We’ve got nine days left until perhaps the most important election in our lifetime. After listening to Michelle and Trevor, are you as fired up to elect Mitt Romney as I am?
By the way, I loved Mitt Romney’s Sesame Street satire at a recent charity event. He said, “Barack Obama, brought to you by the letter ‘O’ and the number ‘sixteen trillion’”. Romney’s satiric reference to our national debt of $16 trillion highlights the sustainability crisis of the current administration.
It’s really ironic that radicals like Obama constantly harp about sustainable energy and sustainable environment, and yet his administration has led us to an unsustainable economic future called “the fiscal cliff”.
The reckless policies of the Obama administration are so unsustainable, that our grim situation is not even about politics any more. It’s not about left or right, or conservative or liberal. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the 1%, the 47%, or the 99% -- if the government can’t afford its life style, everything it promises is an illusion.
Let’s take a deeper look at how unsustainable Obama’s current path is:
1) Social Security is unsustainable if it isn’t fixed. The social security trust fund is an illusion of uncollectible IOU’s – it’s phantom $2.5 trillion in assets have all been lent to the general fund of the government and squandered on wasteful things like windmills and corrupt green energy companies. Payments into the program have been cut for political expediency. We need a leader like Mitt Romney who will stop lying to our seniors and who will courageously take the necessary steps to make Social Security solvent again.
2) The Federal Government’s finances are unsustainable, with its skyrocketing $16 trillion debt. In 2011 alone, the federal government borrowed almost 40% of its operating expenses. It borrowed from China, it borrowed from our children, and it borrowed imaginary monopoly money printed by the Federal Reserve. In 2011, the government borrowed $1.3 trillion, while only collecting $1.1 trillion in personal income taxes. Think about that -- to eliminate the deficit for just 2011, we would have had to more than double all personal income taxes, not just taxes paid by the rich. We need a president like Mitt Romney who understands finance and how to balance budgets, not a professional community organizer who only understands victimhood and class warfare.
3) How can we sustain a secure place in a dangerous world -- a world threatened by Islamic terrorism, Russian aggression, and Chinese expansion -- when the radicals in Washington drastically cut military spending to pay for transfers of wealth to union cronies and to people who don’t want to work? We are rotting from within as our enemies abroad grow stronger. We need a president like Mitt Romney who will exercise the first and most important responsibility of his office, which is to protect us from harm here and abroad. We need a leader who realizes that an apology tour and constant appeasement are not legitimate substitutes for a strong national defense.
4) Our civil society is unsustainable when 48% of the voters pay zero federal income tax. Today, we have more and more free riders in our society, and fewer and fewer people pulling the wagon. The percentage of people working in America is at a 40 year low, and the number of people on food stamps and disability are both at record highs. We need a president like Mitt Romney who realizes that prosperity is a result of people working and investing, and not a result of people taking handouts and condemning those who actually did build that.
5) Our freedom and individual rights will be unsustainable if the radicals in Washington are allowed to push us ever closer to Socialism. Socialism always leads to totalitarianism, because it is a philosophy based on force rather than freedom. Consider these threats to your freedom from an ever-expanding government:
As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The radicals in Washington are tempting America with the temporary safety of big government. In doing so, they are imposing on us an unending parade of unaccountable czars, unconstitutional executive orders, and other abuses of our individual freedoms.
We are frogs being slowly boiled in a pot of socialism. If we don’t stop the radicals, the middle class will perish, caught in a pincer movement between the poor, who won’t be able to pay for the government’s reckless spending, and the rich, who will simply find somewhere else to safeguard their wealth. We in the middle class will be left holding the bag.
Remember, every socialist country in history has devoured its middle class. We’re already seeing this happen in America: middle class wealth is down 20% in the last ten years, middle class incomes are down, the prices of food, gas, health care, and education are up, and middle class retirement savings are evaporating. The road to socialism will always lead to unsustainable government and unsustainable civil society. Just as Margaret Thatcher said, socialism is fine until you run out of other people’s money. It is truly unsustainable.
Ironically, we Americans already have a fabulous blueprint for a sustainable government and a sustainable society. It’s called the U.S. Constitution. That grand vision of our forefathers is the greatest blueprint for sustainable society in the history of the world.
But, the Obama administration wants to continue ignoring our Constitution and moving this country leftward – he calls it forward – toward socialism. So, let me ask all of you, are you ready to fight for limited government in America? Are you ready to fight to defend the sanctity of the Constitution? Like our forefathers, are you ready to fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? In other words, are you ready to deliver Michigan for Mitt Romney and fire Barack Obama on November 6th?
