Four bad things that have been plaguing our country

Behold the three most dangerous things facing our country — and now there are four!

Item number one is the most mind boggling. In 1969 our Congress passed a bill into law and with a stroke of a pen our United States of America was introduced to an anomaly called the “Endangered Species Act.” It was with an unbelievable lack of foresight that this law became a reality and started to change our way of life with incredible ramifications.

That law ensured an avenue for any “do gooder group” with the price of a postage stamp to challenge any timber sale, highway, dam, irrigation program, bridge, backcountry camp site or hunting area. The only criteria required to halt any of the above was that it would be of some disadvantage to a fish, snail, lizard, worm, wolf, grizzly or any other fabricated excuse they could conjure up.

I reference the case of the drought in the Interior Valley in California and the fresh water smelt that has curtailed irrigation to that valley so as to supply fresh water flow to the ocean and the smelt. As of this growing season irrigation water will be limited in its availability to grow crops in the valley. Once that water enters salt water it is gone as a useful resource to agriculture. Check your fresh vegetable prices this coming year.

The number two most dangerous noteworthy act forced upon our citizenship got its start in the 1980s as “political correctness,” whereby a person of lesser qualification is afforded advancement or advantage over another person because of skin color or ethnic background, even if that other person has greater qualification. Some might think I refer to our current president but this is larger than that.

The third, and probably the most important, deterrent to our nation and its future is the Environmental Protection Act, which made its debut in the 1970s. We, especially here in Montana, are blessed with abundance of natural resources, both above and below ground that can be developed in a manner of safekeeping of the land in addition to a profit for our state and its citizens. Slow-witted opposition to the development of these resources in the name of protecting the environment is indeed poorly thought out. To curtail all activity rather than pursue a logical and economical business plan is nothing more than a “head in the sand” approach. It is time we let logic enter into the equation.

It appears as though our present administration is adverse to any discussion of carbon energy, even though we abound in it. They are committed to only some fantasy kind of alternative energy like wind or solar that is at the whims of nature and far in the future before it would be economical without government subsidy.

And now we have a fourth catastrophe. What have the amateurs in Washington, D.C., done to us this time? They have created an abomination of a law called “Obamacare” that is on the verge of destroying the most prominent and successful medical system in the entire world. The United States is the “cutting edge” of medical prowess and our amateur politicians are going to destroy it in the name of left-wing liberal control and stupidity on both sides of the aisle rather than letting individual entrepreneurs lead us into the next level of medical preeminence.

One of the most prominent medical institutions, the Cleveland Clinic, has just furloughed thousands of employees because of Obamacare and the uncertainty surrounding it. This uncertainty is not confined to the medical profession but is confusing to almost all businesses and corporations to the extent that most hiring has been curtailed until someone can define just what Obamacare actually says. It appears to say that no one can hire anyone without paying huge subsidies for individual medical insurance for those employees or be fined ever increasing penalties if that coverage is not provided.

Obamacare is not medical coverage but only medical insurance at an outlandish cost to individuals and business both large and small. Our business community cannot afford this kind of attack.

God help us through these next three years of this administration — Oh, I forgot: God is no longer allowed in our government, basketball games, schools, courthouses, military, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts or even on our ski runs.

R.A. “Bob” Fraser is a resident of Somers.