Issues, anyone? Policy Issues

Just in case anyone has forgotten, America does have a few issues to face after almost eight years of the Bush presidency. Here are three that ought to command our attention in the upcoming election.

Paying for the three trillion dollar war

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a free war. The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending. You can't spend $3 trillion -- yes, $3 trillion -- on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home.

Whether we pay in debt, taxes, inflation, lost lives, or lost opportunities, we will all be paying indefinitely unless we wind down the War in Iraq. If America can’t afford decent healthcare and educational opportunities for all without crippling personal debt (see below), then we can’t afford the War in Iraq.

Bomb, bomb, bombing Iran

The danger of a McCain presidency is not only that he would prolong our presence in Iraq but that he would seek to fulfill neoconservative dreams of a war expanded from Iraq into Iran and Syria, leading to a regional conflagration. With his campaign already sowing the arguments for a wider conflict, we will not be able to say we weren't warned.

A man with a Pit Bull chomping on his leg shouldn’t go charging into a kennel of Rottweilers.

The debtor society

Americans are drowning in debt. One in every four families reports worries about how to pay credit-card bills this month. Nearly half of all credit-card holders missed payments in 2006 (the latest year for which data are available), and an additional 2.1 million families missed at least one mortgage payment. In 2006, a then-record 1.3 million families received foreclosure notices, followed by another 2.2 million families who were in foreclosure in 2007.

President Bush’s talk about an “ownership society” contrasts painfully with Warren Buffett’s warning of an impending “Sharecropper's Society.”

Did I hear anyone say, wrong track?

Leo Brown | April 29, 2008 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) Permalink: Issues, anyone? Policy Issues

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