It appears that 2013 has been a bad year for our country. Our foreign policy is a shambles, our healthcare system is facing collapse and it has been revealed that our government has been recording nearly every phone conversation in the United States. Yet the stock market is up 28% and employment is up by 1.1 million people. How is this possible? Will the final collapse come next year? Is our media controlled by a vast right wing conspiracy which is covering up the fine work of our dedicated public servants? Join the Community Breakfast Group (CBG) at our December 26 meeting and tell us what you think.
The CBG meets for breakfast every Thursday at 7:30AM at the Holiday Inn Express in Chestertown.
US foreign policy in the Middle East may have polled well in the United States, but has not been received well abroad. Drone strikes against unarmed civilians and military support of rebellions led by Islamist fundamentalists have resulted in very poor publicity in the countries that have been affected. Our armies have been defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Pew Research, only 16% of Egyptians have a favorable attitude toward America.
The difficulty the federal government has had in building a web site to support the Affordable Care Act have been well documented, but, so far, the ACA has affected only relatively few people. More important are the fundamental flaws in the law. The whole system is predicated on the theory that healthy young people will willing pay large premiums to support elaborate medical treatments for sick old people. Apparently, more people have had their policies, deemed inadequate by the federal government, cancelled, than have signed up for the new policies. Instead of increasing health insurance coverage of Americans, the Affordable Care Act is actually taking away their health insurance. And this is only the start. So far, the changes have only affected those in the individual and small group markets. The big problems will start when Americans covered by ERISA plans are affected.
Credible documentation provided by Eric Snowden has shown that the federal government is recording nearly every phone conversation in the United States. Supporters of this activity argue that mere collection of this data is not a problem if it is not “misused”, and that safeguards are in place to prevent its “misuse”. But how confident can we be that these safeguards will be effective if those in charge wish to, say, identify and neutralize their political opponents.
Few of us are directly affected by any of these activities of the federal government, so apparently no one cares. However, history … think Germany and Japan … teaches that when such abuses of government power begin to affect everyone, then it is too late. What can we do as individuals to restore respect for civil rights in America?
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