America of the 21st Century
By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry (Ret.)
CurryforAmerica.com
Over the years Congress has repeatedly demonstrated that it can and will wastefully spend the nation’s money without regard for responsible stewardship. Events such as the recent banking, sub-prime lending and housing fiascos are warnings that Americans needs to be ever vigilant, that the Congress and the federal government cannot be trusted to protect our citizens’ interests as the nation journeys down the road of the 21st Century.
It is past time that our national leadership got government spending, regulation, and the narcotics of entitlements under control. It is time the government learned to live within its means and budget -- as private citizens are forced to do – and to introduce needed structural reforms in such a way and with such a timeline that it does not wreck the economy in the short term.
Our Founders would never have approved of whole cities and sections of our nation being made dependent on government largess, which is what is now happening. They would have never approved of the government legislating what should be individual citizen morality, or of telling Americans that sometimes their speech can be free and other times it is prohibited, or specifying the kinds of houses they are permitted to live in, and the types of cars and trucks they can buy and drive.
Under the guise of protecting the environment and the greening of energy, they wouldn’t stand for the government trying to prescribe the kind and quality of the food that their citizens may eat, and the kind of light bulbs they can buy, or the subject content of courses of instruction in our schools. They would not approve the setting of limits on how much money citizens can earn; and the type and cost of the medical care they can receive, or of establishing an agenda that makes most citizens’ and private sectors’ decisions for them; or telling them what kind of prayers, religious practices and reading of scriptures is publically acceptable and what is not.
More and more, wittingly or unwittingly, the federal government is trying to control our lives and actions. It overwhelms us with such a sense of futility that it grinds down our spirits and ushers in a climate ripe for social chaos. The government is driving the nation so far down into debt and economic crises that avoiding a systemic financial failure may become impossible.
The government seems to have arranged things so that the American people are being bombarded and overwhelmed by such a plethora of unworkable programs and legislation that one day they will finally surrender their liberty and freedom to government control. The intent seems to be to so beleaguer them that they finally cry out, “Please rule over us and sort out our lives and problems for us and keep us from disaster, for only you the government can save us.”
Tens of millions of poor white and black Americans are starting to believe that they will survive only if they can rely on welfare checks, food stamps and other government handouts. And that these freebies will keep coming only if the party of big government is kept in power by the recipients’ votes. Of course this can happen only if the voters are kept dependent and loyal.
Of course the party of handouts and big government is also courting the votes of illegal immigrants, who can remain in the country and be on the voting rolls only so long as their votes keep in power the party that sanctions illegal immigration. Partly ranks are further swelled by government workers who retain their jobs and benefits only so long as they are able to keep their political patrons in power.
This is how “Third World” countries operate, not the way our Founders envisioned that the United States of America would operate. We must not allow this great, extraordinary country of ours – to be destroyed by those who would remake our nation into one that would be unrecognizable to George Washington, Ben Franklin and Abe Lincoln.
From Maine to Florida, from Texas to Alaska and Hawaii, there are masses of Americans who feel the spirit of our Founders welling up inside of them, telling them that it is time for government to provide an economic climate under which the private sector can steadily grow jobs, plus get the nation’s debt and finances under control.
They want our national leaders to put principle above politics, to put the interests of the nation above the personal, to recognize that there is a difference between good spending and bad; that spending to renew infrastructure such as roads and bridges is good; spending to increase the size of the federal bureaucracy and government is bad.
Even though I studied economics in the university, I learned real economics from my mother. She said if a household or the federal government spends more money than it takes in, it will be forced to borrow to cover expenses. What it borrows it has to pay back with interest. If it can’t pay back its loan on time, it will be forced to borrow more or default.
Were she here today she would say that the federal budget should be balanced and that we should get ourselves and the nation out of debt. She would be in favor of reducing taxes and cancelling the “free tax ride” that half of our citizens are getting. She believed that everyone should contribute to the government unless they were living in poverty.
She would keep inflation and the size of government low, and deregulate small business. She never discussed foreign trade with me but I imagine, were she here, she would be in favor of keeping foreign trade fair and free and our current accounts balanced. She would be strongly opposed to playing the role of patsy when dealing with our trading partners, especially those who take unfair advantage of us.
She would wrap up her advice with these words, “Does what you are doing help or hurt America? Always give in to convictions of honor and good sense. Stand on principles not issues. It is impossible to win when you’re playing with the devil. There is no middle ground between good and evil. It is never wrong to do what is right.” My mother and father were the products of a wise and honorable generation.
For the past fifty years the U.S. has led the world because that was its destiny. World leadership, here at the beginning of the 21st Century, is still its destiny. This nation was created to be, as President Reagan was wont to say, “A shining city on a hill,” lighting the way for other nations to find the path leading to freedom, knowledge and prosperity. It will be impossible to do that if America’s citizens continue to allow their Government and President to waste our nation’s inheritance.