Politics as usual must come to an end

In lieu of President Obama's State of the Union address, I feel as though there are certain issues that we as Americans should be focusing on now more than ever.

It seems as though politicians have lost sight of why they were elected in the first place: to speak for us, the people, on issues that matter to us and affect us the most.

The greed of politicians has far exceeded the good that they do. They tend to lean toward the side which best profits them instead of the people, always asking the same question before they make a decision, "what's in it for me?"

As Americans we are entitled to certain inalienable rights, as dictated and protected by our Constitution. Our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are being slowly taken from us. We the people, are allowing the government that we trusted to protect us and our interests, to continuously vote against the wants and needs of the common man and woman.

Universal healthcare is no doubt a hot topic for many people. Republican politicians like Mike Huckabee are on television preaching against the purposed legislature that would allow for everyone to be able to go to the doctor, saying to the people "you didn't like having to take your medicine as children, why should you have to take it now that you're an adult?" To me, this seems like a slap in the face to people who actually need medical care and cannot get it due to some unforeseen circumstance.

The unemployment rate is 9.4 percent as of December of 2010, meaning there is somewhere around 6.8 million unemployed people in this country. No job means no insurance and thus no way to afford the skyrocketing price of healthcare.

We pour tons of money into areas that we see absolutely no improvement from. If we are going to be paying money to the government's black hole bank account -- and, believe me we will -- we may want to consider paying for something that could provide help for the average working-class person instead of continuing to fill the already overfilled pockets of America's richest 2 percent.

As if being poor isn't bad enough, now you have to be sick or ailing, unemployed, homeless, old and poor. Perhaps it makes it easier to kick some of the poor people when they are down.

At least 30 countries have some sort of universal healthcare. Afghanistan and Iraq also have universal health coverage that is provided through United States war funding.

The United States of America is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, the guardian and protector to other less developed nations, with the smartest scholars and the best systems.  

How can we really be all of that when we can't even take care of our own?

Healthcare doesn't have to be 100% free; it just needs to be affordable to everyone.  Even if we have to pay for the system, it is the American thing to do.