I have stated it in the past and still do, I supported Herman Cain and I wish he hadn't withdrawn, I think he would have destroyed Obungler in a debate, he did the same to Clinton back in the mid 90's. but I understand the reasons why. I am still on the mailing list and get emails. The man is a good wordsmith.
August 06, 2012
A Nation in Crisis (But the Solutions Are There)By Herman Cain
It’s
in my nature to be cheerful and optimistic, and I am optimistic about
the future of the United States. But it’s not in my nature to be
delusional, and no nation can realize the vision of its most optimistic
people if it doesn’t face up to the serious problems confronting it.
A good leader understands and acknowledges when a nation faces serious problems – and offers real solutions to those problems.
Unfortunately,
the United States now faces a shockingly large number of big, serious
problems and does not have the leadership in place that knows how to fix
them – nor is our current leadership even willing to do so.
Consequently, as we choose new leadership in this year’s elections, we
must be clear about the problems we face and the solutions that are
necessary to deal with them. One could argue that we face hundreds of
problems, but I believe we will turn the country in the right direction
if we focus on the right problems and get them fixed – and they are
these:
Economic Stall. Just
because we are not technically in a recession doesn’t mean you can call
our economic state of affairs a “recovery.” When the growth of our gross
domestic product is sputtering along at a pathetic 1.5 percent, we are
not recovering. The Obama Administration was pretty excited last week
when the new jobs report showed an uptick of 164,000, but it shouldn’t
have been. That’s barely more than the number of people entering the
work force, and the last two months the figure was about half that. This
is why unemployment remains at a historically high 8.3 percent.
The
jobs are not there. Why? Not only is the administration committed to
anti-business policies today – particularly with the imminent tax
increases associated with ObamaCare – but the uncertainty over any
number of future policies is killing job growth because businesses are
unwilling to make big commitments. They have no idea what’s coming even
in the near term.
The solution to this is to make economic growth
the nation’s priority, and to eliminate all economic policies that
inhibit it. More on that below.
National Security Weakness.
If the coming defense sequester happens, we will see $500 billion
automatically chopped from the defense budget. And shockingly, that only
builds on existing policies of national security weakness. We are
already reducing the size of our Naval fleet. We are already seeing
rising tension in the Middle East. Unfriendly nations like Russia and
Iran have no fear of challenging the United States. Allies like Great
Britain and Poland cannot count on us for support, or even to keep
commitments we have already made. Israel has no confidence the U.S. will
have its back if it becomes necessary to use military force to defend
itself.
The solution to this is to prioritize federal budgeting
(but then we would need a budget in the first place . . . more on that
below) to fulfill the crucial constitutional duty of protecting national
security, and to practice clarity in foreign policy so we treat our
friends as friends and we let our foes understand that they should fear
confronting us. A president who thinks killing Osama bin Laden was a
tough call is not going to give us these kinds of national security
policies.
Out-of-Control Federal Spending.
The federal government is spending a quarter of the entire economy, and
liberal demand-siders don’t even think it’s enough! It’s enough to
generate annual deficits in excess of $1 trillion, though, as the
national debt grows to $16 trillion and beyond. Senate Democrats refuse
to even hold a vote on a federal budget, and the nation has not had one
since 2009. Everyone can see that federal entitlement programs are
growing out of control and need to be restructured, but Congress and the
White House are afraid to even touch the issue.
The solution to
this one is simple – but not easy. The American people must demand
fiscal responsibility, and must make clear to politicians that they will
face the most severe consequences if they do not rein in federal
spending and restructure entitlement programs. As long as politicians
think the safest move for their political careers is to do nothing, that
is what they will do. Only the American people can change that dynamic.
Tax Insanity.
It’s bad enough that tax rates are high, and that Obama wants them even
higher. The real problem with the tax code is that it is a complicated
mess of exemptions, deductions, special favors and “incentives” designed
to manipulate behavior, reward people politicians like and punish those
they don’t like. And it gets more complicated every year as Congress
adds new twists and features designed to achieve political ends.
Americans spend billions just to make sure they’re in compliance with
this monstrosity.
The reason my 9-9-9 plan resonated during my
presidential campaign last year was that it solves this problem! It
throws out the entire federal tax code and replaces it with something
simple, straightforward and fair. Its goal is simply to raise the
revenue the federal government needs to operate, and to do it in a way
that removes barriers to prosperity. It would take the power away from
Congress to add new politically motivated nuances to the tax code every
year, and return that power to the people.
That’s why Washington hates it. What do you think of that?
Energy Foolishness.
America can grasp energy independence today. We can drill existing oil
resources, begin aggressive pursuit of plentiful coal, natural gas and
oil share resources, and empower the private sector to pursue
alternative energy concepts like wind, solar and biofuels. If there is
way to make these ideas work, the private sector will find it, and I
will be the first to cheer. If they can’t work, then we shouldn’t waste
money pretending they can!
Instead, the federal government is
beating up oil companies, and won’t even approve the Keystone XL
pipeline that would allow us to buy massive quantities of oil from
friendly Canada (while also creating a lot of jobs, I might add).
Meanwhile, it invests billions of Energy Department dollars in so-called
“green energy” companies that are going bankrupt.
If we were
smart about the use of our energy resources, we could make them the new
currency by which we achieve economic prosperity on a global basis. But
in this area, under the leadership of Obama, we are dumb.
Immigration Insecurity.
It’s too bad Washington has made such a mess of immigration. It’s a
good thing for our nation when smart, hard-working people decide to come
here, and do so legally. But immigration doesn’t work when you simply
allow people to sneak across the border en masse, many of them bringing
in weapons and drugs, and glomming onto public assistance programs once
they get here.
The border is not secure, and there is no making
sense of why Washington refuses to secure it. Illegal is illegal – there
is no other way to look at it. If we were simply to enforce our
existing laws, we could clean up the problem that has exploded to see 12
million people living here illegally. But we won’t even do that. This
is not a problem that requires a difficult solution. The solution is
easy. It just requires leaders who have the political will to enforce
the laws they’ve already passed. Is that really so hard?
Constitutional Disregard.
There is a determined segment of this nation that sees the Constitution
as a serious inconvenience, because it prevents them from achieving the
massive power grabs of their dreams. These people should never be
allowed near public office, and certainly not near any federal court.
The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government because
that is the best way to protect the liberty of the American people. When
our elected leaders ignore Constitutional limits, or try to find tricks
to get around them – and worse yet, when the Supreme Court upholds
these schemes – we have come to an age when there are not real limits on
federal power.
This one is also on the American people. We must
know and understand the Constitution, and we must demand that anyone who
wants to be elected to public office respect it.
I told you I was
optimistic! Because every problem has a solution. You just need people
who are willing and able to fight for the solutions. And that starts
with recognizing that the leaders we have now are not those people
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