Why Obama makes economic sense

For too long Republican's have shoveled a load of misunderstandings about education, energy, and health care into the public area. Most of it was put forth by their corporate owners: right wing fringe groups, oil companies and insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

They are wrong. Here's why:

While we pay taxes to fund public education, the money spent is also a national investment. Many of the greatest victories of the United States since W.W.II have resulted from education. We buried the Soviet Union because of our wealth, and our wealth came from a strong, educated productive work force. We put a man on the moon. We developed the computer industry.

From the G.I. Bill to strong state colleges to quality high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed them, good education builds a strong economy, and a strong economy builds a strong country.

The same is true of energy. The result of our addiction to oil is plain to see: Years of war in Iraq, fuel approaching $5 a gallon and soon inflation because of the cost of trucking food to our tables and shipping T-shirts from China.

Drilling for the few barrels left near our own shores does not break the addiction. We need more electricity and we need it now and it has to come from wind and solar. Instead of giving tax breaks to promising innovation, the nation is giving billions to the wealthiest corporations on the planet, the oil companies. We feed the addiction that way, when we need to break the habit.

Health care is broken in the U.S. It is soaking up too much of our income. Sending the sick to emergency rooms loads up that system, and it is a terribly expensive way to provide health care. We need to focus on keeping people healthy, not making them sicker before we let them get better.

We need change in this country not only from the last eight years. We need a change of thinking about how we invest in America. The sacrifice won’t be easy, and the payoff a generation away, but this is what we need to do for our children.