Let’s do this! Thank you.
]]>It’s been three years since we first met here in Kellogg Park to help begin one of the greatest movements in American political history – the Tea Party. And we are only 7 months away from firing the most divisive, incompetent, and anti-American president in our history.
In the past three years, great patriots from our local communities have stepped forward to provide leadership and inspiration, like Rattle-With-Us leaders Maribeth, Sharon, Marco, and Tom, State Senator Patrick Colbeck, Reverend Levon Yuille, and two of our favorite talk show radio hosts, Matt Clark and Thayrone X.
Together, we Tea Partiers had tremendous success in 2010, electing 680 new champions of limited government in states around the country, and firing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House.
But, we have a long way to go, and we are still in grave danger. The left has been scheming for the past 50 years to impose Socialism on America. In 2008, they succeeded in electing a socialist president.
The radicals in Washington and their apologists in the traditional media have fought the Tea Party movement tooth and nail. First, they pretended we didn’t exist. But we didn’t go away. Then they mocked and ridiculed us. But we didn’t go away. Then they demonized us, calling us racist and extremist and putting us on terrorist watch lists. Still, we didn’t go away.
This reminds me of Ghandi’s words: “First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you…and then you win.” Now it’s 2012, we haven’t gone away, and we’re going to win back the U.S. Senate and the White House!
As we recognize Tax Day today, it is clear that this is a momentous time. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy put it perfectly during the recent hearings on ObamaCare. He declared that the individual mandate changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in a very fundamental way. Essentially, the mandate is a tax penalty for doing nothing. It reminds me of the Beatles tune, Taxman: “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street. If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat. If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”
We patriots do not oppose paying taxes to support the few, legitimate functions of the Federal Government that are defined and limited by the Constitution. However, the government has strayed so far from the Constitution that it is arguably more abusive than the monarchy we revolted against over 200 years ago.
Most of what the government spends has nothing to do with its constitutional mandate. Today, 70% of government expenditures are simply transfers of wealth from Peter to Paul. Of the remaining 30%, very little is constitutional. There are entire departments, like Energy and Education, that should simply be abolished!
Vice President Joe Biden told us “it’s our patriotic duty to pay more taxes.” I say that it is our patriotic duty to remove tyrants like him from office!
The frightening thing is that today’s high taxes are not enough to satisfy the spending monster in Washington. Taxes only support 60% of government spending. The remaining 40% is being borrowed from China, from the Social Security Trust fund, from our children, and from imaginary creations of the Federal Reserve.
The radicals will tell you that they haven’t increased taxes, but what we borrow today is essentially a tax increase tomorrow, because the borrowed money has to be paid back.
Here are some ways to visualize our $16 trillion national debt:
And we continue to borrow over a trillion more dollars each year. You can’t save a nation drowning in debt by taking on even more debt, any more than you can save a drowning man by throwing more water on him. John Adams warned, “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by sword. The other is by debt.” Our economic policies are robbing our children and grandchildren of opportunity. It is brutally immoral -- we are making slaves of our own dependents.
Who is going to pay this debt back? The poor won’t, because they can’t. And even if we taxed 100% of the income of everyone making more than $75,000 per year, we would still be in debt. As a result, the middle class is eventually going to be decimated by higher taxes or inflation – or both.
The sad thing is that our politicians do not have the courage to balance our budget. They don’t even have the guts to pass any budget – the spineless cowards have gone three years without a formal budget for our government, which makes us no better than a banana republic.
They lack the spine to cut spending. They lack the spine to reduce entitlements. They prefer to pander to their bases rather than to fix our problems. Foreign lenders are wising up to our political paralysis and are reducing their lending to us. They are starting to invest in gold and other tangible assets, because they are tired of their loans losing value as the dollar declines in value.
So, our politicians are doing what all cowardly leaders do – printing money and creating inflation. As a result, the price of everything is going up. Food prices are up, gas prices are up, and healthcare and education costs are skyrocketing. Economists are even starting to warn of Stagflation, a term coined in the late 70’s to describe the lethal combination of high unemployment and high inflation. This is just another indication that Obama is the political reincarnation of another failed President, Jimmy Carter.
The worst is yet to come. Every policy of Obama is geared toward transferring wealth rather than creating it. All of his solutions require more government, greater spending, and less liberty. All of his messages are framed in Marxian terms of class warfare. Government wealth transfer payments are now greater than the budgets of the defense, education, transportation, energy, and homeland security departments -- combined.
