WASHINGTON D.C. —Americans are feeling the pain on main street America while Wall Street still manages to make a major recovery. Everyone knows that it trickles down to the little guy at the last instance; however, Wall Street used the taxpayers’ money to rebound and what is left for the little guy when all is said and done? Bigger federal deficits and eventual higher taxes.
Somehow Americans have to recycle our political class leadership and put back into power reluctant politicians. Perhaps George Washington and Gerald Ford were the only U.S. presidents who did not crave the position? Maybe there were a couple more, but history doesn’t point them out so clearly. Although this is not an indictment on former President George W. Bush, do you realize that in the last 30 years many Americans have known nothing but that family name in politics? His father was vice president under President Reagan, then president for one term himself, then we had eight years of President Bill Clinton and at the end of President Bush presidency, former First Lady and Senator Hillary Clinton ran for the presidency.
What is it about power in Washington D.C. that makes all of these so-called put upon leaders to join the ruling class and then never want to leave it? Perhaps American voters forget the trouble they all put our nation while continuing to believe their rhetoric. Under President Reagan the nation had a $900 billion federal deficit when he entered office. Surely most of the unemployment issues were a hangover from the Carter administration, but at the end of President Reagan’s eight-year term, the nation was feeling euphoria. We raved about the economy, we talked about how patriotism had returned and yet we never complained that he left his vice president, who became president immediately, after a $3 trillion dollar federal deficit. What was the euphoria about at the time? Does anyone who was alive then feel like they can answer how this managed to fall off the news radar and no one cared to ask any questions?
Then there was the presidency of Bill Clinton. Newt Gingrich and the Republicans took control of the House and Senate and America had split government. Perhaps that was the best thing that ever happened because the Clinton healthcare bill collapsed and fiscal conservancy became the administration’s mantra with an opposing party in power of the purse strings. However, Americans falsely were told by both parties and they accepted it with open arms and no questions, that the U.S. government had a surplus? Perhaps it’s that fuzzy math we heard about a couple decades earlier. Did we realize at the time or even today that there was never a surplus. It was a projected surplus, meaning had the government continued on its fiscal restraints and the path we were going, we would have eventually realized a federal surplus.
Then President George W. Bush came into office and his Vice President, Dick Cheney was quoted saying, “President Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” Fast forward to where we are today and it seems that’s not the case all of a sudden. Perhaps Americans need to put down their poisonous partisan pens and be very honest with ourselves before we start demanding that our political leaders should be honest with us. Maybe they’ve learned the lesson that as long as they continue to fool the public, make them feel good and pretend our fiscal health is fine, we’ll all go away and forget about the problems our nation has been facing for several decades now. To pretend that the deficit started or ends with this president or this Congress is being intellectually dishonest and sharply partisan. Americans need to demand truth and honesty from people who have no desire or need to ever be those things at all. In the end, we have ourselves to blame for the leaders we have, we so richly deserve.
Pray for our troops in harms way in Afghanistan and Iraq. Please remember them daily and try to do something for a soldier’s family on a weekly basis.
