It is an axiom of American politics that Americans reject a public health care option. Rhetoric to the contrary: 49.6 percent of the American people get their health care paid for by a government-run insurance program. The dictionary definition of a public option! Instead of railing against it -- why not seize the opportunity?
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects National Debt will rise to at least 110 percent of GDP by 2036. Before the United States reaches the 100 percent Debt to GDP threshold, no investor, foreign or domestic, will be willing or able to purchase our debt at any interest rate. The combination of political and social instability will swallow everything – including your savings. And yet, unlike Barack Obama, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump have focused on the rising ratio of Debt to GDP or the risk it presents. No more credit card shopping for Congress and the American people. We can't pay the bill!
If I had left 5 minutes earlier last Saturday, I still would not know -- and it wouldn't have occurred to me -- the Post Office was holding my mail or considered my mail box somehow illegitimate.
The lessons the American people and the members of Congress can learn about bureaucratic over-reach and inadequate Congressional and Executive oversight can be a catalyst for change far beyond this single scandal.
VA Health System began as the fulfillment of a moral guarantee made to American veterans since Revolutionary War to care for them when they could not care for themselves. Fast forward a century. There is a strong social safety net - Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Social Security Disability, Social Security Retirement, Food Stamps and Unemployment Insurance - available to all Americans. The vast majority of our veterans are citizen soldiers. Why not consider integrating rather than duplicating these programs?