This shouldn't surprise you.  Americans are ignorant .. .and they're especially ignorant when it comes to government.  No surprise --- look who is in charge of education.  Plus, we have all of the information at our fingertips and yet we are too lazy to seek it out.  Instead we are content with reading People Magazine and watching American Idol.  Meanwhile, the politicians at all levels of government are making decisions that truly affect your life, your freedom and your pocketbook. 

So Newsweek gave over 1,000 Americans a citizenship quiz to answer basic questions about our government.  Now you can take the quiz for yourself .. but you should know that 38% of your peers flat-out failed the test, and you only needed to get 60% of the questions right in order to pass.  Here are just a few of the questions that tripped up our fellow American Idol Americas:

·         How many justices are in the Supreme Court? (63 per cent did not know)

·         Who is the Vice President of America? (29 per cent did not know)

·         Seventy per cent of Americans do not know what the Constitution is

·         Six per cent couldn't tell you when Independence Day falls.

·         Seventy-three percent couldn't correctly say why we fought the Cold War

·         Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights

 The fact is, folks, that Americans aren't getting dumber .. but with all the information available to us,   we are not getting any smarter.  This is by design.  This is exactly the way that our government schools and our politicians would have it.  The more you know the greater threat you are to those in power.  The original goal of America's government schools was to educate you to the point that you would be a good employee and government subject ... but no further.   It's no wonder that Americans believe the following:

A 2010 World Public Opinion survey found that Americans want to tackle deficits by cutting foreign aid from what they believe is the current level (27 percent of the budget) to a more prudent 13 percent. The real number is under 1 percent. A Jan. 25 CNN poll, meanwhile, discovered that even though 71 percent of voters want smaller government, vast majorities oppose cuts to Medicare (81 percent), Social Security (78 percent), and Medicaid (70 percent). Instead, they prefer to slash waste--a category that, in their fantasy world, seems to include 50 percent of spending, according to a 2009 Gallup poll.

 As boring as it may be .. knowledge about our budget and spending is crucial at this moment in our history.  Speaking of budgets ...