they were legal...I still wouldn’t do it.  BILLIONS of dollars every year are spent on this “war on drugs” – countless hours are used to fight this “war on drugs.”  Call it won, take it over.  It would gut the gang activity, stop the drugs and people coming in from Mexico and other places and provide a huge amount of funds to get to the heart of why anyone uses drugs.  Money for therapy, money for state coffers, money for the masses to build a better world where people won’t feel a need to smoke dope or take other drugs.

6.  Provide an education, FOR EVERYONE.  A learned group of people, is a curious group of people.  These children will grow up to be the future of this country.  Most likely they will be helping all us old farts reach into the depths of our old age.  Do we really want a country that can’t provide a decent education?  Here’s a thought, take 10% of the defense budget and put it towards building new schools, hiring new teachers, paying for more college education, etc.  (I’ll get into the paying for all this in a moment.)

7.  Level the playing field from the haves, the sort-of-haves and the have-nots.  There’s something about the rich folk (the 1%) that is different than the 99%.  And that is they have money.  Money = power.  Power to hire attorneys to negotiate contracts so if they lose their high-paying job after 3 months, they walk away with a cool million dollars.  Power to hire tax accountants to figure out that they can re-word something so they save 3% in taxes, and if they out-source jobs overseas, they’ll see an uptick of 15% profit growth.  Power to buy politicians to change the laws in their favor.  Power to exploit, power to coerce, power to influence.  That’s what money gets you.  And guess what, 99% don’t have the money to do that.  It’s the job, in my opinion, of the U.S. Government to level that playing field.  Take out the loop holes, adjust the tax rates, transparency of who is buying off who, get this back to a level field.  But...wait!  You say:  “These rich people, they’ve earned their position!”  I don’t denigrate a good job, I don’t discourage opportunity, but they didn’t do it on their own.  They did it because they got a good education, they were taught by good teachers, they were provided shelter by their parents.  No one is a success on their own.  And anyone who believes so is sadly mistaken.  For those rich people who think we’re just envious (as Mitt Romney told Matt Lauer) that couldn’t be farther than the truth.  We want fairness and our government has the power to create a more level playing field.

Is all this “pie in the sky” dreaming?  I know what you might say:  “Well, golly, Matt, how we gonna pay for all this?”

Let’s break it down for each one.

1.  If you cut 10, 15, 20% of the defense budget you would be amazed at what you could do with those billions.  Everything from education to healthcare can be easily and quickly impacted.

2.  By providing regulations and cutting back on loopholes and cutting out subsidized corporate welfare, that’s another savings of billions of dollars that can go elsewhere.

3.  Providing healthcare for everyone doesn’t seem like a money saver out of the box...and it’s not.  It’s what I would call “good debt.”   By doing this, small companies, big companies wouldn’t have to pay out as much in their employee’s healthcare – giving them more money for research, paychecks, etc.  But...in the long run...everyone would be healthier so there is not such a burden on the system going forward.  Yeah, it might take some time, but eventually we all would be basically paying for preventative care and not so much emergency care.

4.  By having the government mind its own business in the personal world of the bedroom, the doctor’s office, the wedding ceremony – it would have more time to deal with all those other issues that impact the majority of Americans.

5.  Legalizing and taxing drugs would provide immediate cash to states to provide better educations, better rehab therapy, better support network and free up the police to concentrate on more important things then that half-an-ounce of pot.

6.  Providing an education is another vision of “good debt.”  A smarter group of students is a more innovative group of students that will create jobs, create a smarter America, create a brighter future.  You invest XX amount of dollars in one student, you may see XXXXXXX amount later.

7.  Leveling the playing field, taking away loopholes, adjusting to a more fair tax rate – these are all things that would help lower the debt and raise funds...and trust me...the rich will be JUUUUUUUST fine.

So that’s it.  That’s what I expect from the government and I didn’t even touch on clean water, non-poisonous food, clean air, mail service, safe flying, social security, etc.  Maybe that’s for my NEXT blog.  Okay – I’ll wait a while to touch on those....