Corporations run U.S., not ‘we the people’

With a massive GNP of more than $14 trillion, the U.S. is by far the richest country on Earth. Our nation has ample money to provide free health care for every American, free college tuition, high-paying jobs and secure early retirement for all American workers, etc. Instead we have budget deficits, shortages, layoffs, etc.

Thomas Jefferson said, “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

The opposite has happened. The U.S. government and economy are run by and for corporations. The U.S. empire spends more than all the other nations combined on military preparations, and for what? When I was in the military, a general told me America's homeland could easily be defended with 5 percent of our military.

Why do we need thousands of bases slung across the globe? To enforce multinational corporate interests. These corporations want Iraq's oil - we invade and take it, etc. Unfortunately, citizens have little say. Our democracy has become a corporate auction sale.

George Bush gives away our treasury to the CEOs and enraged citizens vote for change. We get Barack Obama who raises already bloated military spending, escalates the war in Afghanistan and continues Bush's corrupt corporate bailout.

Jay Miller

Hills