Government Accountability? Really?

I love my country. I have always loved my country and have never joined any radical group seeking to tear it down. I would never burn a flag or fail to stand for the National Anthem. I am proud of most of our history as a standard of freedom. Nobody is perfect, as we are fond of saying when we slip in some fashion, but our country and its leaders don't even come close to perfection.

Our constitutional framers noted that we should "form a more perfect union..." They meant that we should strive toward perfection knowing that we might only achieve a "more perfect", not completely perfect union. But I think we are slipping

We are now trying to spend our way out of a recession and that concept might work, except for the enormous waste of precious dollars. Government contracts seem fraught with fraud and lack of accountability, particularly in the war zones. Billions cannot be accounted for, and we are daily amazed at who is on the "payroll."

Bank bailout funding failed to attach a condition that would have made the banks turn the money around to make safe loans. There were no conditions, or weak ones at best, to limit executive pay when these firms still owe the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars. Instead, some of the companies continue their risky business as if that is their undeniable right.

The SEC still doesn't get it, even after the Madoff debacle, that there needs to be some oversight and regulation to protect the lowly investors from disaster. Saying that they were "asleep at the switch" (and still are) is laughable. They weren't asleep; they were wide-awake aiding and abetting this horrible fraud on people by their inaction and tacit approval.

Our government can't seem to handle even the most crucial things. It seems that no one is capable of steering this incredibly large ship, and instead think only locally and not globally. The distribution of the H1N1 vaccine is the latest example. Setting the shortage aside (or blame it on the manufacturers), the distribution system is so flawed as to possibly cause unnecessary deaths. Americans should not have to stand in long lines, waiting hours to get a shot, or worse, to be told they have run out. Europe seems to be able to do this in an orderly fashion, but we are rank amateurs.

The U.S. life expectancy is less than many other nations, and our mortality rate for newborns is climbing. We tout ourselves as a leader in the world, but we see our influence has ebbed in many areas, and now the "almighty dollar" is falling from grace as the world monetary standard.

Congress has the lowest approval rating in years, yet they continue to dither on important matters, making the issues so partisan that nothing can be accomplished. Health care, as important as it is, will not arise as a bold new plan, but instead we will settle for a series of compromises that please almost no one. The are few, is any, real statesmen anymore - those legislators who were willing to do the right thing without regard to their own re-election or campaign donations.

If you have been to western Europe you would note the condition of their transportation system - highways, rails, trains, subways - are all far superior to our dirty, graffiti covered, rail systems. Our infrastructure is deteriorating more rapidly than we can repair it. Roads and bridges are failing, the electrical grid is one attack away from chaos, and our schools are falling apart, both literally and figuratively. Our students skills are far less than they were, and far, far less when compared to many other industrialized nations. Where we were once the leader, we now seem willing to follow with a "good enough" attitude.

"The Rise and Fall of the American Empire" is a book waiting for the last chapters to be written, but it is closer than we think. America needs to act now to right these most egregious problems, stop the terrible waste of precious dollars, and hold others accountable to the highest standards.

It can be done, but it has to start soon or we will slip into mediocrity and become a second-class nation, fallen from its once magnificent glory.