The border wall along the Texas/New Mexico/Arizona line will be a challenge to complete. Where will they hire the cheap labor needed to build it?

The all-volunteer army is stretched, reservists and National Guard units are performing extended tours of duty and the President has said he’ll “leave it to his successor” to decide what to do with Iraq. Over two more years of the same? Some Decider. Exactly one member of Congress had a child in the active duty military when the vote was taken back in 2003 to authorize the war in Iraq. It’s exactly this kind of disconnect from the realities of the war that stifles decisive action. What is clear is that increasingly the poor are fighting the rich man’s war. There’s no way we can sustain military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan and be adequately prepared for…what?...Iran? North Korea? Search and rescue in the event of natural disaster? What’s a nation to do? Simple: reinstate the draft. Spread the responsibility and the sacrifice around and see how eager the citizenry is to support prolonged, elective wars.

Again, no movement on pension reform…from a group of legislators that doesn’t have to worry about the security of their pensions. I’ll bet the poor working slobs (what’s left of them) at United, US Airways and Delta felt so lucky. No health care help for the nearly 40 million Americans without insurance…from a Congress with a very sweet health care plan. And here’s the hat trick: by February 1st each year every US Congressperson has earned more than a full-time minimum wage worker makes through December 31st. Guess they’re too busy worrying about the real problems of this country: gay marriage, flag burning and repealing the “death tax.”

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