Legislators show ineptitude by approving a bailout that didn't solve the current economic crisis

 

On Monday, Sept 29, the American public witnessed firsthand the utter ineptitude of the United States House of Representatives, hitting Main Street directly in the pocketbook. While leaders try to figure a way out of an impending economic crisis, it is now clear for everyone to finally see that we have an equal crisis in political leadership.

In my efforts to help secure health freedom for all Americans I have had a number of interactions with Congress in the past few years and have reached the following conclusions:

1) The Senate is made up of multi-millionaires who maintain power by accepting and granting favors. Those with large amounts of money, such as the Big Pharma lobby, mostly get what they want even though the American public is typically shafted in the arrangement. Senators don't need their paychecks; they get high on brokering power and facilitating deals to the highest bidder, based on whichever political party is most in control and who their friends may be.

2) While the House has some entrenched multi-millionaires who operate like those in the Senate, most members of the House are not the cream of any crop and could not make as much money in the private sector as they are being paid by their position in the House of Representatives (which includes a retirement plan that would be the envy of every American). Most of these people desperately need their paychecks and will do almost anything to keep them coming.

Collectively, Congress behaves more like a high school click with a cult-like method of keeping its members in line, than representatives of the people.

As the House vote on the economic bailout plan failed, it was plain to see that the members of the House of Representatives, collectively speaking, are not very bright. Many smart people on Wall Street and Main Street were left scratching their heads. If the plan was not good enough to pass, then why didn't they come up with a solution that could pass, rather than send a shock wave through an already teetering market?

The answer is two-fold. Collectively, they don't have enough economic skills to come up with such a plan. Most of them could not run a successful business if their life depended on it, so how could we expect them to solve a real economic problem? And, an election is coming up and a majority of those in tight races put their position as members of the House ahead of everyone else in the country, self-serving to say the least but par for the course.

Our society has something terribly wrong. It is a dark day indeed when talking heads on business cable channels have far more average intelligence than the men and women being counted on to make tough leadership decisions for our country and take effective action.

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Within the next 10 years, most likely sooner than later, a costly health care crisis will come front and center and threaten the U.S. economy at least as much as its current problems. Working on a solution based on identifying the actual problems would ease the pain, and give us time to implement better solutions than waiting until the last minute when hundreds of billions are then needed just to put a Band-Aid on a totally broken system. Like the current economic crisis, the handwriting is clearly on the wall. Unlike the current crisis, the taxpayer billions will simply be poured down a drain with no chance to recover anything. The problem is far more serious than either presidential candidate cares to acknowledge, as talking about it or how to actually solve it would cost lots of votes.

Big Pharma fraud is rampant and not only needlessly killing Americans on a daily basis, but racking up tens of billions of dollars in pointless taxpayer expense. Will the government bail out Big Pharma as its sales eventually collapse, putting taxpayers on the hook for more failed businesses? Millions of baby boomers, many of whom by choice have not taken good care of themselves, are entering the world of taxpayer-subsidized health care known as Medicare. The younger generations cannot possibly foot this bill. At the same time equally massive numbers of low income people, many of whom suffer from self-induced obesity, are clamoring to be covered by "socialized" health care. Once again, hard-working Americans cannot possibly foot this bill. Currently, middle class Americans can hardly afford health care for themselves and their families – much less pay for all the people wanting a free handout. Where is the money going to come from? The "rich" can't pay for everything.

Where will our society draw a line between self-induced health care costs and the obvious need to cover individuals who experience serious accidents or medical problems beyond their control? Only in America can politicians talk about health care while successfully ignoring every elephant in the room. It is no surprise that the Big Pharma sponsored media gives them a free pass. Politicians certainly can't upset seniors, baby boomers, or minorities – how could they win? Even worse, how can they stay in power? It is a sad comment on the decline of the moral fiber of a society when candidates pander to drooling constituents with a plethora of free handouts – rather than debating actual issues with all the cards and elephants on the table. We all need to be more productive, not more entitled.

Another aspect of this issue is that of health freedom, as your free access to dietary supplements and natural remedies teeters on the brink of extinction as CODEX, regional trade agreements, the FDA Trilateral Cooperation Charter, and other "one world government" ideologies based on "free trade" that isn't free at all threaten to undermine effective ways for you to take care of your own health.

Then we could talk about how big business has nearly destroyed the quality of our food supply. This scandal runs deep and has for decades. We have the makers of junk food. We have the mass market farming operations and food traders, which have destroyed family farms and communities, while massively polluting the environment. These companies are delivering disease-producing food to the American public and school lunch programs. I'll bet you can't wait to eat a cloned-meat hamburger.

We have chemical contamination of food with toxic and often experimental pesticides. We have the Frankenfood movement, which genetically alters food in a grand experiment on the nature of food itself – splicing toxins into the essence of the food that everyone is supposed to eat (all for the financial benefit of the biotech industry).

The FDA and EPA are puppet organizations, utter failures in protecting the public health, and little more than unelected government officials (often on the take) acting as economic gatekeepers for those wishing to sell toxic compounds as food or those wishing to further contaminate the environment.

These issues are intimately involved with the cause of cancer and heart disease in this country – and would cost billions to fix – yet must be fixed. Otherwise, we will end up spending the same billions on health care.

These are the kinds of issues we need government to solve, so as to improve the health of all Americans. We do not need any more stupid public health programs telling people to eat less and exercise more – everybody already knows that. Our government could help by having guidelines that force food companies to put real quality food on the table for Americans to eat, while banning the sale of disease-producing additives that permeate our current food supply – and doing its best to actually clean up our environment to get nasty pollution out of our food supply.

Alas, all you need do is look at the ineptitude of Congress to solve any problem, even when it hits them in the face as a crisis, and you can see that you have little choice but to take your health and the health of your family into your own hands. Congressional "solutions," at least those currently existing and those on the drawing board, will do little more than create another huge economic crisis while pitting Americans against Americans in class and generation warfare. Your best plan is to not need any healthcare because you are healthy. This requires a lot of hard work and doing the right things more often than not. There is no easy path to staying healthy as you age – but there is a path.

We already know those in Congress can point fingers; can they look in a mirror? Will any real leaders please stand up?