The news is full of descriptions of the problem. Few offer concrete solutions.

An article in the current issue of Newsweek titled, “The Troubles” (It was titled, “America May Truly Be Broken” in my news portal.) is depressingly downbeat in the assessment of our chances. They quote studies showing both China and India passing us in economic output. The quote from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is the most eloquent, “We are the United States of Deferred Maintenance. China is the People’s Republic of Deferred Gratification. They save, invest and build. We spend, borrow and patch.”

ColorComments.com sounds the same warning a lot, but I prefer to quote hard facts rather than just impressions. For example, in The Best Health Care System in the World?, I document how incredibly far down the list we are in comparison with other countries. But most of the doomsayers (including the Newsweek article) don’t include a prescription for turning things around. Why not? I think it’s because the cure is so awful that people shy away from even talking about it.

I have a cure. (I doubt even a small sliver of it will ever be put into effect, but it’s still the only thing that I think will work.)

Put America First!

This has been a battle cry from conservatives for decades, but it means something entirely different to me. A conservative usually means we should stop ‘waste’ such as providing humanitarian aid to Africa. Like that would save more than spit in a bucket! The real money isn’t spent helping people, it’s spent killing them. For example, the entire rescue effort for the recent Haiti earthquake will cost quite a bit less than just one Stealth Bomber (at about $2 billion a pop – “B-2 Bomber: Cost and Operational Issues (Letter Report, 08/14/97, GAO/NSIAD-97-181.” United States General Accounting Office (GAO).

The staggering cost of projecting military power into every corner of the globe is where the money is going. It’s not being spent trying to cure aids. It’s not buying food for hungry kids. It’s being spent to be the big kid on the block … on every block … throughout the world. At some point, we’re going to have to say to ourselves, if Generalissimo Ihateamerica takes over in Lower Berserkistan, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Actually, learning how to deal with that sort of situation without (to steal the idiot Bush’s catchphrase during the Iraq invasion) “shock and awe” bombing would do a lot of good for America’s cultural growth.

Another way conservatives interpret “Put America First” is that the concept of “America” really means a SUV (or two, or three) in every garage and a big screen TV in every living room. That’s not America to me. America to me is a rail system that works. It’s investment in alternative energy. It’s the ability to provide a quality education – that stands up to foreign competition – for American kids. And it’s health care for Americans.

But I’m convinced that we can’t afford both. There is not infinite wealth to go around. If we’re going to regain (notice that I did not say, “retain”) a leading role in the world, we will have to find ways to discourage the SUV’s and large screen TV’s so we can spend the money on real investment in America. The mechanism is not rocket science. Just slap a huge tax on SUV’s and apply the proceeds to alternative energy. Simple … except that every redneck in Alabama (and Washington County, Utah) will scream bloody murder.

This last storm had a lot of water in it.

When I fed the birds this morning, their seed dish had at least a full inch of water in it. That’s a lot of water in a 24 hour period. The mountains are white. The little ponds I have dug around the house are all full because the ground is saturated now. (My goal is to make sure that if a drop of water falls up here, it stays up here.)

From my back yard, it looked like the drought has been broken – at least for the time being. That’s a big relief. Last fall, I wrote that We Need Some Rain!. The Virgin River basin was down to less than a quarter of normal; the worst in the state.

I decided to check into that in more detail so I looked up the actual numbers from the US Natural Resources Conservation Service. If you look at the totals starting on January 1, you can see that this last storm has put us at least four inches ahead of last year. The big storm at the end of January was a huge boost too.

But the dry fall I complained about in October makes the total water year (which starts October 1) still only about normal. We’re now at 24.1 inches at Kolob. At this same time in 2009, we were at 24.4 inches – the 2009 water year was still just slightly better so far.

So if you think this storm is going to fill up Lake Powell, think again.

New York’s Massa is one more item of evidence.

Louisiana re-elected “Cold Cash” Jefferson every two years since 1990 and it took a video-taped $100,000 bribe payoff and a federal grand jury to get rid of him. The Governor of Illinois had to try to auction off an appointment to a US Senate seat before he was finally booted out of office. But then, Utah keeps re-electing Hatch – so we’re guilty too.

Now, New York’s Eric Massa has resigned under fire. He’s given three different explanations (health reasons, to avoid an ethics investigation for propositioning a male staffer, and most recently, because the Democratic leadership wants to get rid of him). He’s quoted as calling the While House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a “son of the devil’s spawn.” (Actually, if rumors are to be believed, he’s not the son – just a drinking buddy.)

This keeps happening! It happens so much … Doesn’t it make you wonder about the kind of people who are still there passing laws? I know I do.

I was happy when New York’s Rangel was forced to give up his grip on the enormous power of the House Ways and Means committee. But I can’t forget that Wilbur Mills held that job for thirty-six years until he was caught dancing in the Tidal Basin with stripper Fanne Foxe, “the Argentine Firecracker”. The good folks of Arkansas had given him a resounding victory in his most recent election. After him, Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois was the House Ways and Means Chairman until he was forced out of it when he was indicted on corruption charges for his role in the House post office scandal. Counting all three, the most powerful committee in the Congress – the one that writes our tax laws – was controlled by proven crooks and nut cases 64 percent of the time.

How much does it take to convince people that something is seriously wrong?

In my blog, Rescuing Democracy: The “Town Meeting” Model, I suggest that maybe we need to adjust the way we elect people in this country. In brief, I think that this idea that we get as many people as possible to go out and vote might be part of the problem.

“A vote for me is a vote for Christ!”

“Your vote can stop liberals from taking away your personal Hellfire missile.”

“Eliminate all taxes with your vote!”

So … if you don’t like my idea, how do you want to start electing people who don’t have a serious personality disorder?