How independent is our nation, really?

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

It is just a little over a week past "Independence Day." How independent are we?
Consider:
"China has bought up Saudi Arabia's oil and has cut supplies to the United States, following that country's inability to pay its debts."
At this writing, of course, that paragraph is fiction.
But this next paragraph is not. It appeared recently in Deutsche Welle, a major German newspaper:
"Russia has cut electricity supplies to Belarus, following the country's inability to pay its debts. The Kremlin says there is no political subtext to the decision and that the move is purely business-related."
That is what could start to happen to the United States next month, if President Obama and the hard-liners in Congress don't quit trying to get re-elected and start acting like statesmen with respect to the out-of-control U.S. debt ceiling. Extremists on the left and the right are endangering our independence.
The Tea Partiers need to understand that there is literally no way the United States can even balance its annual budgets, let alone begin to reduce the intolerable $14 trillion plus national debt, without increasing taxes and closing loopholes.
The liberal Democrats need to understand that we can no longer afford the "entitlement" Medicare drug program, or Obamacare, or three wars abroad plus tens of thousands of troops deployed in Europe and in Korea.
Taxes ought to go up by at least 10 percent on people making $250,000 a year or more. Tax credits for oil companies, tax subsidies for ethanol producers - these and other loopholes should be closed.
"We don't WANT it!" scream the tea party adherents.
Neither do we.
Spending needs to be cut by 5 percent per year until we reach financial surplus, when we can start to reduce the national debt.
"We don't WANT it!" scream the fools who still think Uncle Sugar's wealth is boundless.
Neither do we.
But it's either this, or our demise and eventual death as a free people.
As Greece is showing today, as Belarus is showing today, if we do not get our finances in order, we will no longer be a free country.
The Roman Republic lasted 500 years. The Roman Empire, ruled by dictators, lasted another 300-400 years.
We aren't yet at the point of collapse, but if we do not excise the rot within us, the greed that makes us spend more than we take in, if we do not reorder our priorities abroad, we will be spoken of as being akin to present-day Greece and Belarus: Broke.
Was our Independence Day just hollow talk? Are we capable of coming together and becoming fiscally responsible again?