Issues

America’s Economic Meltdown

20 years of deregulation has created an economic monster which is increasingly unmanageable and threatens to bring down the whole system in a heap. National leaders including Arlen Specter have been the enablers that have allowed this situation to happen.

IRAQ

Currently it is costing the United States between $10 and $12 billion a month to keep occupation forces in Iraq. It is impossible to project future costs. Costs to date are apx $674,283,800,000. The cost in lives is somewhere around 100,000 civilians, and over 4500 American service men and women. Meanwhile our infrastructure continues to crumble, our schools are failing, and we pour more and more money into this quagmire.

HEALTHCARE IN AMERICA

The United States spends at least 40% more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country with universal health care. Single payer universal health care would save 100 to 200 billion dollars per year despite covering all the uninsured and increasing health care benefits. Massachusetts and Connecticut have shown that single payer universal health care would save 1 to 2 Billion dollars per year from the total medical expenses in those states despite covering all the uninsured and increasing health care benefits. Its time to take a serious look at Single Payer Health Care in America.

EDUCATION

No Child Left Behind has left to many children behind. Many children are pushed through school even though they graduate with out mastering the fundamental skills of reading and math. Estimates put the rebuilding of our schools at around $500,000,000,000, yet we are going to put billions more into an Iraqi Marshall Plan.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Americas aging infrastructure; Roads, Bridges, Dams. Bridges collapsing, outdated and dangerous road systems, dams in dire need for rebuilding. Add Wastewater systems, Drinking water systems to the long list of failing infrastructure. The cost to update and just begin to address this problem is in the hundreds of billions. Yet we continue to plan on pouring hundreds of billions into a Marshall plan for rebuilding war torn Iraq, while Iraq sits on $96 billion dollars in oil reserves.

ENERGY / ENVIRONMENT

"So we have a choice to make. We can remain one of the world's leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world's leading exporter of renewable energy. We can let climate change continue to go unchecked, or we can help stop it. We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right here in America and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity."

-President Obama, March 19, 2009

While the presidents efforts are a step in the right direction we have to put the focus on a Marshall Plan for America that rebuilds America’s infrastructure, our schools, and adds to that focus a realistic plan to address our energy needs for the future, and bring the worlds environmental problems to the forefront.