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I'm a dual citizen - born in the US, living in Canada, not coming back.
The Dems HAVE TO drop the bi-partisan thing. You won't see this on CNN but the US is not number 1 anymore - China is. India will soon be second.
The US needs to decide how it wants to exist as a major power, but not THE power. Compared to China the US is, or soon will be, the equivalent of France or ... well...Canada.
The challenges coming down the road for the US (and for most of the world) are many:
The downward spiral of the recession will end but most of the jobs lost aren't coming back. New jobs may be created but the ones that people were laid off from are largely gone.
Global warming may be curtailed a bit, but it cannot realistically be fixed at this point. Major population centers around the globe - including in the US are going underwater. Due to heat and water shortage large parts of the US (and other countries) are going to be nearly uninhabitable. If we turned off all the power and stopped using fossil fuels tomorrow - most of this will still happen.
Water shortages are going to get severe and there is NO mass diversion coming from the great lakes - it's not going to happen. The aquifers that feed the US bread basket are drying up and within 40-50 years places like Iowa, Nebraska, & Kansas will produce no crops or livestock (forget Florida and Southern California - they will fall into the uninhabitable category).
Unless drastic action is taken in the next few years (it won't be - China and India won't allow it) the worlds oceans will be devoid of edible fish in a few decades - possibly sooner (the rate of decline in fish stocks keeps surpassing expectations.)
This is the world we're getting ready for. (completely bs free and making no attempt to spare anyone or sugar coat it.) The US has to find it's way in this world as the largest debtor nation on the planet and deeply in debt to China which is a problem because china doesn't give a damn about anything listed above - if they lose 500 million people it just makes life easier for them. If the US loses 500 million .. it's 170 million more than you've got.
The people whining and crying about socialized medicine are, as far as I'm concerned, mentally disabled (literally).
Their comparisons of health care reform to Communism and naziism indicate that they have no idea what either of those things are. Contrary to what they may think evolution is real and they are arguing in favor of losing the game. Worst of all:
Since the Regan era (Nixon really) people have argued for more and more services but lower and lower taxes (hence all that debt). They have claimed that "people can spend their money better than government can" - they even have alot of Democrats singing this song but it's a lie.
The people do not know best. Given lower and lower taxes people have bought things they couldn't really afford and things they don't really need but after almost 3 decades of smaller government and 'taxes are bad' what does the US have to show for it?
If you compare the US to the "semi-socialst" countries of Western Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan the US has
- The largest debt load in the world - The highest crime rate - The greatest diversity between rich and poor - The highest rate of poverty - The lowest life expectancy - The worst health care (unless you are very wealthy) - The worst infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools etc) - The highest rate of incarceration (people in jail) in the history of the world - The worst literacy rates - The highest rates of cancer and diabetes and the 2nd highest rates of heart disease (behind the UK) - The highest levels of air, water, and soil pollution - The weakest educational system and - The most Wal-Mart locations
That's a lot of handicaps to start the game with given the challenges I listed above. There is no time to negotiate with the mentally challenged (GOP) - no matter how much sympathy you may feel for them.
Obama, from what I've seen up here, is fighting with one hand tied behind his back. His solutions do not seem to go far enough to address the issues at hand and time is running out.
Just my .02 from up North - we'll take in as many as we can when it all falls apart.
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