Not since the time of Theodore Roosevelt has politics been so broken along party lines and so controlled by big business. In spite of the oft touted and repeatedly failed 'trickle down' theory espoused by many politicians, lower taxes on corporations has not increased job production. In fact corporations have moved jobs overseas and are even now, attempting to merge with overseas corporations to establish that their headquarters are overseas and avoid paying the little taxes that the United States does impose on them.
When corporations and the top 1% were paying their fair share of taxes, the United States thrived. Roads were built, jobs created and infrastructure maintained. Once the tax burden was shifted from corporations to the middle class, the United States declined, roads and infrastructure has been left to fail and the middle class has all but disappeared.
Medicare and Social Security which was designed to keep seniors and those seriously disabled from sinking into poverty, are being attacked as contributing to the National Debt. Revisions to both are being touted as reducing the debt with no mention as to the thousands of people who depend on these services. In spite of laws being passed that supposedly would equal the playing field for owners and employees alike in the field of retirement savings; more and more it appears that loopholes exist for those wealthy enough to find them.
Far too often once an individual reaches the state level in politics, their campaigns are being funded by special interests to the detriment of the people who elected them. If they go on to the Federal level, they are so firmly in the pockets of special interests that elections are no longer fair and unbiased. If you are funded by a large corporation, drug company or other special interest you can afford to flow the airways with negative ads. Comments are taken out of context and numbers are manipulated to show whatever the manipulator wants to show.
The United States will continue to decline as long as people refuse to think for themselves and listen only to a few voices. We must continue to educate ourselves or we will have no one to blame but ourselves when the country fails.
