"The problem is purely with the Bush Administration."
I disagree. Entitlements loomed as a future problem long before the Bush administration.
I don't want to get off track by attacking the Bush administration for everything, because while some things (the mess in Iraq, for example) are certainly their fault, other things are not.
Bush and co may have "broken" Iraq, but I did not, and my children did not, and I don't want to fix his mistakes. It's noble, I guess, that you are willing to pile the debt on all the citizens of the US because you think Bush broke Iraq (and I agree with you about that, his admin broke it), but I'm not willing to do that. It isn't "fair", but then I never thought foreign relations should be fair- I want them to be in the best interests of my country. That is why even though Saddam was a very bad ruler, I didn't want my government spending the big bucks, and a lot of lives, to get him out of his office. There are bad rulers all around the world- and it sucks for the people who live under them, but I'm not willing to bankrupt America, or even further indebt her, in order to mount massive military interventions for supposedly humanitarian ends (I say supposedly, because you just never know how a war will turn out).
I do not think Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare are going to be fixed any time soon, do you? And meanwhile, our debts mount. I'm not willing to add to them unless it's a vital American interest- it's that simple. I don't see how spending a lot of money on Iraq will assuredly (or even more likely than not) further America's vital interests. I think it's a big gamble, and I don't like big gambles with other people's money (or even my own money). |