To make matters worse for the middle class, Obama is not only transferring our wealth to the poor, he’s transferring it to the rich! He has given trillions in bailouts to bankers, Wall Street moguls, and other cronies. Government workers are becoming rich with lavish salaries and benefits. 380,000 government employees make over $100,000 per year, double from when Obama took office! The suburbs of Washington are now the richest zip codes in America.
Ayn Rand said, “An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.” Sadly, we have become a country full of millions who do consume more than they produce, and they are voting for politicians who pander to them.
They are the “something for nothing” crowd. They are the Occupy Wall Street crowd. They have no respect for private property or hard work. There are more and more people climbing into the wagon, and fewer and fewer people pulling it. At some point, when there are more people riding in the wagon than pulling it, you end up like Greece.
Which would you rather build a nation with? People who value hard work, free trade, and self-responsibility? Or people who value entitlements, unearned income, and victimhood? Is it even possible to build a nation full of people like that? I’m afraid we’re about to learn the answer.
Thomas Jefferson said, “Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” We are at a dangerous tipping point. Only fifty percent of eligible voters pay federal income taxes. If the scale tips even further toward the socialists, they will eventually vote our wealth away.
That’s the essential issue in this election. Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence are the most morally profound words ever crafted in a political document. We have a right to our life and property. We do not have a right to the life and property of our neighbors.
This fundamental social compact has made us the greatest society in the history of the world, and the most moral society in the history of the world.
Our national anthem declares us the land of the free and the home of the brave. But the radicals in Washington have betrayed this vision of America. Mr. Obama, I know you think this is the land of the dependents and the home of the cowards, but there are still a whole lot of people in America who disagree with you.
The first three words of our sacred Constitution are “We the People”. We the people are the masters of every single bureaucrat and politician in America. We can hire them and fire them, and a whole bunch of them deserve to be fired.
As with all presidential elections, the basic question is “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Here are just a few examples of the many ways that the Obama administration has abused the American people:
Barack Obama, you have nationalized our healthcare industry, humiliated America abroad, weakened our borders, cut our armed forces, increased our dependency on foreign energy, increased our dependency on government, divided us by race, divided us by class, divided us by gender, indebted us for generations, propagandized our children, polarized our politics, and established unelected czars to regulate and harass us.
We patriots will not stand silent as you systematically dismantle the greatest nation on earth. For your crimes against the American people, you and your un-American administration deserve to be fired on November 6th, and that’s exactly what we the people are going to do!
To win this political battle, we need to recruit the votes of every like-minded relative, friend, and co-worker. In the name of everything that is exceptional about America, I challenge you to convince the political fence-sitters to get off their asses and help us rescue America on November 6th! Find a way to become warriors in this battle to fire the politicians who have betrayed our principles.
We have 100 senators, 435 congressmen, and 1 president. The problems in our civil society exist because these 536 politicians have forgotten our founding principles. Abraham Lincoln told us, “We the people are the rightful masters of the congress and the courts, not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the constitution.”
Given the disaster confronting us now, we have no choice but to follow Lincoln’s advice and vote the tyrants out of office!
Thank you.
]]>
We have accomplished magnificent things in just two short years. Nationally, we regained control of the U.S. House, and fired Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. We won a record 680 new seats in state legislatures across America. In Michigan, we took control of the governorship, the legislature, the Michigan Supreme Court, the attorney general’s office, and the secretary of state’s office. In general, we reminded politicians that the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution contain the greatest political concepts in the history of the world.
Our message of limited government and frugal spending is starting to resonate across the country. Many brave state governors are leading the charge, including Chris Christie in New Jersey, Rick Perry in Texas, and Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Remarkably, we are even seeing signs of bold leadership from Rick Snyder in Michigan.
Unfortunately, there is very little evidence of bold leadership at the federal level in Washington. Our leaders in Washington claim they are cutting spending, but so far, they have only cut 1% of this year’s $3.7 trillion budget. Cutting 1% out of a $3.7 trillion budget still leaves a $3.7 trillion budget. Their cuts amount to little more than a rounding error. And then they have the audacity to say that they can’t find anything else to cut! What nonsense! There are entire departments and agencies that are utterly useless and counterproductive. Eliminate them! There are 380,000 employees of the federal government who make over $100,000 per year, an increase of almost 50% in the last two years. Downsize them! The federal government has to stop spending money that it does not have!
Washington is borrowing five billion dollars per day. The $38 billion that they so proudly cut last week only eliminates 8 days of borrowing! It’s spit in the ocean and spit on our faces. It’s like trying to put a wildfire out with a glass of water. Let’s get real leaders in Washington who will take the responsibility of governing seriously!
