Having been so thoroughly
duped in the last election, and already frightened by what Mr. Obama is now up
to, most Americans have had it with Washington and both political parties as
well.
If the citizen uprising
succeeds, the next president will not be yet another political entrepreneur —
Democrat or Republican — seeking power and privilege for self and party at the
expense of others.
Instead, the next
president will, in the words of Dwight Eisenhower, have only "one yardstick by
which (to) test every major problem — and that yardstick is: Is it good for
America?"
What a revolutionary
difference he and his yardstick will make — given that nearly the entire federal
government presently fails the "good for America" test by a wide margin.
Among Washington's
accomplishments are high taxes, profligate spending, big deficits, mounting
foreign debt, an endangered dollar, ruinous unfunded entitlements, a
hollowed-out manufacturing sector, a burst housing bubble, a worldwide banking
and credit crisis, chronic trade deficits, energy shortages, overpriced health
care and college tuition, an over-regulated economy, jobs destruction, the
current recession and the prospect of skyrocketing inflation.
Also on the list are
dumbed-down schools, declining skill levels, mass illegal immigration,
disintegrating cultural unity, reverse racial discrimination, increasing
inequality before the law, interference with the free exercise of religion,
restrictions on political speech, election fraud and tampering — and a tax code
designed to do the maximum amount of collateral damage to the economy per dollar
of revenue raised.
If not stopped, government
bureaucrats will soon be running hospitals, telling doctors how to practice
medicine and deciding who gets what treatment, when or perhaps not at all.
Imagine how good for
America it will be when the voters kick out the perpetrators of the mess in
Washington — and replace them with a new president who tells the truth and a new
Congress made up of citizen-legislators.
The new president and his
appointees will come to Washington to serve, not to seek fame and fortune
themselves or to make Washington more powerful.
The new members of
Congress will work full time attending to the people's business and, having done
so, will go back home to live life as their constituents do. Not for them the
life of the catered and coddled.
These new public servants
will seek to diminish the power of the government offices they hold — in the
belief that a smaller, less- complicated and less-intervening government leads
to a bigger, stronger, more prosperous and freer America.
No more wasting trillions
of dollars on a vast federal fiefdom that does far more harm than good.
Minimalism, competence and
integrity will prevail in the new Washington of the future. Members of Congress
will read and understand legislation before they vote on it. The president will
make his own decisions and will explain them directly to the American people
without the aid of a teleprompter.
The job is not so hard
when the mind is concentrated solely on doing what is good for America.
The new president and
Congress will also conduct the public's affairs out in the open. Government's
financial books will be kept in a correct and understandable manner. It will
spend money only when the broad public benefit exceeds the cost to the economy
of the taxes to pay for the spending.
And at least 60 days
before the Congress votes, the speaker of the House will explain that
calculation on the Internet for everyone to see, understand and discuss.
Government will no longer
seek to run either the economy or the daily lives of the American people.
Instead, it will concentrate on making us safe and enforcing the basic rules of
honesty and integrity on which our society and its market economy depend for
success.
Some of big government's
junior partners in the press have proclaimed that "God is dead" and more
recently that "capitalism is dead." But, contrary to their expectations, neither
is the case.
Instead, it is big
government that is in its latter days.
The era of big government
will soon be over — and the new era of the individual is beginning anew.
Starting with the midterm congressional elections next year and culminating in
the election of the new president, We the People will reclaim control of our own
country.
In the meantime, "like an
old lion dying," the federal government is extremely dangerous and must be
watched carefully.
Christian, an attorney,
was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration.
Robbins, an economist,
served in the Treasury Department during the Reagan administration.