Tracy

Apparently the town of Tracy, California is now charging $300 for every 911 emergency call. I know many, maybe most, jurisdictions in the States are border-line bankrupt, but charging $300 for every 911 call seems a bit drastic. Perhaps not quite as drastic as another solution I've heard bandied about: taking a page from 18th and 19th Century Britain and dropping American debtors onto Australia by parachute. Imagine if the two solutions were combined. American families without $300 to their name would gather around the kitchen table discussing whether Grandma, who is having a heart attack in the corner by the refrigerator, should be sent to the hospital at the risk of the rest of the family being dropped on a kangaroo or a cane toad. The mind boggles.

If I may be so bold as to suggest other, less drastic solutions. Such as throwing the existing American health care system into the trash bin of history. Not tinkering with it, as Obama has suggested - at a cost of nearly an ADDITIONAL TRILLION dollars - but getting rid of it. And not because it isn't the best health care system on the planet either, but because the United States can no longer afford it. When you're close to bankruptcy, you have to start cutting your expenses. At the very least, the U.S. should adopt one of the second most expensive health care systems on the planet - either France's, Germany's or Canada's - all of which are roughly 5/8ths the cost. That would be almost a TRILLION dollars a year in savings! To paraphrase a long dead Illinois Senator: A trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money!

Better yet, why not outsource the U.S. medical system to Cuba?

Another suggestion, and I feel I have to say this in a whisper since the United States is a bought-and-paid-for democracy, why not tax the better off? I understand they're going through a rough patch, but still... Shouldn't they contribute just a bit, if only in a token way, as an example to the rest of hard-working, tax-paying America? Maybe go no further than to reinstate the taxes Bush lifted from the shoulders of the wealthy. That alone would mean almost another TRILLION dollars in added revenue, apparently!

And, speaking of Iraq and Afghanistan, may I be so bold as to make another suggestion: learn to say no. When countries like Iraq and Afghanistan come to Washington asking, begging to be invaded, just say no, to paraphrase a former First Lady. Say sorry, we can't afford to invade ANYBODY anymore, I don't care how many of your women have to wear burkas or how many of your boys have to attend Islamic religious schools. And, guess what, that would be another TRILLION dollars in savings!

So there you are, THREE TRILLION dollars in savings in just three paragraphs! That's a lot of $300 911 phone calls! Money that could be used to save the Grandmas of America, pave the streets in front of their houses and pay off - well, help pay off - the national debt.

Again, the mind boggles. For the Grandmas of America - and Australia - the future could be so bright they'd have to wear shades.