Courageous political leadership will be necessary to solve our problems, particularly at the federal level. At the state and local level, fiscal reality alone will force political leaders to address their spending problems, because state and local governments, unlike the federal government, can’t print money, nor can they borrow it indiscriminately. Bankruptcy is a very real threat to state and local governments, if they do not get their financial houses in order.
Unfortunately, fiscal reality has not yet awakened in Washington. This is the great threat to our republic, and the great challenge for our limited government movement. I’m not afraid that the federal government will go bankrupt. I’m afraid because it can’t. Unlike our state governments, the federal government can continue to spend us into oblivion, until all of us taxpayers go bankrupt.
Here’s why Washington can stick its head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t have a spending problem, at least in the short run:
First, Washington can borrow money indiscriminately. So far, it has borrowed $14 trillion dollars, which is $40,000 of debt for every man, woman, and child. Our leaders have the biggest credit card in the history of the world. Unfortunately, the names on that gargantuan credit card are yours and mine and our children.
Second, Washington can print money indiscriminately. It has begun printing trillions of dollars out of thin air. It then buys its own Treasury Bills with this monopoly money, in order to maintain the illusion that we can afford our government life style.
But, the truth is that we can’t afford our federal government lifestyle. Washington’s obscene spending will end badly for all Americans, unless we change course quickly and dramatically. Here’s why:
1) This year’s budget is $3.7 trillion dollars. However, we are only collecting $2.1 trillion in taxes. We are borrowing the difference of $1.6 trillion. Thus, we are borrowing almost 40% of our spending. If the CEO of a private business did this, he would be fired. If we didn’t borrow $1.6 trillion from the Chinese and from our children this year, taxes would have to increase 75% across the board to eliminate this year’s deficit. That’s how far our spending is removed from reality. Looked at another way, every single taxpayer would have to pay an additional $1,000 per month, every month of the year, to cover this year’s deficit. That’s equivalent to a house payment, which is a good metaphor, because we have indeed mortgaged our future.
2) The worst is yet to come, because massive entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and now ObamaCare have committed us to another $70 trillion dollars in future unfunded liabilities. There is nothing in the Social Security Trust Fund today, except a useless pile of trillions of IOU’s. The federal government has already borrowed and spent every penny of the Social Security trust fund on boondoggle programs. Because of reckless politicians, our retirement security is now dependent on the willingness of future generations to tax themselves to replace our earlier social security contributions that the government has essentially stolen.
3) Inflation will be the next major disaster because of the fake money that the government is printing to cover its reckless spending. Inflation caused by government printing presses is a direct tax on our wealth. The prices of food, gas, and other commodities have already started to spike, making us all worse off. The dollar is falling in value around the world. Even the Chinese, who are nervous because they have funded our outrageous spending with loans, recognize that we are on the edge of a cliff. One Chinese scholar recently declared, “Great nations fall because they turn their back on the principles that made them great.” America gave birth to the greatest political principles in history. It’s a shame that the Chinese know that, but our leaders in Washington don’t.
This is why things are incredibly challenging for our movement. It is not enough to just elect Republicans instead of Democrats. This is not about political parties. This is about nominating and electing true champions of limited government who will have the courage to make brutally difficult decisions. It would be a tragic mistake for us to become complacent and assume that America has been saved just because we elected some Republicans in 2010. We have a long way to go, and we are still in grave danger.
Our challenges ahead include electing more champions of limited government, like Rand Paul, to take control of the U.S. Senate in November, 2012. We need to fire Harry Reid as the Senate majority leader! We need to add more champions of limited government, like Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann, to the U.S. House. We must also fire Barack Obama, the Community Organizer in Chief, whose mission thus far has been to grow government, impede business, and move us closer to socialism. We need to elect a champion of limited government into the White House in November 2012!
More than ever, America needs the energy and the vision of the Tea Party movement. We champions of limited government cannot rest until the leaders who spend like drunken sailors in Washington and in state governments have been removed from office. Some of our politicians got the message in 2010. Sadly, many did not. It is our mission over the next two years to make sure that every politician in America gets the message of limited government in 2012. If they don’t, we need to make sure that they get involuntarily retired, regardless of which side of the aisle that they sit on.
As we pursue this sacred mission, the media will continue to target us. Politicians who are frightened by the power of our movement will continue to target us. They will call us racist, even though we welcome all Americans to our limited government movement. They will call us extremists, even though we are simply advocating the fundamental compact of our country, the U.S. Constitution.
