There is a small but loud segment of the U.S. population that will take every opportunity to blame President Obama, and "the liberals," for everything from national debt to their own hangnails. My aunt is one of them. She sends me anti-Obama and anti-liberal emails on a regular basis.

The latest email is below, indented in black, with my comments after it in blue. I don't have a source for this email, but I suspect it's a 75 year old southern male with a Reagan portrait on his wall next to his authentic Confederate sword and his dial telephone.

The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 - they've had 234 years to get it right; it is broke, and even though heavily subsidized, it can't compete with private sector FedExp and UPS services.

Social Security was established in 1935 - they've had 74 years to get it right; it is broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - they've had 71 years to get it right; it is broke. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; it is broke. Together Fannie and Freddie have now led the entire world into the worst economic collapse in 80 years.

The War on Poverty was started in 1964 - they've had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our hard earned money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 - they've had 44 years to get it right; they are both broke; and now our government dares to mention them as models for all US health care.

AMTRAK was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; last year they bailed it out as it continues to run at a loss!

This year, a trillion dollars was committed in the massive political payoff called the Stimulus Bill of 2009; it  shows NO sign of working; it's been used to increase the size of governments across America, and raise government salaries while the rest of us suffer from economic hardships. It has yet to create a single new private sector job. Our national debt projections (approaching $10 trillion) have increased 400% in the last six months.

"Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009 - - after 80% of the cars purchased turned out to be produced by foreign companies, and dealers nationwide are buried under bureaucratic paperwork demanded by a government that is not yet paying them what was promised.

So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that each and every  "service" shoved down our throats by an over-reaching government turns into disaster, how could any informed American trust our government to run or even set policies for America's health care system - -  17% of our economy?

Maybe each of us has a personal responsibility to let others in on this brilliant record before 2010, and then help remove from office those who are voting to destroy capitalism and destroy our grandchildren's future.

Now it's my turn.

Yes, we should take everything out of the hands of failed government, and instead depend on the private sector, who is doing a MUCH better job. For example:

Enron · Countrywide Financial · GM · Chrysler · Wells Fargo · JPMorgan · Citigroup · Goldman Sachs · Frontier Airlines · New Century Financial Corporation · Woolworths · American Freedom Mortgage · American Home Mortgage · Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC · Charter Communications · Lehman Brothers · Linens 'n Things · Mervyns · NetBank · Terra Securities · Sentinel Management Group · Washington Mutual · Icesave · Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander · Yamato Life · Circuit City · Allco Finance Group · Waterford Wedgwood · Saab Automobile · BearingPoint · Tweeter · Babcock & Brown · Silicon Graphics · Conquest Vacations · General Growth Properties  · Thornburg Mortgage · Great Southern Group · Eddie Bauer · Nortel

Which of these company's CEOs do YOU want to trust American health care with? And where did these companies go when they failed to succeed in the free market? The government, that's where. Maybe you would prefer the CEOs of the health insurance companies that DO control your options. This is a partial list, with salaries:

H. Edward Hanway, Chair/CEO, Cigna Corp., $30.16 million
Ronald A. Williams, Chair/CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834 (2007)
David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc., $20.06 million
Jay M. Gellert, President/CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529 (2007)
Raymond McCaskey, CEO, HCS, (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million (in 2007; up 78% from 2006)
Angela F. Braly, President/CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771

When you think we can't afford a public option, look above so you can understand why premiums are increasing so quickly and why we can't afford to continue with our current failed system. These are the CEOs that are spending billions of company dollars that could be paying for life-saving surgeries to fight health care reform. What I think is hilarious, and I believe the above CEOs laugh about, is that the very people these companies are screwing - the working class - are the ones screaming down representatives and having teabagging parties in order to defend their ridiculous salaries. As always, the ignorant are used as pawns for the rich and powerful, unknowingly playing into their propaganda campaigns.

Now, back to the email...

