Cliff Kincaid
Washington talking heads would rather talk about flying objects than the enemies behind most of them, China and Russia. We are in a state of war. Meanwhile, despite trillions of dollars spent on infrastructure, our roads, bridges, and railways continue to deteriorate. At the same time, federal programs that millions of Americans depend on are going broke.
Ukraine, on the front lines of a war we need to win, is begging for weapons. And yet former Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Ron Paul are participating in a loony left "Rage Against the War Machine" rally in D.C. on February 19 demanding a Russian victory by depriving the people of Ukraine of the weapons they need for self-defense.
First, however, a personal note about our financial crisis and national bankruptcy. Having passed the age which gives me access to Social Security and Medicare, I have learned more about how these federal programs work – or don’t work.
Medicare is going broke and forcing seniors to search, sometimes in vain, for doctors willing to take Medicare patients. This is because the payment system is on “an unsustainable path that is jeopardizing patient access to physicians,” according to the American Medical Association.
I have heard forecasts that the system will be short of more than 100,000 doctors in a decade because many will forsake the Medicare system to pursue strictly private and costly so-called “boutique” practices.
I know eye doctors who are seeing 35 patients or more a day because that is the only way they can generate enough income to make the practice profitable at the rate acceptable to Medicare.
What does Joe Biden intend to do about that? Nothing. Instead, he singles out Republican Senator Rick Scott for daring to recommend ways to solve the problems inherent in both Medicare and Social Security.
We know politicians lie. But Biden’s lies seem to be pathological—and obviously untrue—since he has a history of lying about others and himself.
What Senator Scott advocated, in his "Rescue America” plan, was that “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” This has been deliberately distorted by Biden and his fellow travelers into the end of Social Security and Medicare.
What Scott is proposing is to fix the programs. Here’s what else he says he wants to do with them:
- Force Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.
- Protect America’s seniors and veterans from Washington dysfunction: The United States must never default on its debt. In the event that we reach the debt ceiling, we must prioritize paying interest on debt held by the public, Social Security, Medicare, veteran benefits, payments to our service members. America’s seniors, veterans, and service members should never be punished for Washington’s dysfunction if the debt ceiling is reached; nor should they be used as a political football to allow Washington politicians from both parties to pass more reckless spending.
Regarding the UFOs, a current topic of interest to the talking heads—Republicans are demanding that Biden speak to the American people. What a waste of time. He can’t be trusted to say anything that’s true or relevant. Why waste our time with a distracting national address on this topic?
The bottom line is that China and Russia want to destroy our nation and our allies. What else is new? The issue is that U.S. authorities are not protecting our nation. They won’t protect our people and they waste trillions of our dollars on useless and made-in-China green energy programs.
Clearly, Biden acceptable has no plan. That’s why he's called China Joe.
Private companies are no better. Look at Ford’s plan to build an EV battery plant in Michigan with a Chinese “partner”—the same regime that killed more than one million Americans as a result of COVID.
Yet, UFOs have been occupying the attention of the major media and the politicians for more than a week.
The destruction of a Chinese balloon caused Biden’s Secretary of State to cancel a visit to China. Why was he going in the first place?
Meanwhile, House Republicans have created a new China committee, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, to be headed by Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin. What good will that do?
We already know the character of the regime. It's a communist regime. It wants to destroy America.
We have to get on a more sensible war footing.
The only thing that will save us is a bigger and better and more competent military establishment than China and Russia combined. We need more nuclear and other weapons capable of obliterating both of those nations, if necessary, and we need a president who will use them—or at least threaten to use them—for the benefit of the American people.
If this requires more military spending, so be it. National defense is a constitutional requirement.
Then, and only then, can we effectively deal with other federal spending programs.
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.