Ironically, the one thing that they will not call us is right, even though that is what we are. So, when the media and the frightened politicians attack us with outrageous untruths, let us draw courage and determination from the rightness of our cause. Let us heed the Civil War battle cry of Admiral Farragut, who declared, “Damn the torpedoes, and full speed ahead.”
2012, here we come.
Thank you.
]]>
Since this is a Tea Party, I’m going to get you riled up. Let’s start with this -- Federal government spending has increased 21% in the past two years. Let me ask you, have you all gotten 21% raises? Has the value of your house gone up 21%? Have your investments increased 21%? So tell me, are you ready to stop the insane spending by our government?
There are only 17 days until we begin the limited government revolution in America. There are only 17 days until we fire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. There are only 17 days until we patriots have a lot more to say about what goes on in Lansing and Washington!
This is a momentous time. Just when we thought there were no more heroes, we discovered through the Tea Party movement that we the people are the heroes. Our movement has accomplished extraordinary things. We have fueled conservative activism and energy that seemed unimaginable just 18 months ago. We have reintroduced the concept of limited government into mainstream political discussion. We have taught nervous politicians that “We the People” is no longer a trite patriotic phrase, but rather the battle cry of an organized movement with tremendous clout.
And yet, the Tea Party movement has many important things left to do. First, we all need to vote in 17 days. Limited Government champions like Tim Walberg, Ruth Johnson, Bill Schuette, Bob Young, Marybeth Kelly, and Rob Steele need to get more votes than the Big Government apologists running against them. After this election, we need to actively recruit and support the next wave of limited government champions for 2012 and beyond. The Tea Party revolution is not just about one election; it is about fundamentally rejecting Big Government for generations to come.
For almost two years, the Tea Party movement has been warning America that many of our government leaders are dragging us down a deadly path that is contrary to our Constitution and our founding principles.
Let’s examine the cold, bitter reality of the predicament that these traitorous leaders have put our country in:
This is serious business. We are facing the biggest political crisis in America since the Civil War. On November 2nd, we are going to choose the future identity of our country. Our domestic enemies will vote for more socialism, bigger government, end-runs around the Constitution, bailing out failed businesses and irresponsible people, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and weakness abroad. We patriots are going to vote for free markets, limited government, the rule of law based on the U.S. Constitution, personal responsibility, secure borders, and a strong national defense. In other words, we are voting to protect and nurture the American Dream.
The choices we make as a country in the 2010 and 2012 elections will decide everything. If we have not removed Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the other radicals from office by 2012, then may our children forgive us, and may God have mercy on our souls. If we fail, the America of Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, and Reagan will no longer exist.
Our mission is clear. In the next two elections, we need to replace Big Government apologists with limited government champions in at least 39 seats in the House, ten seats in the Senate, and one seat in the White House. And then we need to hold every single politician in America accountable to the Constitution, no matter which side of the aisle they sit on.
Month after month and year after year, our elected officials need to hear from us, clearly and loudly, that we will not tolerate backsliding toward Big Government. It does us no good to elect false conservatives and RINO’s who will move us along toward socialism just a little bit slower than the liberals.
The blessings of liberty require eternal vigilance by the people. The Tea Party movement cannot be a passing fad; it must be a continuous way of life that defends our freedom from oppressive government. The Tea Party movement is not just about winning one election; it is about defending liberty and the U.S. Constitution for the rest of time.
I’m wearing my father’s paratrooper wings on my shirt today. These wings are the greatest gift he left me. They remind me that millions of brave men and women in the armed forces have risked their lives to defend America and its principles. We cannot allow the bloodshed of our military heroes to be wasted. Therefore, we must be political heroes. As Reagan said, it is now up to us to save America and to preserve the freedom that our soldiers sacrificed so much for.
To win this political battle, we need to recruit the votes of every like-minded relative, friend, and co-worker. In the name of everything that is exceptional about America, I am challenging you to convince the political fence-sitters to get off their asses and help us rescue America on November 2nd! Convince them that there is nothing more important to do than to join us in this political house cleaning! It all comes down to this. We the People can take a giant step toward saving this country in 17 days. Not Glenn Beck. Not Fox News. Us! You and I! We are going to be the heroes!
And this election is just the beginning. We need to continue our momentum and recruit more and more like-minded Americans into the Tea Party movement. As the years unfold, we need to challenge ourselves and our fellow patriots to become precinct delegates, poll watchers, campaign volunteers, fund raisers, letter writers, e-mail generators, phone callers, and media monitors. We need to be the defenders of liberty and the guardians of our sacred Constitution decade after decade. We need to be the engine of a new America. We patriots need to be the heroes responsible for saving this country!
