Courage is the willingness to stand up against nearly unsurmountable odds. Washington had it as he crossed the icy Delaware on a long ago Christmas day. Tens of thousands of Americans had it as they debarked from the landing craft and faced murderous German automatic fire on Omaha Beach. John Kennedy wrote of immense political courage in his pulitzer winning book "Profiles In Courage".
Courage today is becoming a rare and precious commodity. As a nation, we delegate the "courage" element to a beleaguered military who are asked to do far more with far less than we have ever asked. As to political courage, I'm sorry to say I see it only in the hearts of the conservatives in the House of Representatives and in the hearts and minds of those maliciously branded as "Tea Baggers".
Which house of Congress has had the courage to produce a budget during the past three years? While the Senate has failed to produce or pass a budget for over 36 months, the House, in keeping with Constitutional mandate, has passed an annual federal budget each year, only to see it die in the Senate. As a result our national debt rating has been downgraded and we are more or less being governed on a "month to month" budget that leaves us another trillion dollars in debt each year.
For those who would defend the Democratic party I would ask these questions:
1) Who among the Democrats have had the courage to state that our tax laws are not fair when the top ten percent of earners pay 70% of all tax revenues while 50% of Americans pay not a dime? The Republicans have!
2) Who among the Democratic party will even discuss in any specific way that federal entitlements, as they exist today, are not sustainable? The Republicans have!
3) Who among the Democratic party will hazard the loss of the Hispanic vote by acknowledging that illegal immigration is morally and legally wrong? The Republicans have!
4) Who among the Democratic party will challenge Blacks to assume personal responsibility for liberating themselves from Food Stamps and a welfare check and taking moral responsibility by condemning ghetto crime, in lieu of blaming "Whitey"? The Republicans have!
5) Who among the Democratic party has the courage to hold up a federal spending pie chart that shows entitlements and interest on our national debt constitute 70% of all federal spending and is not sustainable? I've seen Republicans do it dozens of times! It seems every few years the Democrats gain control of the government, throw a big spending party, then the Republicans have to come in later and pay the bill for the party. Sad.
6) Who among the Obama/Reid/Pelosi regime has had the courage to tell Americans that by 2016 the interest on our national debt will eat up half of all tax revenues! The Republicans have!
7) Who among the Democrats have had the courage to say that women using abortion (many have had abortions as many as five times!) as "birth control" is morally wrong and certainly should not be financed by taxpayer money.
I don't profess to say that all Republicans have acted responsibly. We still have far too many Republicans in Name Only (RINO's) who were part of the spending problem in last decade. But the Republicans do have a good number of courageous politicians who have sounded the alarm over explosive government spending and the ever growing tentacles of big government in every facet of our lives.
For those of you who elect to swallow the kool-aid of "class and economic warfare", who buy the liberal mantra that the rich must pay more than 70% of our bills, that you can implement Obamacare without massive trillion dollar outlays and massive program fraud, and that the federal government can find you a job, good luck.
The American economy has always prospered when Americans, instead of demanding a bigger slice of the pie, opt to grow a bigger pie so that all prosper.
5 comments:
As a man raised in a military family that goes all the way back to the Army Air Corps, I am appalled to see what the leaders of this country have let it become. The corruption that the present administration practically flaunts in our face while shredding the constitution is probably making my relatives turn over in their graves. All they fought for, all they gave- has come to this? A presidency that is giving away our rights to other nations? Spending our future generations money like its' HIS? People have become lazy sheep and we need a leader that can unite this country while lighting a fire under it!
Thanks for your comments, Anon. Unfortunately, we will not get a leader we want until more than 50% of us get off our rear ends and go the voting booth.
You're right on the "lazy sheep" comment. That's why I write this blog; if I can rally a few dozen people to exercise their citizenship responsibilities it will have been worth it.
Thanks again.
I sense your sincerity and there are some things you rightly point out as being out of whack, but your general premise is way exaggerated and you fail to mention the merits along with the failings.
Personally I am much more concerned about the power of large (and greedy) corporate entities that are pulling the strings of of the political class. Conservatives never go against the interests of the corporations and the rich. Here are a few balancing points. The top 10% pay 70% of the taxes but they own 85% of the wealth in america. Did you know the top 100 wealthy have more wealth then 50% of the entire country, try to absorb that one. It is not true that 50% pay no taxes, they pay payroll tax and ss tax. They get tax credits for things like sending kids to school, or for raising young children. is that really such a bad idea? I do agree that politicians in general and democrats more so spend too much of our money, and that has to be brought under control at all levels. The idea of improving the live of our citizens and balancing out wealth to some degree is simply not as onerous as you claim. Before the turn of the century, before the new deal and before we even had the concept of the social problems more then 65% of all americans died in poverty. You can't say these folks were lazy or dependent on the government. Much of what has happened in the last century has been to elevate our citizens. I could go own, but you get my general idea. There is plenty of blame to go around, but the idea that there is still such thing as a free market economy is a joke, and you can blame the corporations not democrats for that one.
Anon, thanks for your comments. First of all, I would ask you to read my earlier blog "the .99 cent egg slicer"...it deals with corporate greed and fading corporate responsibility, and it is not the only critique I've laid on them.
That does not excuse the current generation of every growing citizen tit-suckers who live off of the government. As to taxes, you are wrong. First of all the social security tax is for their own retirement...secondly at the end of the year, after all factors are included, 50% of pay no taxes...yes, some people overwithhold because they can't save on their own so they get a big check...but we have over a hundred billion dollars that we pay out in child tax credits for people who don't work at all. A monthly welfare check, food stamps, WIC, Section 8 housing, etc are such rotten programs because they are not audited, subject to massive fraud, and only encourage irresponsible breeding and having Uncle Sam pay for the results of their irresponsible sex life.
As to poverty, you made my point; people today are being called poor even as they drive a late model car, own big screen television, I-phones, gaming systems, etc.
This is a big complex problem and I cant' write an essay covering everyone of them in a single effort but my point is made...yes..there are Republicans who are too close to their corporate buddies, (NOT ALL) but there are liberals who embrace THEIR corporate sugar daddies as well.. The sorry fact about liberals is they just refuse to look at the damn bill for all this waste, nor are they willing to cut a damn thing because it buys them votes.
anon, i forgot to add; Businessweek did an analysis of the wealth spread a couple of years ago and attributed the wider chasm that has occured in the last few years to too damn many people buying houses they couldn't afford, taking out 2nd mortgages as their house prices rose, then lost their "wealth" when the real estate market crashed.
This wealth vs poor is used by the Dems to create class warfare and is largely just a pile of fictional shit.
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