06 Apr The American Way

As Americans, we elect politicians to make some life changing decisions for us. They decide if we’re going to war, the laws we follow, where our tax money goes, how much money we pay in the form of taxes… They decide multiple parts of our everyday lives. I sometimes wonder though, why some of these decisions we can’t make ourselves? Why do we have two major political parties? Why can we not see where our tax money goes?

In our day and age, there are so many issues floating around in our nation, that I believe there is no use for political parties. More and more people are electing our Mayor’s and President’s based on the issues, not the party. I for one believe in some of the Republican views, but equally the Democratic views.

I’ve also thought of some ways the government can save A LOT of money. Not all are ideas that I came up with myself but ones I have also heard from other people or the internet. One of these issues that I believe has a zero downfall is drug testing applicants for unemployment/social security, and welfare. Now I grew up right outside Chicago and I can tell you, I know a few people that are on welfare/unemployment that sit around on their ass, smoking weed, and drinking all day. How is this fair to the tax payers? I don’t want to have $100 taken out of my paycheck and have it get in the hands of some stoner or junkie, who turns around and spends it on drugs and alcohol. I think we could reduce the amount of people collecting these government checks by 30% if we were to start testing the applicants. And hell, throw in random drug testing during their collections.

Most recently, the government is going through a budget crisis and cannot come to an agreement on this year’s fiscal budget. We could see a government shutdown as early as Friday April 8, 2011 at 12 A.M. midnight. This scares me. There could be over 800,000 people wondering if they should go to work on Monday. Our entire military could not see a paycheck until this is resolved. That includes family of the military. We have over 1.5 million active military personal and another 1.4 million on reserve as of 2010. All these men and women receive paychecks from the United States Government and this could end Friday until someone decides to put all the bullshit aside and come to an agreement.

Drastic changes need to be made to our government for us to have a secure future as a country. I think these changes need to happen at a fast rate. I’m not talking about lowering our debt (which surely need to work on). I’m talking about a complete rebuild of our election process, our tax money and where it’s used, and almost every aspect of our spending. It needs to be done soon or we are in some serious trouble!

Comment below! What are some changes you’d like to see in our government?