The engine of economic growth in a nation must come from commerce; the exchange of goods and services between buyers and sellers. Trade must provide value for buyers and profit for sellers. No business should be too big to fail nor too small to succeed. However, there are those who believe that the growth of government contributes to overall economic expansion. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is said to have once declared that extending unemployment benefits contributed in some convoluted way to increased economic activity.
The belief that growth of government spurs the economy is liberal delusion. A stellar example of this folly is reported in a Brookings Institution study showing that the 2009 ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program cost $1.4 million for each new job created; that’s not good economics. Funding for government expansion comes from tax revenues paid by middle class workers and discourages job-creating investment by corporations and small businesses alike.
Change in all things is constant but as individuals, we ignore it when we don’t understand it and condemn it when it encompasses us. We are both the victims and beneficiaries of technology. Companies are seeking workers to fill positions that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Behind factory walls are robotic welders, CNC (computer numerically controlled) machines, and computers that provide a profusion of statistical reports on all aspects of the enterprise.
Many of the people that could be filling these new jobs are sitting in subsidized housing charitably accepting various government payments. Some workers have taken early retirement; millions are receiving disability checks while some are hustling several routine jobs for off-the-books pay. Millions of able-bodied men and women are gaming government handouts through simple ingenuity conveniently learned from seasoned malingerers.
At the helm of our renewed USA, there must be a leader filled with impeccable moral fiber, a person who would inform the citizenry of truth in all things. A man or woman that would use common sense based on experience and success in decision making giving birth to favorable outcomes. The nation needs a leader for all the people that bring sects, races, genders and political convictions together. The next President must recognize that we are a nation of opportunity, not an assemblage of government dependents.
Over the past six years, astonishing fables have been spun. The President propagated the falsehood that we could keep our doctor and our insurance company under the new healthcare law. In August 2012, the President warned Syria’s Bashar al-Assad of a ‘red line’ regarding the use of chemical weapons. A year later he mentioned in a speech in Sweden that not he, but the world had drawn a ‘red line.’ When campaigning in 2012, he took credit for bringing the troops home from Iraq. But as the decision backfired when ISIS terrorists started converting the country to an Islamic Caliphate, he blamed President Bush for terminating the action.
When in 2009 the President removed the ‘defensive shield’ from Central Europe at the urging of the Russian government, Mr. Putin knew that he had found weakness in the rookie US President. Since then, the ‘Russian Reset’ has been an abject failure and Vladimir Putin is chuckling in his vodka as his troops and tanks absorb the Crimean Peninsula and rumble into Ukraine.
Principal elements of a new administration must include balancing the budget through reduced spending, the restoration of full employment by reinstating the ‘will to work’ by all able-bodied citizens and the build-up of awesome defense forces that discourage any foreign power from testing our resolve. The tax code must be overhauled to kindle and sustain capital formation and deployment to reduce our foreign trade imbalance while providing substantial additional employment. Immigration laws must be enforceable and enforced. The new administration must be steeped in industry and commerce for reasons explained in the first two paragraphs of this column.
Water is surging over the gunwales of our ship of state. What enduring fearless healer will step forward with the plan for rebirth and renewal? The time is at hand; the World needs you NOW.
– Dick Baynton