“When we look back on 2010, we wonder if future generations will consider this as anything other than “The year everyone said crazy stuff about health care.””

If the health care take over is forced thru by the Democrats, I wonder if future generations will point to 2010 as the year when the United States finally began an inexorable slide to that of a second or third rate power. In 1987 Paul Kennedy in his book “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” warned of this danger, but he posited the cause would be from a combination of military overreach and a declining revenue-producing economic base.

Twenty three years later we see that while a volunteer army and world-class military technology are expensive, the defense budget in 2008 (which includes veterans benefit costs) was still “only” 24% of the budget. Entitlements, social programs, and interest on the national debt were 65% of the federal budget (look in the back of your tax booklet). However, there is no doubt but that the United States is declining as an economic power. The continuous trade deficits since 1976 are an indicator of that. While our industrial base has continued to erode, apologists have claimed that we are merely transitioning into a superior “service economy” or, today’s rage, a “green economy”. Meanwhile the slide continues.

To this 65% entitlement cost will now be added the national health care bill, with enormous deficits extending into, well, forever. It is inevitable that our bankers-Chinese, Japanese, whomever- will eventually use our enormous demand for credit to strangle us politically and economically. In fact, they are already doing so. That is why President Obama’s visit to China came up empty. That is why, at the insistence of the Chinese, he did not meet publicly with the Dalai Lama, and why this holy man was made to exit out the back door of the White House, picking his way past the garbage.

The idea that we are “too big to fail” is disproved by history. While we may fancy ourselves as more sophisticated, we are in reality no different than the Habsburg King Philip II in 1554. If we default on our debt, the interest rate will go up, and we will either have to pay or make budget cuts that are unimaginable today. Either way, the American people will face enormous hardship, and the decline of a nation that was once described as “a shining city on a hill” will continue.

2010 as the year when the United States finally began an inexorable slide to that of a second or third rate power.

—

Nope. Not that monumental. It’s already happened. The slide began in 1980. I actually believe we may have slowed it of late. But, just as Raygun was the Father of the American Budget Deficit, he is also the Father of the Great North American Banana Republic. And W is his illeitimate second cousin, once removed.

“illegitimate”. Contacts. Bed.

What is this almost horny need in leftists to see the U.S. in the most dismal light?

It’s not how I was raised and I will NEVER understand or identify with it.

The really startling news, Cecelia, is that by your criteria Azarkhan is a leftist. And, it’s not like you’re the most pleasant, upbeat member of the chorus line.

Azarkhan indulged in silly political rhetoric about something he fears might happen.

On the other hand, to you’ve the country has been in a decline (going into a “banana republic”) for 30 years!

I’ve been down on YOU and yours’…., but I’ve never been pessimistic about my country!