After almost eight years of the Bush administration, our economy is in shambles and verges on collapse. The future looks bleak. Deregulation of the banking industry, which was pursued enthusiastically by the administration, John McCain and the Republican Congress, is the root cause of the current economic crisis. Our national debt has almost doubled. The president has borrowed more money than all other presidents combined.
Millions of citizens are without health insurance and have little hope of ever getting any. Those who have health insurance have seen their premiums just about double.
We remain frustrated in Iraq while Afghanistan and Pakistan fester. There is no longer any doubt that President Bush lied us into war with Iraq, which has cost nearly $600 billion and the lives of more than 4,000 American troops. The administration has assaulted the Constitution, condoned torture and set up secret prison camps on foreign soil. They continue to hold at Guantanamo Bay prisoners they know to be innocent of any wrongdoing.
McCain, having voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time, finds no reason not to continue the same policies that put us where we are. Since 2004, McCain has lurched steadily rightward in his pursuit of the Republican nomination for president. He has flip-flopped on just about every position he has ever held, even to the extent of voting against his own immigration bill. McCain wants to privatize Social Security and cut a debilitating amount of money from Medicare. He wants, for the first time ever, to tax employee health benefits.
McCain and Sarah Palin are downright scary people as they incite their followers to scream threats. Only Barack Obama has provided a rational, practical vision for the American future. The choice could not be clearer. Keep the Republicans from a third Bush administration. Vote Obama and Joe Biden.
-- John Mondy, Camarillo