Back in November, you may recall that we sent copies of Empire of Debt to all of the U.S. Senators and Members of the House, along with a letter urging them to take a long, hard look at the amount of debt our country is racking up. Even though all we received back from this mass mailing were largely form letters, it seems that one Senator shares in our views.

Senator George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio spoke out to the Senate on May 3 on the very same subjects we covered in Empire of Debt - and that we cover in each issue of The Daily Reckoning. He warned of our soaring national debt, the impending retirement of the baby boomers and "leveling with the American people about the fiscally shaky ground we are on."

Do you find it odd, dear reader, that you've heard nothing of Voinovich's speech? It went basically unreported by the press and apparently drew little comment from his fellow Senators.

David S. Broder, Washington Post writer, did pen a column on Voinovich's stand, noting that while it is near impossible for any D.C. reporter to distinguish between the mindless drivel that politicians constantly spurt out, and a "real" story, he felt that Voinovich's message was an important one.

Here are the juiciest tidbits from his speech:

Voinovich began by pointing out that when he came to the Senate in 1999, "the national debt stood at $5.6 trillion. Today...the national debt stands at $8.4 trillion ...an increase in the national debt of about 50 percent."

Bad as that is, he said, worse is to come. "The retirement of the baby boom generation will put unprecedented strains on the federal government...According to the reports from Medicare and Social Security trustees, the trust funds for these programs will be exhausted even earlier than previously thought...If we leave reform of entitlement programs for future Congresses to solve, as well as a mountain of debt to pay off, it will have devastating consequences on the economy and on our children and grandchildren."

Voinovich also touched on something that we try to stress the importance
of: preparing our country for the future. Instead of letting these bills and obligations pile up for our children and grandchildren to take care of, shouldn't we be cleaning up our own messes?

In closing, Voinovich said, "Anyone in the know who is watching us has to wonder about our character, our intellectual honesty, our concern about our national security, our nation's competitiveness in the global marketplace now and in the future, and, last but not least, our don't-give-a-darn attitude about the standard of living and quality of life of our children and grandchildren.

"The question is, are we willing to be honest with ourselves and the American people and make these tough decisions?"

*** Do you remember that we said: "most of modern health care and modern education was a swindle?" We said it without any real evidence. It was just an observation, a prejudice and a guess.

Well, cometh a new book by an old friend, Randy Fitzgerald. In "The Hundred Year Lie," Randy argues that most of modern medicine is a fraud:

"At the turn of the 20th century the average life span was about forty years of age in developed countries. By the beginning of the 21st century life spans were nearing eighty years on average.

"Of those 40 years of increased lifespan during the 20th century, no more than seven years can be credited to modern medicine, with even most of that due to advances in medical technology rather than drugs. That estimate comes from Dr. Dick Jackson, director of the Center for Environmental Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Ninety percent of the reduction in the death rate occurred before the introduction of antibiotics or vaccines, adds Dr. Anthony Cortese, a former U.S. Public Health Service official. It was largely due to improved water, food, and milk sanitations; a reduction in physical crowding; the introduction of central heating, municipal sewer systems, and refrigeration; and the move away from highly toxic coal and wood burning to less toxic natural gas and oil."

"The scientist who discovered the first two commercially manufactured antibiotics, the microbiologist Rene Dubos, admitted in his book The Mirage of Health: 'The introduction of inexpensive cotton undergarments easy to launder and of transparent glass that brought light into the most humble dwelling, contributed more to the control of infection than did all the drugs and medical practices.'"

*** And here, if you think you have trouble. Our friend, Frank, reports on a recent trip to Haiti:

"Dear Bill,

"I didn't stay long enough to be able to explain why Haiti, which used to be such a prosperous country with such a gay, alert and quite developed population, has dropped in to such misery. But I can give you an idea by describing a day with Père Fréchette.

"Père Richard Fréchette is an American priest whose family comes from Quebec. For 18 years, he has been living in Haiti where he created an orphanage. A few years later, after realizing how much the poor suffer from tuberculosis, aids and other illnesses, he went back to the United States to study medicine.

"After returning in Haiti with his degree, he started up the St. Damien hospital for children in a former hotel. This hospital has a very good reputation at Port au Prince. Then, he created schools and free clinics inside the big ghettos.

"Our organization helps Père Fréchette to fund his charities.

"Very early in the morning, the women come to St. Damien Hospital with their ill children. They arrive from surrounding suburbs, which are sometimes very far away, by kind of little bus called 'tap tap,' but most of the time by foot (because the tap tap is too expensive) and that means they've walked most of the night. They settle on benches outside the hospital to wait for the time of consultation.

"At the hospital's entrance, you can see a poster with a gun overlaid by a cross. You can imagine the atmosphere: no firearms in hospital.

"At 7:00 am: service at the hospital's chapel. Père does a short sermon in Creole. Not easy to understand even if this language is pretty close to French. You say 'Dad' for 'God' in Creole.

"After the service, a little funeral takes place for the children who died during the night at the hospital. The room is so tiny that we could barely stand with four people. At the table, against the wall, the small body lies. Very slowly, Père takes off the child's clothes. The small head sways and the arm falls again.

"Then, with extreme respect and delicacy, Père cleans the body and puts an oil on.

"Prayer and song are in Creole as well. A few sticks of incense and the little soul is given to God.

"Père wraps the little body with a blue paper that he attaches with pieces of Scotch tape. The name is written with a marker. And hop! In the dump truck...

"It breaks your heart."

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing.  For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.