If We
Can’t
Pay Our
Medical
Bills,
Have the
Terrorists
Won?
By
Victor
Kamber
“Mr.
Gorbachev,
tear
down
this
wall!”
was
a proud
moment
in
American
history.
Standing
alongside
the Berlin wall that divided
east and
west
Germans,
President
Ronald
Reagan
demanded
it be
removed.
Eventually
it was.
America won the old-fashioned way — by spending
the
Soviet
Union
into
bankruptcy
in the
decades-long
Cold War
arms
race.
Now
Osama
bin
Laden is
doing
the same
to us.
America is spending $15 billion a month in
Iraq to wage a mistaken war that is a
recruiting
bazaar
for Al
Queda
terrorists.
Somewhere
in a
well-stocked
cave in
ally Pakistan, bin
Laden
must be
laughing
his
turban
off.
Our
national
debt is
exploding.
Today it
stands
at more
than $9
trillion,
a 56
percent
increase
under
President
Bush.
That’s
$29,728
for
every
man,
woman
and
child in
our
nation.
As
Comptroller
General
David
Walker
has
warned:
“Continuing
on the
unsustainable
fiscal
path
will
gradually
erode,
if not
suddenly
damage,
our
economy,
our
standard
of
living
and
ultimately
our
national
security.”
I don’t
know
whether
Gorbachev
had a
comptroller
general
to
provide
advance
notice
of
imminent
bankruptcy
that
overspending
brings,
but
President
Bush has
had a
number
of
warning
signs
thrust
in his
path and
he
continues
to put
the
pedal to
the
metal.
If
spending
in
Iraq means
America can’t afford health care for
our
children
or
infrastructure
maintenance
to keep
our
bridges
from
falling
down,
then the
terrorists
have
won.
House
Majority
Leader
Steny
Hoyer
recently
described
for the
National
Press
Club the
fiscal
record
of the
Republican
Party.
He
termed
it a
“decades-long
train
wreck.”
He said
that
“for 18
of the
26 years
I have
served
in
Congress,
a
Republican
has
occupied
the
White
House.
And in
every
single
year of
those
Republican
Administrations,
the
federal
government
ran a
budget
deficit.”
The
Maryland
Democrat
said the
cumulative
deficits
under
Presidents
Reagan,
George
Herbert
Walker
Bush and
George
W. Bush
total
more
than
$4.1
trillion.
In
contrast,
the
Clinton
Administration
had a
cumulative
surplus
of
nearly
$63
billion
over
eight
years.
Under
President
Clinton,
the
federal
government
reduced
the
deficits
he
inherited
and
recorded
four
consecutive
surpluses,
the
first
time
that had
happened
in 70
years.
The
interest
payments
on the
national
debt in
2007 are
a
projected
$235
billion.
That’s
more
than
Congress
appropriates
for any
government
department
or
agency
other
than
Defense.
It’s
four
times
more
than we
spend on
education,
and
seven
times
more
than we
spend on
Homeland
Security.
“This
administration
has
pursued
the most
fiscally
irresponsible
policies
in
American
history,”
said
Hoyer.
Although
Democrats
get
hammered
as
“tax-and-spend,”
he told
his
press
club
audience
that
“the
Democratic
Party is
the
party of
fiscal
responsibility
today —
which is
a very
under-reported
story.”
Sure is.
So is
the fact
that the
Russian
government
still
had a
few
rubles
left in
the
treasury
when
they
allowed
that
wall to
come
tumbling
down.
For more
than a
quarter
of a
century,
Victor
Kamber
has made
headlines
as a
political
consultant
while
writing
several
books
and
providing
sound
bites
that
resonate
for
network
and
cable
talk
shows.
His
substantial
career
achievements
were
recently
recognized
when he
become
the
recipient
of
the
prestigious
PR
News’ 2006
Hall of
Fame
Award
for his
outstanding
career
in labor
communications
and
politics.
Those
responsibilities
have
included
a
multitude
of
activities
including
working
as a
consultant
in more
than 100
political
races;
establishing
the
award-winning
communications
firm,
The
Kamber
Group;
and now
serving
as president
of
Coalition
Services
for
Carmen
Group
Inc.
His blog
can be
read at
www.victorkamber.com.
