Yesterday I had the privilege of giving a pint of whole blood at our local blood bank. My blood type makes me a universal donor so my precious life source is in high demand. Every 8 weeks you can bet my phone starts ringing in an attempt to get me to come in and give them more. I'm honored to help out, really.
Yet somehow it seems that each time I go, donating becomes more of a challenge. Sure there's the little questionnaire and the mini-physical, but that's only part of it. If I didn't lie about that little trip to Angora back in the 70's they'd NEVER take my blood. (j/k). But every time I go there's another question, another part of the screening process, another drug you should never have taken or another medical condition that makes you ineligible to give. And at the same time they're always crying about how short they are in their supply of blood.
Now lets be clear. This is NOT the blood banks fault. You know where all this regulation comes from? Thats right, the good ole FDA. You heard me.......your government. I have no issue with the blood being tested thoroughly before it's actually used, but lets not make it quite so difficult to give! To be truthful, how the hell would I know if I've ever had sex with someone that traveled outside the country, was exposed to hepatitis and had contact with a prostitute since the time of Neanderthal???? I don't THINK so, but.........anyway I digress.
What really stirred my pot yesterday was the fact that as they inserted the needle into my arm, I was asked to squeeze on a ball of, well, TAPE! When I asked what happened to the little rubber squeezy-ball-thingamajig, I was informed they could no longer use it because it might spread H1N1. Please tell me your mouth is gaping right now and you're finding it hard to breathe. If that little rubber ball is a major contributor to H1N1, then you better use disposable paper blood-pressure cuffs and remove the door handles and bathroom sink fixtures. In fact, you'd better make it federal law that you can't touch anything.......ANYTHING!! And where does this new little rule come from? The FDA.....your federal government. The pit in my stomach continues to grow.
As you may have guessed, there IS a bigger picture here. The picture is one of government control. I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, the long arm of government is clearly out of control. And if you think tilting the scales towards a Republican congress or a president in the next election is going to fix it, you're fooling yourself. Our government is presently like our expanding universe. Is it bigger under the Obama administration? Sure it is.....slightly. But if you measure it against how big it was when Reagan was in office, the percentage of change would be so minute you wouldn't even notice. Our government is big.......period. How big hardly seems to matter.
Our projected budget deficit for this year is about 1.6 Trillion dollars. That means we're going to SPEND that much more than we're going to take in. Where does the difference come from? It comes from China and Saudi Arabia and anywhere else standing in line to lend us money. You can't just print more. You have to borrow it and then pay interest on it. 1.6 Trillion dollars. Let that sink in a minute. It's clear we're not going to catch up and we're never going to pay it back. We'll be lucky to make interest payments. I wonder if one of those debt consolidation companies could help us out.
Every politician harps about how we're saddling our grandchildren with a huge debt. Ya think? But that just makes me laugh. Our grandchildren aren't going to pay it back. They're going to borrow more to make the interest payments. This will continue to go on and on until the bow breaks and the cradle falls. And it will fall. Do I have the answers? Of course I do! But I don't want the FBI bugging my apartment! (I'm just kidding G-Men. Take a chill pill.)
I could write for days about the way our government wastes money. But the truth is it's wasted primarily because we keep asking for stuff. STOP IT!! The little grants and special projects and agencies designed to help those that could help themselves is killing us. Oh yeah, and that little war is puttin a dent in the checkbook too. Just ask yourself if you really need it the next time you go to the government for something. Every dime they spend is being borrowed from a foreign country. We're leveraged to the hilt.
Can you spell United States of China?
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