By Michael Schindler
For many, the answer to the question, “Is America in Crisis” has an obvious answer. “Look around,” some will say. States are broke, the Federal government is broke, the middle class is getting squeezed, more than 43 million Americans are on some form of government assistance – oh, and there is a push to replace the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency. Some would say this is a crisis.
Others will say this is all just simple scare tactics by one party or the other. Personally, if I just look at those whom I associate with on a daily basis, folks are a bit cautious, some are out of work, others are working but have no revenue – the picture looks much different now than it did a few years ago. So who is right?
Watch this video and then let me know your thoughts on “Is America in Crisis?”
Michael Schindler, Navy veteran, and president of Edmonds-based Operation Military Family, is a guest writer for several national publications, author of the book “Operation Military Family” and “The Military Wire” blog. He is also a popular keynote and workshop speaker who reaches thousands of service members and their families every year through workshops and seminars that include “How to Battle-Ready Your Relationship” or “What Your Mother-in-Law Didn’t Tell You.” He received the 2010 Outstanding Patriotic Service Award from the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.
That video does a great job of answering the question: Is our national debt really that big a problem? If you think the answer is no, you should watch it.
The hard question is: What should we do about it? Maybe you like what the Republicans want to do. Maybe it’s the Tea Party, or the Democrats or the Libertarians.
I don’t particularly like what any of them have to say. They’re all trying to solve the problem by taking even more from me and my children. They just have different strategies for doing it. Consider listening to this (warning – it’s almost an hour long):
https://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp110418tax_cuts_and_the_nat
You’ll learn that when you give ordinary people the problem, give them good information and the time to craft a budget, they come up with answers very different from what you’ll hear from any of the major political parties.
I think the whole program is worth a listen, but you can skip forward and start at the 13:40 mark to hear just about this study by Steven Kull of the University of Maryland. If you listen for at least 5 minutes, you’ll learn that those people who considered themselves Democrats wanted to cut more spending than thoss who affiliated with the Tea Party or the Republican Party.
Since 1980 the bottom 90% of us have seen our income go up by 1% after you adjust for inflation. The top 1% has seen their income go up by 400% after inflation. So if you wonder where all that tax money ended up after it was taken out of our pockets, I think you have the answer.
But despite the way the middle class has been consistently screwed by our government regardless of which party is in power, the ordinary citizens who crafted a budget demanded sacrifices from the middle class as well.