America’s Priorities
“I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.” – Thomas Jefferson
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
How many times have we recited the Preamble to the Constitution, while thinking about what the words really mean? Our government was formed by our Founders to be of, for and by we the people. In other words, we the people give those whom are elected, by us, certain powers to secure the Liberties that have been endowed to each one of us not by the government, but by our Creator.
We elect people to secure, keep our liberties, which are imbedded in the Constitution, safe. Our elected officials are supposed to do this by establishing justice, making laws that protect our God given rights. This is basically the main function of federal government as intended by our Founding Fathers. The three branches, which are supposed to be separate, to be checks and balances, are meant to legislate Constitutional laws, execute the Constitutional laws, and to interpret whether those laws passed are Constitutional.
For over 4 years now, our government has failed to pass a real budget, which has in essence allowed for more spending in some sectors, while reducing drastically in some cases spending in others. Both parties have blamed the others for both spending and cuts. The hypocrisy of politics as usual while our nation’s fiscal house continues to collapse in debt, and our nation’s defense is weakened is incredibly derelict of those in office who have sworn to uphold their Constitutional oaths to protect this country.
We now have what is called the sequester and still both parties have blamed each other while business as usual goes on for them. Their salaries are still being paid, they are still able to go on vacations, go to their offices and committees and meetings, still able to spend days speaking and arguing on the House floor. They can argue from now until the cows come home but what would the Founding Fathers think of the priorities of Washington and our nation today?
We have allowed decades of spending on programs and pork, which never should have had a place in the federal budget. We are now so deeply in debt as a nation that we have failed to secure the liberties for the next generations. We have allowed those whom have been hired by the people to represent them to waste trillions of dollars that tax payers have paid to programs which our Founders never would have considered being the duties of the federal government, all the while neglecting their main duty in providing for the common defense of our country.
One of the top duties of the federal government is to provide for our defense because it is the defense of our sovereignty and protection from enemies both foreign and domestic which ensures that we will have the rest of our liberties, much like the idea that our 2nd Amendment secures our 1st Amendment rights.
Our military men and women have the toughest jobs already, and they cannot do their jobs if they’re not given everything they need for protection for themselves and proper equipment during times of war. They are put in even more harm’s way each time a politician denies funding because another politician added billions of dollars of unnecessary spending for pet projects that have nothing to do with a defense bill. Or because there’s not enough money left after spending on ridiculous and frivolous bills which benefit no one. Those who have and still do serve and keep us safe have the most dangerous jobs yet it seems they have always been given the least back. What benefits they deserve, they have to fight again here at home, through bureaucratic red tape and even then it’s often inadequate.
Those who put their lives on hold and on the line for the rest of us should never have to scrape the bottom of the pork barrel when it comes to being paid better and given what they dearly earned.
Where are our priorities when our politicians can make a career out of public office, while a Veteran takes his life because he can’t get the help he was promised? Where are the priorities when our government spends billions every year on illegals through welfare, but our Veterans wait months to over a year just to see a doctor?
Our nation’s budget is in a mess. We have massive debts, yet our government is spending more and more. Washington seems to have a never ending supply of cash for everything except for those which are the Federal government’s duties.
Maybe we can have the trains running on time, even if it’s on a federally run, bankrupt system called Amtrack. Yes, maybe there is a chicken in every pot, thanks to our government’s programs that have caused more people to be on food stamps than any other time in our nation’s history. It’s too bad though, that those who have always done their duty to God and Country are always getting the raw end of any back room Washington deal.