Thank you.
(If you enjoyed this speech, please consider purchasing the author's new book by clicking on this link to "We've Been Had: How Obama and the Radicals Conned Middle Class America". You can also view the author's Facebook page by clicking on this link to We've Been Had.)
]]>We live in an extraordinary time.
The sabotage of America by the radicals in Washington has awakened a sleeping giant in the Tea Party movement. We now see with new eyes and hear with new ears. We now see and hear with startling clarity that Washington is becoming a bottomless pit of trillion-dollar entitlements, waste, and corruption.
As a result, millions of us Tea Partiers have been energized with passion to save America from destruction and to restore limited government.
The radicals in Washington hate and fear the Tea Party movement. Despite what they allege in public, they know we are primarily a middle class phenomenon, that we are hard-working soccer parents and grandparents.
The radicals also know that they’re losing their political grip on the middle class. So, they desperately try to discredit tea partiers by calling us tea baggers and extremists and racists, hoping against hope that our movement will not spread to the rest of the middle class. Without middle class support, the radicals know they are doomed at the ballot box in 2010 and 2012.
The radicals are terrified that the middle class has caught on to the massive con that they perpetrated in 2008. They campaigned on two major deceptions. First, they campaigned for “change”. After 18 months, we now know exactly what “change” means. It means bigger government. It means higher taxes. It means more job-killing regulations. It means a staggering national debt that will impoverish whole generations. In short, change means a transition to socialism.
I’ve spent 18 months doing the background check on Barack Obama that the dominant media failed to do in 2008. I’ve learned, for example, that he is a disciple of Saul Alinsky, who was a socialist and the author of the book Rules for Radicals. Obama was trained as a community organizer by Alinsky followers. He worked for Alinsky-spawned organizations such as ACORN. He taught Alinsky’s philosophy to young organizers. Rules for Radicals is recommended reading for recruits into Obama’s own Organizing for America group.
Saul Alinsky was the first to popularize the cry for “change” that became Obama’s famous campaign deception in 2008. Alinsky defined “change” as a euphemism for transitioning to socialism. He knew that if politicians campaigned openly for socialism, they would never win. So instead of campaigning openly for socialism, the radicals campaigned for change. The changes that the radicals in Washington are implementing today are moving us toward Saul Alinsky’s socialist vision.
Saul Alinsky was also the inspiration for the second deception of the radicals’ 2008 campaign, which was to bribe the middle class and sow the seeds for class warfare. Alinsky knew that closet socialists couldn’t be elected unless the middle class was conned into supporting them. He encouraged radicals to do whatever it took, including outright lying and deceit, to con the middle class into embracing socialism camouflaged as change.
Today’s radicals learned their lessons well from Alinsky. In the following quote from Alinsky, you can hear a foreshadowing of Obama’s elitist, arrogant, Ivy League disdain for the middle class. You can also hear an admission that even though the radicals mock and despise the middle class, they recognize that they need the political support of the middle class. What incredible arrogance! Here’s the quote from Alinsky:
“Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and the way of life of the middle class. The middle class is materialistic, decadent, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, and corrupt. But, we must begin from where we are if we are to build power for change, and the power and the people are in the big middle class majority."
In other words, the radicals despise us, even though they need us at the ballot box. One example of how Obama deceived the middle class was his campaign promise to give tax cuts to 95% of Americans. Remember that one? What a magnificent con! That bribe will be impossible for him to follow through on. His administration has accumulated so much debt that the middle class will instead see the biggest tax increases in history.
The U.S. government is borrowing over 40% of its budget in 2010. They are clearly living beyond their means. The poor won’t pay any of that debt back. They can’t. And the rich don’t collectively make enough to pay it back. If we taxed 100% of the income of everyone making more than $75,000 per year, it would not cover our deficit this year. The middle class is eventually going to be left holding the bag for this fiscal disaster.
To make matter worse for the middle class, Obama is not only transferring our wealth to the poor, he’s transferring it to the rich! He has given trillions in bailouts to bankers, Wall Street moguls, and other cronies. Government workers themselves are becoming rich with lavish salaries and benefits. There are now 380,000 government employees who make over $100,000 per year! The suburbs of Washington are now the richest zip codes in the country. Obama’s biggest campaign supporters were Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms. His political godfather and money man is rogue billionaire George Soros, who now manipulates the puppet strings attached to Obama’s arms and legs.
