America is the best place to live on Earth, or at least in days gone by. I'm proud to be an American and especially proud of the men and women who fight for our nation. However, I finally realize just how important it is to our leaders to help America before it dips into American's pockets to help others.

Recently a woman, who suffers from a severe disability, applied for social security disability in order to be eligible for job retraining. She was denied. Why? Due to her continuing disability she was not able to work for a year and a half and used her entire life savings to support herself and pay for medical treatment.

According to SSD you must be continuously employed for 5 ? years or you're ineligible. Outraged, she suggested to SSI that she should become an illegal immigrant to qualify for free medical and educational benefits.

A Mexican National, whose father comes to America six months a year to work and then wires his salary home to Mexico, collects SS for the next six months while he heads home.

An estimated 48 billion dollars in 2004 (32 billion-Latin countries. 16 billion-Asia) are wired out of our country, much untaxed, by illegal immigrants who receive free education and medical benefits from the U.S.

While I don't begrudge people trying to better their situation, I do take offense at our government when we pay for education and medical care among other things, without providing the same benefits to all Americans, including our own veterans.

To add insult to injury, President Bush wants to send 120 + billion dollars more Iraq. Why isn't that money earmarked for Katrina and other disaster victims in the U.S.? We need to rebuild America and take care of our own backyard before we step into someone else's.

According to David Isenberg of Asia Times, ??the eventual cost of the war in Iraq will not be several hundred billion, but according to a new study at least a thousand billion dollars - US$1 trillion??

Noted political scientist Francis Fukuyama has this to say, ?If Bush had come to the American people with a request to spend several hundred billion dollars and several thousand American lives in order to bring democracy to Iraq, he would have been laughed out of court.?

I am ?shocked and awed? at how we can help so many people, and turn our backs on the very people that are paying the salaries of those who are in office today.

Jaci Rae is the #1 Best Selling author of ?The Indie Guide to Music, Marketing and Money? and ?Winning Points with the Woman in Your Life One Touchdown at a Time.? http://www.jacirae.com