Those #%@$ Government Regulations and Taxes!!

I always wonder which Government Regulations the shouting Republicon voters find so odious? The ones designed to protect ours and our children's health and safety? The ones designed to provide us with clean, safe food, water, air to breathe, and consumer products? The ones that guarantee we get the ingredients listed on our bottles of medicine and other products, at the strengths listed? The ones that make sure the doctor, lawyer, car mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc. we hire are actually qualified to do the job?

Well, I could go on and on but you get the point. Without those pesky Government Regulations, and the Taxes that provide the money for inspections and enforcement, we would be a much sicker nation.

We have seen a lot of this already as Industry cronies have taken over many government agencies that once insured our health and safety were paramount and above the reach of Industry finagling. Add to the cronyism the budget chopping and defunding of these "watch dog agencies", cuts that Republicons have undertaken since the 1980's, and we face becoming a nation like China, Somalia, the Philippines...where there are no "intrusive regulations" against any kind of Industry practices.

We now suffer from many threats to our health and ability to pursue happiness without the "job creation" Industry always promises will follow the removal of Taxes and Regulations. I can't help but wonder if "low information voters" may not be suffering the mental debilitation of exorbitant levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in our water supply over many decades. These have been allowed to accumulate to dangerous levels under Industry pressure to prevent laws limiting these major brain and nerve destroying heavy metals, not to mention dangerous chemicals, bacteria and radiation accumulations.

But we will likely never know these things as our "News" is also controlled and filtered by those same "Industry Consortiums" who heavily Regulate what we hear, see and read. I cannot help but note that for all the Trillions of dollars spent on protecting us from "Terrorism", less than 200 americans (other than active duty military personnel) have died in any way related to Terrorist attacks since 9/12/2001. While over 500,000 have suffered and thousands have died from poisoned food and water born toxins in that same time, as funding for programs to prevent those deaths has dwindled to less than 1/3 of what it was in 1998. (Though these numbers are difficult to find and noted as being "lower than accurate", they can be searched out on various government websites.)

The United States is the only developed "democratic" nation in the world that allows these kinds of Crimes against its people. And as Republicons and their low-info voters aggressively promote more of the same leniency for those who put their vast personal profits and political ideology above the health and safety of Americans, we will become an ever sicker, more endangered and diseased people, with ever less ability to hold those who poison us accountable for their crimes against us.