“i understand that the plague is not only very rare in the USA, but relatively easily treated, and cured. we have bigger fish to fry.”
It isn’t the current form of the plague which is worrisome. Researchers recently discovered what made the plague deadly enough to wipe out a third of all humans on the Earth and more. It turns out that there is a single gene which gets turned on every so often that makes the plague super destructive. It is only a matter of time before this gene switch will take place in the wild again. When it does so, a single organism is capable of rapidly infecting whole human populations in days. Given the modern transportation systems, another of these super-plagues could begin the destruction of more than half of all human beings on the Earth before quarantines can stop the spread of the disease.
Given that the disease is blood-borne and not many people get bitten by fleas, an outbreak like you describe is impossible.