False Economic Sense by Bush

When will this country elect a politician that has the foresight to work on serious problems that affect our future health and our childrens health? Obviously, in the most recent example, Gore learned the lesson hard. He was promising to take some needed steps to protect the environment for our children and our future economy. Most Americans just vote in a very selfish way. They vote to increase their own near-term economic health, and to hell with the future health of our nation.

A recent example of this administration's policy:

Power plants are the largest source of carbon dioxide, accounting for about 40 percent of all U.S. emissions of the heat-trapping gas. Other emissions from coal-fired plants, which generate about half of U.S. electricity, can cause asthma, chronic bronchitis and pneumonia.

After initially supporting a cap on carbon dioxide during his 2000 run for president, Bush has rejected adding carbon dioxide to the "Clear Skies" bill because of its cost. "Clear Skies" would be the biggest change to the Clean Air Act since 1990.

What cost? The near-term cost to the people that elected him. Not the cost over 20 years. If he took some of the $800 Billion he was spending to kill innocent people in the middle East and apply it to solving some serious long term global problems he would be headed in the right direction.

But... people will be people. It's too bad that a majority of the people in this country don't see the forest for the trees. Soon there will be no forests. Maybe they will see the trees then? There may be no trees to see too!

Come to California (no don't) to see the people's will in action. Twenty years ago experts were saying we should have public transit systems to alleviate the traffic, and power plants big enough to anticipate the growth we knew was coming. Public transit systems are minimal, traffic is bad enough to stress many people into an early grave (literally) and power costs are high with alternating brownouts (not as costs as high as they will in the near future). The people would prefer to have extra money in their own pockets to buy frivilous goods instead of paying their share for a future we know must come. It will be too late when the freeways stop, and the power is not enough, and the sewer flows over the sidewalks floating the trash that can't be picked up. It takes 20 years to build massive public works projects.

Sigh!