For there to be "money for something", or "not enough money for something," there would have to be some connection between the annual revenue of the federal government and the annual budget. There isn't. Politicians are happy to spend money that's not there. The only reason they didn't spending money on toothpaste inspection, toy lead-paint inspection, or bridge repair is that they judged those safety measures wouldn't buy them enough votes to be worth the political capital fighting for those expenditures.
Correct. It's not that the money doesn't exist; rather it's not being directed toward activities that protect the health and safety of the American people. The perception is that the mundane tasks of protecting the borders and maintaining the infrastructure doesn't make the grade into 'legacy statesmanship'
Add to that a failed education system and a press more interested in political agendas than fact and you have an ignorant populace who are easily manipulated.
Besides an apathetic electorate, what else is wrong with this country? Overwhelming consumerism. The focus is no longer on what we can
produce, rather on what we can
consume. As a nation, we've gone into billions $$ credit card debt to buy cheap imported crap made with slave labor in third world countries. We can't get enough of it. Walmart keeps growing and the landfills are overflowing (hey, that rhymes).
Everybody has to have an undergraduate degree and there is no honor in labor anymore. And why should there be? Who needs to learn or practice the trades when everything we buy is disposable and not repairable? Besides, we can import as much cheap Mexican labor as we need to do the grunt work.
Few have any sense of stewardship or regard for the great nation we've literally been handed by virtue of simply being born here. More important is how many greasy cheeseburgers we can stuff into our huge gut. How many of us participate in some volunteer work, with a local charity, church, or hospital? Few, and mostly older people.
What's wrong with this country is us. Our laziness, our apathy, and our self centeredness. Our lack of appreciation for the founding principles and heritage of this (once, yet hopefully again) great nation.
That's my .02