The US Postal Service - where else can you pay less than 50 cents to send a letter from New York to Hawaii?? Not UPS or FedEx. The post office is independent from the federal government and gets NO federal funds beyond money to cover government-mandated free and reduced rate postage for government mailings, non-profits, the blind and overseas voters. However, UPS and FedEx have gotten federal stimulus money. Moreover, the post office is price-regulated by the government so they can't charge more for longer distances or for rural deliveries. In spite of all that, and even when gas prices tripled, the USPS has posted losses that are about equal to what they have to pay into their employee retirement fund that was established by the government. In other words, while private organizations simply file bankruptcy, rob their pension funds, and screw retirees, the USPS is continuing to pay into retirement benefits. So the USPS is a perfect example of how WELL a government program can succeed.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were PRIVATE companies in September 2008, when, even though they were both solvent and profitable, the Republican government determined they were over-leveraged and took control of them. Yes, the Republicans admitted the government could do a better job than a private company. If the government had been running those two organizations, they would NOT have done the mortgage game-playing that caused the economic crisis of today. It was PRIVATE companies that caused that, and the government who is fixing it. Score another one for an anti-government email missing their mark completely.

I'm not sure what the writer means by the "War on Poverty." Maybe welfare? And how does he conclude it "hasn't worked?" I don't see Americans starving in the streets, like they are in pure-capitalist-democracy India. I don't see churches having to cut back on their new buildings and wings and pastor salaries because they have to use those funds to help those less fortunate. To me, that means government programs have worked. The reason there's still poverty at all, though, is because 10% of Americans control over 70% of our wealth, and, for the sake of stock prices, corporations have been screwing American workers for decades. Wealth disparity is higher than it was even during the 20s, right before the Great Depression. The money is not trickling down because Reagan's ideas no longer apply in an international financial system. Poverty continues to exist in America not because government programs have failed, but because the government has allowed excessive greed and corruption to flourish.

Amtrak is a private organization that takes federal funds. It is totally corrupt and a large part of those federal funds go to lobbying for MORE federal funds. Amtrak should be eliminated, and, like the successful rail systems throughout Europe, the federal government should operate a nationwide light rail system. The comments above about Amtrak are actually GOOD arguments for government doing a better job than private industry.

Cash for Clunkers did not go broke. It was funded with $1 billion, then $2 billion more. Americans loved it so much it reached its funding limit and was ended - under budget. That's like saying that when a concert sells out and doesn't sell any more tickets, the fact that no more tickets are for sale shows it failed. "That concert is such a failure, you can't even buy tickets if you want to!"

Moreover, stats show that about 42,000 American jobs were saved with this successful program. What do you think it would have cost taxpayers if those jobs were lost? Just the federal income tax loss would have been over a billion dollars. And Japanese cars only counted for 41% of the program, with the vast majority of those Made in America by American workers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/31/ap/government/main5278170.shtml

If Medicare is so bad, then why do people who get it defend it so much? Why aren't older Americans fighting to end Medicare? Why isn't the AARP fighting to end Medicare? The answer is because, until Bush created the retail-price-for-prescription-drugs add-on to Medicare, it was going very well and it worked. The Republicans always say government programs fail. When the aren't failing, the Republicans MAKE them fail to prove their point. If Bush had added a prescription drug program to Medicare, and allowed Medicare to negotiate bulk rates on drugs, as all private insurance companies do, then Medicare would be just fine. Score another against the Republicans.

The stimulus bill shows NO signs of working? Let's see - the Dow dropped from over 11,000 to 8,500 under Republican control due to their deregulation. With the Democrats in power, the stimulus bill was passed in late February. Money started paying out from the stimulus funds in March. What happened to the Dow? Look at it yourself. It's almost back to 10,000. The ONLY change was the stimulus bill and "Cash for Clunkers."

Jobless rates are improving in the last two months, and economic indicators are improving worldwide. Yes, the stimulus plan is working. And we did it without drill-baby-drilling. It's still a bit early for me to be totally optimistic (unlike the right wingnuts, who were declaring the stimulus bill a failure before it was passed), but it looks to me like that young black guy with the foreign sounding name is doing a good job.

Of course the email ends in the usual Republican fear-mongering scare tactics; The liberals want to destroy capitalism! The liberals want to destroy our grandchildren's future! They're sending out letters to veterans encouraging them to commit suicide! Health care reform means the liberals want to kill grandma and autistic babies with death panels! It's so pathetic and so 1980s. It didn't work to get McCain elected, and it won't work to stop health care reform.  If it does anything, it will be to incite one or more psycho militia-types to try to assassinate President Obama. If that sounds good to you, be prepared for the backlash if it happens, because liberals have guns, too.