The Voice of Reason: Could These Be the Last Days of America?

The statistics are sobering.

More than 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have simply given up looking for work. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased by more than 14 million since President Barack Obama first took office, and the number on social security disability has increased 10 percent in that same time period.

Since President Obama was inaugurated, the amount of money the federal government gives to households has increased by a third, to the point that nearly one-half of all households in the country now receive a check of some kind from the government.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/16-statistics-which-show-that-the-number-of-americans-dependent-on-the-government-is-at-an-all-time-high

Our debt is now over $16 trillion, increasing by more than 50% since our current President took the reins.

 

And yet, the latest polls show President Obama with a slight lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney.  Given the economic condition of our country, which has been made precipitously worse by our current President, how can this be? 

 

I believe that this nearly 200-year-old quote from French historian Alexis de Tocqueville can perhaps provide the best explanation:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

What Tocqueville predicted nearly two full centuries ago appears to have a good chance of coming true.  With a near-majority of Americans receiving assistance from the government, will they vote for the candidate promising the most benefits, President Obama, or will they vote for Romney, a candidate who promises to control spending in order to save America from financial insolvency? 

If what Tocqueville predicts comes true, our nation will collapse financially and then become a dictatorship.

Interestingly, President Obama has not proposed any plan whatsoever to rein in entitlement programs or to slow the growth of our debt that threatens to implode this country financially.  He hasn't proposed anything in four years as President, and he certainly didn't propose any plan in his convention speech. 

Without a change of direction, our country is racing towards a financial collapse. And yet, nearly one-half of Americans indicate that they will vote for President Obama on November 6?

With all of the campaigning during the past several months, few noticed that our President issued an executive order that directs border control agents to ignore immigration laws passed by Congress and signed by a former President.  More noticed when he passed health care legislation to take over one-sixth of our economy, but very few paid attention when Health and Human Services directed Catholic institutions to provide free birth control, stomping on the religious rights of Americans.  Even fewer paid attention when the New York Times reported that President Obama has a "kill list" that includes American citizens as primary targets without any judicial or Congressional review.  President Obama alone decides who lives and who dies.  Are these the actions of a President in a democracy or a dictator?

Tocqueville predicted that a dictatorship follows the financial collapse. Based on our current President's actions, we're already halfway there.

As I wrote in an earlier blog, this election will be the second most important one in our nation's history.  The most important election was the first, when our country elected a leader, George Washington, who established the model for sharing power among the three branches of government, instead of grabbing the near-unlimited power that could have been his.

I fervently believe that this election will determine if America continues being a democracy or if it  transforms into a socialist nation or worse, a dictatorship; if America will regain financial stability or drown in its debt; and if America will continue to be the land of opportunity or a country where the government determines how successful one will become.

In short, this election will determine if these will be the last days of the shining beacon of freedom. Will we become the nation they once called America, or the nation that continues to beckon those yearning to be free?

It will be up to us on November 6.



 

 

The Voice of Reason: Headlines We'll See if Obama is Reelected

If you're a news junkie like I am, you read newspapers, watch television, listen to radio and browse the internet trying to keep up with what's going on in our country and the world.
 

During the past three and a half years, we've seen thousands of headlines in the newspaper about the current administration.  But I wonder, what would the headlines in American newspapers be like if President Obama is given another four years?   Here are a few headlines I strongly believe we'll see,  given the radical political views of our current President and the current direction of our country:

• EPA Orders All Remaining Coal Plants to Close

• Unemployment Tops 8% for 60th Straight Month

• National Debt Increases to $22 Trillion

• Unemployment Tops 10% for 10th Straight Month

• Unemployment for Blacks Tops 30%

• More Americans Now on Disability, Unemployment than Working

• Average American Sees 75% Increase in Electricity

• Power Grid at Breaking Point:  Not Enough Power Plants to Power America

• Half of America Dark During Week-long Blackout

• Americans Turn Violent without Jobs, Power

• EPA Turns Attention to Natural Gas, Oil

• Americans Paying $8.25 for Gasoline; Prices Headed Higher

• Obamacare Produces Three Month Wait for Office Visit

• President, Congress Raise Taxes on All Americans to Pay for Programs

• Millions Take to Streets to Protest President's Policies

• Standard of Living for Americans Lowest Since Great Depression

The sad part is that not even one of these headlines is out of the realm of possibility.  In fact, given the direction this country is headed and our President's policies, I believe that the vast majority of these headlines have a high probability of being seen in our newspapers in the coming four years.

