Why the US is Worse Off than France

Just like the Romans, the United States has to pay for bread AND circuses...

"THE US seems to have gotten the worst of it," said a French friend. 

We were taken aback. Everyone knows Europe is in a state of permanent crisis. The US seems solid by comparison, no? asks Bill Bonner in his Daily Reckoning.

"Now that the Supreme Court has approved Obamacare, you have the same problems we have in Europe, social welfare spending with no limits...plus you have your colossal military spending. You have both 'bread and circuses,' just like the ancient Romans. You are doomed."

Yes, dear reader, we came to the fork in the road after the 9/11 attack. And the government took it!

And now the feds can fork over whoever and whatever they want. No kidding. They just have to think of it as a tax. Here's the AP's report on last week's decision:

Health care law survives with Roberts' help

WASHINGTON (AP) — America's historic health care overhaul, certain now to touch virtually every citizen's life, narrowly survived an election-year battle at the Supreme Court Thursday with the improbable help of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.

But the ruling, by a 5-4 vote, also gave Republicans unexpected ammunition to energize supporters for the fall campaign against President Barack Obama, the bill's champion and for next year's vigorous efforts to repeal the law as a new federal tax.

Roberts' vote, along with those of the court's four liberal justices, preserved the largest expansion of the nation's social safety net in more than 45 years, including the hotly debated core requirement that nearly everyone have health insurance or pay a penalty. The aim is to extend coverage to more than 30 million people who now are uninsured.

The question on the table was whether or not the feds could force people to buy health insurance. The supremes decided that 'yes they could.' It was just like a tax, they said. And the constitution gives the legislators the right to impose taxes, as they see fit.

Let's see...how about forcing all blue-eyed people to go outside, take off all their clothes, and give them to homeless people? That would be a tax too. Guess it's okay.

While the social-welfare state is expanding, so is the police state. Another measure being discussed in Congress would declare the US itself a battlefield or a war zone. This would give the military the right to do what it does without going overseas...and it would give the president the power to direct his kill list towards his domestic enemies.

Then, drones can fly over Kansas or Ohio...and whack whomever the feds want.

But who are they gonna take out? No one...or almost no one...opposes the military agenda in the US. There are no serious terrorists...and no serious challenge to the spending machine. The two candidates for president agree on the essentials — keep the money flowing to the zombie industries...military...education...health...and finance. Oh yes, and occasionally toss a few bucks at an industrial business — like GM — if it has enough unionized employees.

Wait...the US has no serious enemies overseas either. And that doesn't make the racket any less effective. On the contrary, it helps. With no serious enemies to worry about the military industry can spend its money on any damned thing it wants. Lots of boondoggles. Wide profit margins. Low casualties. What's not to like?

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