The middle class is going to be the biggest victim in this charade by Obama and the radicals. Socialism has no place for a middle class, other than to serve as the oxen that wear the yoke of Big Government. Socialist countries have two classes – the government elites and their cronies, and the poor.
In recent years, both major political parties jockeyed for the support of the middle class, ironically by promising to spend the wealth of the middle class. Prior to each election, these politicians engaged in a bidding war for middle class votes. After each election, they used their power to attack and devour the middle class.
The good news is that the middle class is the biggest block of voters, and we can choose to elect bold new leadership committed to limited government. We need to remember that the first three words of our sacred Constitution are “We the People”. We the people are the masters of every single bureaucrat and politician in America. We can hire them and fire them, and a whole bunch of them deserve to be fired.
We have two chances to take our country back – November 2010 and November 2012. Find a way to become warriors in this battle. Contribute money to sympathetic organizations. Recruit family and friends to be fellow activists. Convert fence-sitters to our cause. Organize a car pool to get voters to the polls. Use the internet to spread the message of limited government.
Don’t passively wait for popular TV and radio personalities to save us. This battle is ours to fight. We the People are going to take back this country!
In closing, I’ve chosen to fight this battle two ways. First, I joined the Tea Party movement and I speak to those who are passionate about saving this country.
Second, I wrote a book titled We’ve Been Had: How Obama and the Radicals Conned Middle Class America. It’s a hard-hitting compilation of Obama’s concealed life story. It connects the dots between his radical past, his extremist philosophies, and the terrible impact his administration is having on the middle class.
I proudly dedicated the book to the Tea Party movement. I invite you to visit our booth and purchase an autographed copy.
Thank you.
]]>Our purpose today is to share information about the proposed government take-over of health care.
P.J. O'Rourke once said, “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass from your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
That summarizes the dialogue in Washington today about this issue. Those in favor of the government takeover of health care argue that it will do unlikely things like lower cost, improve care, and make the Detroit Lions Super Bowl champions. Those opposed to it argue such goals are unachievable, because government is inherently inefficient, and private citizens will make better choices in their own interest.
Let’s begin with some high level considerations of the government’s proposal.
There’s a book called “Lyndon Johnson and The Great Society.” It describes the reasons for the failures of many government programs. The first reason can be summarized as “We didn’t realize how much funding we really needed”. The second reason can be summarized as “We had no idea how complex the problem really was.”
Those two reasons ring true when we examine various government programs. Let’s face reality. Social Security is bankrupt. Medicare is bankrupt. The post office is bankrupt. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are bankrupt. Amtrak is bankrupt. In fact, the entire federal government would be classified as bankrupt, if it was evaluated like a private business. Major sacrifices loom on the horizon for these bankrupt programs, even before the government launches this expensive new program.
This suggests that allowing the government to take over healthcare, which represents 17% of our economy, is simply insane. Despite the rosy promises from Washington today, nationalized healthcare will become just another bankrupt program tomorrow.
Another important consideration is how the government takeover of health care will affect the middle class. Too often, our political discourse is about rich versus poor. Too often, the middle class, the group that is the heart and the soul of this country, is either ignored, or is used as a pawn. Soccer moms and soccer grandmoms: your health, and the health of your children and grandchildren, is far too precious for you to accept the role of pawn in this debate.
Again, let’s face reality. You in the middle class are probably happy with your current health care. Poll after poll bears this out. It makes no sense, then, for our politicians to dismantle the best health care system in the world. I invite you to consider whether you will be better off or worse off when the government takes over healthcare. If you already have insurance and medical care that you are happy with, it’s all downhill from here. Socialists always degrade conditions to the lowest common denominator.
A final high level consideration is the credibility of the politicians proposing this government takeover. Can we trust them to fairly, faithfully, and successfully execute this massive nationalization? Consider the following:
These credibility issues alone should cause us great alarm. But, the greater cause for alarm, like the devil, is in the details of the program. I will discuss these details now, in the context of four criteria that any informed consumer would use if they were spending their own money. These criteria are Cost, Privacy, Choice, and Quality.
Let’s talk about Cost first. Here’s a brief video highlighting the cost issue. (Pause for video).
The President says that he will not add to the deficit to pay for this program, but the current bill is not fully funded. The CBO says it will add $300 billion to the deficit over ten years. The President claims he will save money through efficiencies, which he actually believes will come from a massive government program. But, even his key advisor, Dr. Ezekial Emmanuel, doesn’t believe that. Emmanuel said: {quote} “Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely ‘lipstick’ cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change.” {end quote}
Increased costs must be dealt with somehow. One method will be to reduce services and procedures that are currently available. This will be a serious blow to many people who already have good insurance. Dr. Emmanuel says that Americans are too “enamored with technology”, and he is determined to reduce access to it. So, if you are elderly and you need angioplasty, bypass surgery, or joint replacements, these technologies are likely to be less available, in order to control cost. If you’re over 65, listen carefully: The bill will cut Medicare Advantage by $156 billion over ten years.
