The USA; eating itself alive

50 million of us don't have health care (http://www.kff.org/uninsured/7451.cfm)

40 million of us use food stamps (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6465E220100507)

We rank 30th in infant mortality (http://www.healthnews.com/infant-mortality-rates-us-ranks-poorly-among-industrialized-nations)

Our students rank 17th in science (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-12-07-us-students-international-ranking_N.htm)

And yet, we have 57,000 troops defending Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments#cite_note-siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil-1)

NASA had to spend $500 million on a project it wanted to drop (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/nasa_forced_to_pour_nearly_500m_into_nixed_rocket.php)

We're doing it to ourselves. We could be spending our money on health (BETTER! We spend much more per patient than any other country), education, and infrastructure. Instead we spend it on wasteful big projects, like $100 billion on a missile defense system that still doesn't work (http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2010/12/20101217172028248218.html)

Our priorities have obviously been thrown off track somewhere along the way. I don't know how to fix it, but THAT is what we should be discussing; what are our priorities? Can we agree on that?