Do I see the unemployment rate remaining above 8%?  Yes. Do I see the unemployment rate heading above even 10%. Yes, I do, especially if the President continues his anti-business, anti-growth policies, which he'll do if he's reelected.

Do I truly see coal being phased out as an energy source?  Absolutely. Millions of Americas employed by coal directly and indirectly will be out of jobs.

Do I foresee America's power grid in grave danger?  Yes, I do.  With so many coal plants being shut down and even tougher EPA regulations on the drawing board -- with politics now driving America's energy policy -- our nation's reliable supply of electricity is at risk.

Do I see the EPA turning its attention to natural gas and oil after it has destroyed coal?  Absolutely.  The Obama Administration is against all fossil fuels that are extracted from the earth.  The Obama Administration wouldn't even approve the Keystone Pipeline, which would have provided millions of barrels of oil from our neighbor to the north, Canada.

Do I see gasoline at over $8 a gallon?  Any conflict in the Middle East, coupled with our President's "head in the sand" energy policy, could cause gas prices to top $10 a gallon.

Do I think that the President and Congress will raise taxes on all working Americans to fund their social programs?  Absolutely.  Raising taxes on only the wealthiest Americans won't raise enough revenue.  The math just doesn't add up.

Do I see mass protests and a standard of living for Americans close to what we faced during the Great Depression?  Without a doubt.  We are heading towards a financial cliff with soaring debt, economic stagnation and millions more on various government programs.  Again, the math just doesn't add up.

Some may think I'm being an alarmist.  I happen to think that I'm being a realist.  Knowing that he won't have to run again, our President will be free to do what he wants in a second term, which will result in an expansion of the policies he enacted in his first term.

We have a choice this election, and I believe that choice is crystal clear.

 

 

The Voice of Reason: What Has Happened to the America I Love?

The change had been gradual over several decades until 2009, when President Barack Obama took office and promised to "fundamentally transform" America. 

He's changed it all right.  America has changed from a nation of achievers to a country of whiners with their hands out, expecting the government to support them.  It's not all his fault, of course, but he quickened the pace of change from a slow crawl to warp speed, all in just three and a half years.

One doesn't have to look any further than the June jobs report.  In June, more people were added to the rolls of disability than got jobs. 

Want another example?  Under Obama's leadership our food stamps budget has increased by 110%.  In other words, the budget has more than doubled. 

But that's not good enough for the Obama Administration. They've spent $3 million on radio advertising to encourage even more people to sign up for food stamps.  This week, we also learned that the Obama Administration has been working with the Mexican government to increase participation among Mexicans who are living or working in the United States.

How about another example?  Under our President's leadership and the leadership of a Democratically-controlled Congress, unemployment benefits were extended to 99 weeks, just five weeks short of two full years. And if you haven't received unemployment benefits for a few decades, you would be suprised to learn how easy it is to continue receiving benefits.  Gone are the days of proving that you actually applied for jobs in order to continue receiving benefits.

As of 2010, nearly one out of every two Americans received some sort of assistance or support from the federal goverment, compared to one in four in 2008.
http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/10/great-news-nearly-half-of-americans-receive-some-form-of-government-assistance/
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/07/news/economy/government_assistance/index.htm

As one see, it's almost as if our federal government has done everything possible to encourage people not to work.

Want another example of this backward thinking?  Take a single mother with two kids and earning $29,000 per year.   Let's say that the mother is offered a job earning $69,000 per year, but the job is more demanding.  Surely, she would want to take the higher-paying job, wouldn't she, as she would more than double her salary?

Actually, she might want to stay where she is.  As the example in the link shows, the single mother has a financial disincentive to take the better-paying job, because she would lose benefits from the federal government that would not be made up with the higher salary.
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/07/julias-mother-why-a-single-mom-is-better-off-on-welfare-than-taking-a-69000-a-year-job/

If the President's goal were to create a society of Americans who rely on the federal government, he's succeeded like no other President before him.

The problem is that pretty soon there will be more people receiving government assistance than those working and paying taxes to support them. At that point, America will become a socialist state of mediocrity and the country we love will be long gone.

The election in November can't come soon enough.