No, we are failing, and it's our leadership that's failing, and the American people, if they had the power to make laws in partnership with representative government, they could correct this.
But you can't, since the country is run by corporate America, particularly the military-industrial complex, the medical-industrial complex, and we do nothing about it. Look at this election and it's all money. Follow the money, and you'll find out what you're going to get in the way of leadership.
A: Well, we're failing our children, and let me give the figure, how bad it is. 30%, one-third of our children, do not graduate from high school, and that's a good number. I've been in parts of the country where it's 40%. We're failing? Of course, we're failing. How can we not fail when we make the No. 1 priority in this country the military-industrial complex? We're spending more money on our defense than all of the rest of the world put together. There's no money left to make what should be the No. 1 priority, and that's education. In Japan, children go to school at 7 in the morning and end at 5. In the US, they get off at 3. In the US, we have all summer off. That's no way to compete & succeed. We need to get off of this agricultural-educational-designed system we have. Teachers want to get paid? Well, let them work year-round like the rest of the people. We need to have super teachers, and we need competition in education.
A: Well, you do that with leadership. Not just presidential leadership, but empowering the American people so they can make laws. Clearly, the Congress & the president in the las 50 years haven't been able to do it, because education is not the top priority, and it needs to be. It is in other countries, and it shows. We are going downhill as a nation. We refuse to accept this. We're stuck in triumphalism, thinking we're the greatest in the world. Well, boy, start looking at educational statistics around the world and you'll see we're far from the greatest in the world, and we're going downhill. When a third of your children do not graduate from high school, it means that these people are destined to suffer subeconomic existence. No, we are failing, and it's our leadership that's failing, and the American people, if they had the power to make laws in partnership with representative government, they could correct this.
To be fair to Gravel, he made this incendiary claim in response to a question citing that obesity had risen to an "all- time high," SAT scores have declined, and 38% of fourth graders cannot read at basic level. Challenged to "tell Americans that they're getting fatter and dumber," Gravel obliged. But is the underlying data correct?
The Facts: According to the CDC, the incidence of obesity among adults increased from 15% in 1980 to nearly 33% in 2004, so there's no controversy there. The "dumber" part is much more controversial. Average SAT scores have declined a little over the last two years, but that's because more students are taking the test. A better indicator of the educational skills of the overall student population is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which concludes that math skills have been rising steadily since 1982.
A: Well, first off, I am prepared to tell you that Americans are getting fatter and dumber. I have no problem saying that. I've also said that the Americans are going to get the government they deserve. And so, if things are going bad, just remember who put these people in power. What I'm trying to say to you Americans, and that is you have to become empowered. You're too busy trusting your leaders, thinking they're going to do the job for you. They've proven they cannot do the job, whether it's war, whether it's education, whether it's health care. Please go to NationalInitiative.us and vote to empower yourself. Because that is the only answer. Representative government and our government is broken.
A: I'd pay for it with a retail sales tax. I favor universal coverage of quality medical care. I favor it through a device of using vouchers where everybody would be able to get a voucher. They'd sign up for it every year. It would guarantee them equal health care. All citizens would get the same health care. They would be able choose from insurance plans or a government plan like Medicare. That's how we would have health care, and the only way you're going to pay for it is not by saddling business. All you do by forcing business to pay for health care or passing a law telling people they have to go buy insurance, which is a subsidy for the insurance companies, all these plans are going backwards.
A: By one, making the whole process competitive. Two, by changing the control that's held by the pharmaceutical companies, by the insurance companies and the health-care industry over the Congress so that they cannot properly design a health-care system that meets everything that you defined. Stop and think what failure we have in this country. Bismarck put this in place in 1888. Truman advocated this in 1946. And we still can't get it right. Maybe there's something failing in our society. And there is. It's called representative government. And what we need to do is to equip the American people to then step in and be able to make laws in partnership with their elected officials.
A: It's not so difficult, and it doesn't take a lot of rethinking. There's nothing wrong with a wealthy--supposedly wealthy--country like ours to define that everybody should have the same health care. And that's what I've done with my program, [designed by] people that have really fought, they've spent their lives at this. It's not that difficult if you have a commitment. But when the industry that profits from health care calls the shots on the way health care is going to be delivered, then you are going to see the anomalous situation that you have in this country where they can't even deliver it to everybody fairly.
Q: So, how would you prohibit that kind of influence?
A: Well, you can't. This is representative government. They put up all the money.
A: I'm the fellow that ended the draft. I'm the one that stopped the nuclear testing in the north Pacific. I'm the one that brought about the Alaska pipeline. I'm the one that released the Pentagon Papers and had to go to the Supreme Court because Richard Nixon was trying to throw me in jail. That's what I did 30 years ago. That was leadership then. And I was excoriated by the media at that point. I was a loose cannon. Well, right today, I've had the good fortune to live this long, and people look back and say, "My God, were you a courageous leader." Well, that's the leadership you'll get when I become president of the United States. Now, can the American people stand that kind of leadership? That remains to be seen.
A: I think it's a tragic charade where obviously one could predict what Petraeus was going to say three years ago. And then you get the president saying he's going to follow what the dictates or recommendations of Gen. Petraeus, who is making recommendations that the White House wanted. This is a very tragic charade. While human lives are lost because of the inability of this government to have any sense of moral commitment.
A: No, because there's no leadership in this country, and that's the tragedy of it. There's no leadership in Congress to speak of. And so we're stuck playing out. I feel terrible over the young men and women and the Iraqis that will die and get their bodies blown up because of this nation's mistake. This is all foretold the day we invaded Iraq without reason, without reason. It's criminal!
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The above quotations are from Columns and news articles on the Huffington Post blog.
Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles on the Huffington Post blog. Click here for other excerpts by Mike Gravel. Click here for a profile of Mike Gravel.
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