Security and any of the other things our nation can no longer afford. If our elderly have to live as though they were in Romania at the height of the austerity there, so be it!
I mean, it is not that we don't have the money. It is simply that there are so few people in the political Class who actually give a friggin' Fig.
For instance, Homeland Security has a lot of money -and apparently right now, county officials across the nation are clamoring for the contraptions that that agency has devised. These contraptions are called MRAP Bearcats, and they cost about one million a piece. Apologists for these items make exuberant statements on how the MRAPs can keep our Counties safe from everything from school shootings to theater shootings to hostage situations etc.
Don't know exactly what I mean? Take a gander at the link about two thirds of the way down. It describes how a MRAP Bearcat has been ordered up for Marin County California, one of the most affluent areas in the nation. Income annually is something like 43K. Home prices are around $ 600 K for a starter home.
But County officials feel that the County residents just are not safe enough without one of these vehicles. Did I mention yet that MRAPs were developed for use in the war zone of Iraq, to protect our troops from, IED's? I lived in Marin County for over twenty years, and although I experienced the deteriorating roads, the inability of the County to provide for mass transit, its strange and wayward and inept Hospital System (for profit, although somehow Marin Gen Hospital always has non-proft status,) the lack of mental health resources, and much more, one thing I never worried about was any IEDs. And I don't seem to remember any other people in Marin worrying about IED's either.
Of course what do I know? I am not an elected official. After all, officials in 66 other counties in California are also ordering these vehicles. So surely there must be some real purpose in all these expenditures.
Here is the link so you can hear and see for yourself what this is all about.
http://finance.yahoo.com/...
My final comments for the moment on this topic: Marin County has one primary main road, Hwy 101, that is plagued by freeway traffic jams quite often. I have no idea how you would get that cumbersome vehicle from one end of the county to another during a crisis - but Hey - maybe Homeland Security could devise a 12 million dollar helicopter that could fly the thing from the north end of the County in San Rafael to the south end during any crisis that occurs during rush hours!
Anyway, the design is sleek and delightful and good to know that the coming 22% decreases in Social Security checks, the shut down of over fifty schools in Chicago and a hundred or thousand or tens of thousands of other wicked cutbacks will enable the Federal Government to keep our country's military contractors devising such needed items!