Why it’s no time for business as usual

Ken Anderson, Las Vegas

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | 2:04 a.m.

Doesn’t it seem ironic that for most of the past decade our government chose to spend billions of dollars and thousands of lives on wars in the Middle East — wars in countries that produce a plethora of oil? Weren’t we told that if we were to engage Iraq in a military campaign that any restorations would be paid for by Iraqi oil?

The truth seems to be that American taxpayers are funding this needless and expensive project. Or we might say that borrowing from China and owing them huge amounts is funding this folly. Any temporary progress we seem to hear in reports is closely tied to more taxpayer money being used to pay militant factions over there.

And now we have a situation in the Gulf of Mexico where somewhere between 200,000 and a million barrels of oil have spilled into the sea, with ramifications that will hurt millions of Americans directly and indirectly. According to the Sunday news program “60 Minutes,” a key witness identifies a number of executive decisions as clearly human error. I believe that in a free market system, companies have the responsibility to protect our planet as well as their investors.

Where am I going with this? I feel that Americans are hungry for positive news that can raise our hopes. We need decisions that will save the taxpayers unnecessary expenses and put corporate America under closer scrutiny to prevent bailouts and catastrophic events.

We want honesty, not smoke screens. We are on the threshold of yet another election in November; our eyes and ears should be open to those candidates who do not support business as usual in Washington.