REAL CHANGE FOR REAL HOPE

Our country is in trouble. To listen to the President of the United States and the elected officials of his party, the solution is to borrow and spend our way out of debt. We are over $12 Trillion in debt and the President wants to spend more. The money coming into the Federal Government exceeds the money going out by $110 Billion dollars just this month so far…it is January. At this rate we will exceed the highest Bush deficit by the end of March.

The President has called for a freeze on discretionary spending for three years yet hasn’t the power to implement this freeze and doesn’t touch the areas of government that is actually causing the problem which is entitlements. We are eating the seed corn and the President and his party proposes that we add another $2.5 Trillion dollar entitlement into the mix. Every dime that health care will cost will have to be borrowed or created out of thin air. The government acknowledges the problem of the deficit at the same time calling to increase it. I don’t know what they are counting on.

We have no statesmen. All the Congress wants is for us to look the other way so they can remain in power. There is no courage in Washington to do the kinds of things needed to save this giant house of cards from collapse. Instead the political left sees this as an opportunity to increase the power of government and to reign in capitalism which is the motor that feeds our families and drives our economy. It is madness.

I believe that there are things we can do to fix our country before time runs out. The debt is not sustainable and the entitlements will run out of money. What must happen to prevent catastrophe will require that the people rid the country of those who feel entitled to rule. We must elect citizen statesmen who understand that they are there to fix what is broken and then leave.

First, get rid of the minimum wage and make every state a right to work state. The minimum wage is just a vehicle for indexing union wages and prices young people out of the marketplace and no one should be forced to pay a union to represent them. Unions have destroyed our manufacturing base in steel, textiles, automotive, heavy equipment and electronics. Perhaps if we can reduce the cost of labor we can bring some manufacturing jobs back to this country.

We should go to Mars. Set a national goal to put a colony on Mars and let private industry do it by creating tax incentives. We should get rid of the Departments of Education, Energy and Commerce. The only people who will notice are the people working there. Repeal all unfunded mandates to the states. Respect the 9th and 10th amendments. The best governance is local. Get rid of capital gains and estate taxes, these are taxes that punishes hard work, families and thrift.

Get rid of the corporate income tax this is just a tax that gets passed on to consumers and drives our corporate citizens off shore. Dump the tax code and replace it with a flat tax. Taxation should never be a mechanism to bestow favors or regulate behavior. If the President wants to create a commission, create one outside of government to review the activities of the Federal Government to determine if they are Constitutional and then repeal those programs the commission identifies. Sunset every program and make them justify their funding every two years.

Further, stop all foreign aid, withdraw all overseas troops, close the bases and close the southern border.

Repeal the 17th amendment. The original intent for the Senate was as representatives of the state governments. How many federal mandates do you think would get out of Washington if the Senators had to answer to the state legislatures instead of popular elections? The founders should have never been second guessed in this regard. Remove interstate restrictions on trade. Interstate commerce regulation should not be used to prevent competition and free trade. We can pass NAFTA to prevent tariffs between Canada and Mexico but people in Texas can’t buy insurance from a company in Ohio.

If we follow the current path we will drown in debt. We are putting our futures in the hands of China. China will do what benefits the Chinese. If what benefits the Chinese is not in our interest we will lose. When we can no longer borrow enough and inflation makes printing money pointless, where are we to turn? Our choices are quickly disappearing. It is time to act in our own long term interests and not for the short term interests of those in government.