Iraq
The cost of the war in Iraq to the taxpayers of Michigan’s 11th Congressional District has been great.
Not only have we sacrificed the lives of so many young men and women of our armed forces,
but we have sacrificed the lives and well being of our communities here at home.
The cost in dollars can be explained like this: we the people of the 11th district have spent $1.1 Billion dollars.
That is enough money to provide heath care for 362,365 children, or build 95 new schools, or enough to hire 14,705 new teachers;
we could have hired the 15,951 port container inspectors that are needed to make us safer.
Now I remind you this is all just the 11th district of Michigan, imagine what we could do with the 12 Billion that our state has paid all together.
We would not be facing the constant budget crisis that many local schools and governments have had.
To express my point that this war will destroy us economically, I will remind you of a short story that many of us know but have forgotten.
The story begins on June, 17, 1775 at Bunker Hill when American forces began the fight for freedom;
the Americans began this fight for Independence alone.
It was not until almost 3 years later that the French would side with the Americans and aid them in the struggle to be free.
France depleted its treasury and went into economic collapse funding the American cause.
The French waited to see if the resolve and commitment of the Americans to the cause of freedom was sound before they made a military commitment.
For three long years our Founding Fathers sacrificed and fought against insurmountable odds, they bled and died;
they starved and froze all with no guarantee of assistance from France.
So why is it that America now believes it has an obligation to march around the globe and engage in military actions all in the name of freedom?
Freedom cannot be guaranteed or respected without the sacrifice of the people who are to be free.
The moral of the story is simple: the fight for freedom must be fought for by those who have a desire to be free.
Will we spend ourselves into economic collapse and sacrifice our freedom to ensure the freedom of Iraq?
Freedom cannot be given to any nation that is not willing to pay the price.
The Constitution
If our Founding Fathers were alive today they would be appalled at how we have destroyed the greatest gift in America's history, the Constitution.
Our rights were not stripped away, they were given away.
Why did we fight so many wars and give so many lives in the name of freedom to just let our Constitution be dissolved with the mere stroke of a pen?
Most of Congress voted for the Patriot Act without even reading it.
Many still have not read it.
There can be no freedom until this act is repealed.
Our personal freedoms and inalienable rights must be restored.
The American Dollar
The Dollar has been devalued to a point of crisis.
Americans who have worked and saved their money are now losing their homes and all that is dear to them.
The privately owned Federal Reserve Bank has manipulated the Dollar for far too long.
The middle class has been wiped out by the inflation that is caused every time more money is printed.
The reason more money is printed is to keep interest rate down, thus the lower the interest rate is, the better the economy seems.
The money has been sucked from the middle class and has gone to Wall Street.
We often wonder why things cost so much now as opposed to just ten or fifteen years ago, but it doesn’t really cost more -- it is just that each dollar is worth less.
Thus, more and more, we spiral toward economic collapse.
These private banking practices of controlling our money must be stopped.