Future medical innovations will be less likely. Countries that already have government-run health care have been relying on the U.S. to pay the research and development costs for new technology and medications. The U.S. produces five times as many new drugs as Europe and Asia combined. If we adopt the cost-control policies that have stifled innovation in other countries, the entire world will be worse off. David Blumenthal, another Obama advisor, recommends slowing medical innovation to control health care spending.
The costs that are not offset by reductions in service and technology will have to be covered by increased taxes. Here are some of the taxes being discussed to fund this government takeover:
Reduced services and increased taxes are not the only threats. Another threat will be to your privacy. Here’s a brief video that touches on the privacy issue. (Pause for video).
Nationalized healthcare necessarily means government intrusion into the most intimate aspects of your lives. Here are some of the proposed privacy intrusions:
Another key consideration is how the government takeover of health care will limit consumer choices. Here’s a brief video that touches on the issue of choice. (Pause for video).
Here are some examples of how your choices will be limited:
The final key consideration is quality. Here’s a brief video that touches on this issue. (Pause for video).
Here are some sobering points about health care quality:
Clearly, the government is going to be far more involved in your medical care and decisions than ever before. One final point is that the government is going to outsource some of that intrusive involvement in your life to “community groups”. This may include ACORN or Planned Parenthood. Since ACORN has already been contracted to work on the 2010 census for the government, it’s a good bet they will be contracted for this intimate involvement in your life too. When pressed to confirm or deny that ACORN will qualify as one of these “community organizations”, Senator Chris Dodd, who is responsible for shepherding the bill through the senate, disingenuously said, “I’m not saying yes or no”.
Massive changes are being proposed for the way our health care is administered. Unfortunately, as this government takeover of healthcare is being rushed through Congress, we are not getting honest, credible information from our leaders. Instead, we get Orwellian double-talk. The leaders in George Orwell’s “1984” had a slogan: “War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength.” Consider the following Orwellian double talk about healthcare coming out of Washington:
· They tell us that health care spending will not go up, yet they are proposing to add $1 trillion dollars to health care spending.
· They tell us that healthcare decisions will not be made by the government, yet they are setting up a new Federal Health Board and a Health Choices Commissioner to tell doctors what treatments they can offer, to whom, and under what circumstances.
· They tell us they are going to get the politics out of healthcare, yet they are putting healthcare under government control. Hopefully, you supported the right party when you need care, or when you run into ACORN.
· They say that they will replace “expensive care” with the “best care”, yet they are substituting the judgment of distant government bureaucrats for the judgment of your personal physician.
· They say that we will stop paying for things that don’t make us healthier, yet they are talking about de-emphasizing the very cutting edge technology and medicines that make us the envy of the world.
· They say that healthcare costs are gobbling up money that employers could use as wages for workers, yet they are proposing an 8% tax on some employers to pay for this program.
· As a final insult to our intelligence, they use the words “government” and “efficiency” in the same sentence.
Ironically, as our government contemplates taking over health care, countries with government-run health care are moving in the opposite direction. Almost every European country has introduced market-based reforms to reduce health costs and increase the availability and quality of care. They have learned what I learned when I lived in Canada for three years. I can say with firsthand knowledge and painful experience that in Canada the doctors are less qualified, the service is bureaucratic and frustrating, the waits are long, and the results are sub-standard. When I returned to America, I wanted to kiss the ground. There were many reasons for that urge, but the American health care system was at the top of the list.
Dr. Ezekial Emmanuel, the brother of presidential chief enforcer Rahm Emmanuel, will be influential in the proposed government takeover of healthcare. As I mentioned earlier, he suggested that it makes no sense to allocate healthcare dollars to those who will never be able to significantly contribute to society.
Soccer moms and soccer grandmoms, I’d like to share with you how Sarah Palin addressed this issue last week. As you know, Sarah has a special child of her own. She said:
{quote} "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." {end quote}
I will close with a reminder from Thomas Jefferson. He said: “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
I am going to participate with my heart and soul, and I invite you to also. We need to make sure that our leaders understand that they are treading on middle class voters at their own peril.
Remember, our venom is our vote. 2010 can’t come soon enough.
Thank you.
]]>