There are now 16 million children trying to live as best as they can in homelessness and poverty in the United States of America. CBS 60 minutes reports on this unfortunate trend:
Why are these kids not the top priority of the US government? It is said children are the future of a nation so why is the government not in line with this important human belief?
We find the US government will spend "$671.5 billion in base and overseas contingency operation funding for fiscal year 2011. The base budget is $513.6 billion, which represents a $2.13 billion reduction to H.R. 1. The defense bill also contains $157.8 billion for overseas contingency operations (OCO), the same amount as the House passed bill and as requested by the President." Those amounts are directly quoted from the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. This act is currently financing three wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya. Besides those war expenses, this act provides billions of dollars for foreign allies around the world while nothing is spent on helping these US children improve their condition.
Why is this happening? According to this presentation from storyofstuff.org, the irrational priorities of the US government come from the way the US democracy has been modified to serve special interests:
Storyofstuff.org explains the US democracy has been hijacked by corporations who do not care about the welfare of citizens but instead favor profit above all else. This is sadly illustrated by the report on "60 Minutes" showing one of the main things neglected by this new setup: The welfare of children.