The story, changing by the day remains uncomfortably the same... Medicare costs too much, teachers, police and fireman make too much and don't pay enough of their share of the bills. Retirement promises are unrealistic and need to be broken! And on it goes but not once have I heard anybody acknowledge the real problem this country is facing. And it is so simple... we spend considerably more than we earn! It wasn’t always like that... but more and more we stopped producing anything. No foundries, no manufacturing plants are left, even agriculture is mostly automated these days. It's the arithmetic... as a country, we buy more than we spend. Way More! We also have millions upon millions of workers under-employed with millions more unemployed, unable to find work of any kind.

   I could, and perhaps in future articles, will approach some of the underlying devils, but in the effort of keeping it simple... what has gone by is done. What we have lost is gone. What is important is for us as a country to acknowledge what is wrong and decide on a prudent course to get this country back on a positive and profitable footing. This needs to begin in Washington. The elected folks on both side have to admit where the real problems lie and act accordingly.

• Tighten the belt with spending like Medicare and other social programs, yes.
• Make sure all that can do pay their taxes? And that goes for the wealthy individuals as well as the GE's that want to do business here!
• Stop the flood of money overseas... this country is in no shape to support any podunk country ruled by some dictator.
• If we are going to go to war, then the rules that have been in place since time immoral... to the victor goes the spoils!
• China has all the money these days, let them support the impoverished countries around the world.
• On the home front, start charging serious tariffs on goods imported from places like Mexico, China and Taiwan. That will bring some well needed cash into our coiffures!
• Underwrite new development and make sure it stays here in the USA. No more giving it away and buy it back cheaper from the Chinese! It gets designed here, it is produced here and it stays here for and by America!

   Sound like tough love? Well that is the ONLY way I can see America pulling itself up & out... by its own bootstraps. Nobody has ever helped us before. It is silly to think anybody out there is going to help us now. And that means its time for us to get tough.

   We need to take care of our own, the teachers, firemen and police that are the underpinnings of our way of life. The elderly that have given their lives for the American way. Not the Syrians, Chinese or Mexicans.... Americans are who we need to focus on now.