Are Savings Bonds Patriotic?

Bankrate.com published a new article about Savings Bonds this week, Star-Spangled Savings, that starts, "Feeling patriotic? Maybe you want to lend a little money to your Uncle Sam by investing in U.S. Savings Bonds." Bankrate.com devotes immense effort to collecting current rates for bank certificates of deposit and money market accounts. On the Savings-Bonds-Alert web site there's even a table of competitive interest rates provided by Bankrate.com. I think Bankrate.com's article should have made it clearer that - patriotic or not - Savings Bonds are paying rates that blow away CDs and money market accounts. Why do so many of us consider buying Savings Bonds patriotic? Wouldn't that mean that redeeming them is unpatriotic? Although there are about $200 billion worth of Savings Bonds outstanding, they make up only about three per cent of the total outstanding public debt of $7,274 billon. Doesn't that make buying Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, and TIPS, which cover over 50% of the national debt, even more patriotic? Are government bond traders the most patriotic people of all? For my money, patriotism in America means being guided by the values expressed in the U.S. Bill of Rights. The patriots who wrote that were worried about bigger issues than individual investment strategies. Comments encouraged. To leave a comment, click on the comments link in the next line.