Affordable Healthcare Act upheld

[Pinky]

What about the US? You're over ten trillion dollars in debt. If socialist nations in Europe are in decay, then your nation must be a long way beyond that.

Our situation is different. First, debt is a function of GDP; our total debt is high but our GDP is way above any other nation. And the US Dollar is the world reserve currency. This adds a great deal of value to our currency that no other nation has, so we can fair better at monetizing our debt. Not that doing so is a good idea.

Our economy is also better, and that helps us pay the debts; we protest about 8% unemployment, but that would be considered a booming economy in most Euro member states. Plus, we fight against the tide of huge government policies that tend to drag the economy down, while Euro members are putting Socialist Party sects into power.

And how is this any different? You pay road taxes, do you not? What if you didn't want to drive? How come you still have to pay tax? Is that not the same 'tyranny' you're talking about? What if you don't support the military? Certainly, given that the US spends more on its military than anywhere else in the world, far and beyond any amount that could be justified by the most eloquent spindoctor, and I'm certain that at least a part of your income tax goes to fund that. Supplying money to the armed forces sounds a lot more tyrannical than giving someone with cancer a second chance to me.

The interstate highway system was a valid military project. In WW2 we ran into a lot of logistical problems with major population/manufacturing centers on the east coast, while fighting a full scale war on the far side of the Pacific. Interstates were meant for mlitary use only, but political pressure has opened them up to the public a few years after it was finished. And by the way, the system was built by the Army Corps of Engineers and was finished ahead of schedule and under budget. Where's the equivilance to the entitlements?

Not that I agree with the interstates being used haphazardly by the public. The roadways are under a much higher use burden than they were originally made for, and this has dramatically raised the cost of maintainence to unaffordable levels. That's why it's falling apart. It may have raised economic output, but not enough to pay for the use. It would be a good idea to privatize much of the system and stop using parts that don't pay for themselves, it's a waste of resources.

On top of that, the military is one of the few valid functions of the federal government. Not that all military spending is sacred, but at the very least it's not invalid. Plus, the DOD (including the wars) is 19% of the budget. Even if we shut down the majority of the Department of Defense we would still be running a deficit. The military is not causing our debt crisis. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and misc entitlement programs like federal welfare literally take up the majority of the budget, and the majority of Obamacare hasn't even started yet.

Your nation is the only first world nation without some sort of socialized medicine program, and also suffers from the worst debt crisis in human history. Giving medicine to the people isn't the problem, the priorities of your litigious, selfish, resource-squandering government are the problem.

Our debt as a function of GDP has been higher in the mid-20th century, and many nations have higher relative debts today. Still, our debt is too high. For reasons already mentioned, if we follow the rest of the world on economic and social policy then our -- and the global -- economy will collapse permanently. That's why China keeps giving us major loans, because if we go down everyone gets hurt. It should make you stop and marvel that a one-party communist regime is more productive and business-friendly than the United States is today. Communists are running away from socialism, why should we embrace it?