Remembering
Reagan

By
Michael Giere

It was an
honor to know and work for Ronald Reagan, whose birthday we celebrate this
week. I “cut my political teeth” working for him in West Texas in 1976 and
1980, running for the U.S. House at his suggestion in 1978, and later in his
administration from 1981-85 in several executive positions.

I was very fortunate to meet with him numerous times both in private and public meetings, and
there are two – of many – specific lessons that I learned from him that are enormously important today in 2012. They’re timeless actually.

First, know what you believe; and believe what you know. And be ready, willing and able to
tell that story. I learned from Ronald Reagan that in politics the narrative is everything. The reason he could so compellingly explain to his fellow citizens the reality of economic
consequences, the nature of evil, the noblest call of human liberty and dignity, and the Divine hand of the Creator in both our national and personal life, is simply because it was in his very soul.

He spent decades studying and conceptualizing his beliefs. So when he went before the public
arguing that a bloated, government-run welfare state stripped human dignity out
of individuals, and left them to the least that is in them, not the best that
liberty could afford them, American’s responded to the conviction and the truth
of his narrative.

When he said that our problems are not caused by too little spending, but by a predictable
desire of a self perpetuating bureaucracy to take from the individual and consume for themselves, the truth struck like a bell.

When he described the “Evil Empire” and its political offspring that sought to corrupt
God’s sovereign gift and enslave a world to a dark idolatry of the state, free
men and women knew instinctively that his narrative was beyond human truth.

And when he spoke of the gift of human life, it was not a piece of DNA, but a life hand
crafted by God.

Today, we suffer the “sound-bite conservative” in the political world. Too many of our
politicians are men and woman of the moment. They throw around catch-phrases
like “free markets” and “free trade” and “pro-life” like party favors. But you
know in your heart they are just spouting words they think you want to hear,
not the truth you need to hear. They simply don’t have a whole narrative in
their souls; and whatever they believe today, can change by a poll tomorrow.

If the modern conservative movement wants to be freshly relevant – if we want to
rescue our faith, our culture, our economy and our liberty – then we will
become studied expositors of the narrative. We will tell the American people
why we believe what we believe. Not reluctantly, no apologetically, and not
with one eye to the political calculus.

Ronald Reagan’s narrative spoke to the American spirit like a song-bird sings to the
world; he told both the Truth – and the truth.

The second thing I learned from Ronald Reagan was to speak to the future, not the past. He
was a very practical man. He certainly used historical and factual stories from the past as guideposts, markers and warnings. But he led his countrymen by an optimistic vision of what God promised us we could be. Always in his narrative was the causal lightness that we
took ourselves to seriously, and that there was a streak of common sense and ingenuity that ran in the American character – because liberty revealed it in us. God’s grace invited it. Our natural humor welcomed it.

Men look better after the years pass. We forget the turmoil and angst of Washington’s
trek across the frontier of Revolution. We forget Lincoln’s foibles, mistakes
and dark moods. So too, perhaps we shall paint a portrait of Ronald Reagan
without some of the blemishes of his life because we want to only remember the
best of him. But blemishes are not what make great men and women. Ronald Reagan
was without serious question one of the giants of the twentieth century.  We do him, nor ourselves, any wrong to pass by his blemishes, and celebrate his greatness.

As I go to sleep at night, my prayer is that our beloved America shall soon see another great
leader for the young twenty-first century.

[Michael Giere
lives in Northern Virginia and has been widely published on politics, public
policy, and foreign affairs. He served in both the Reagan and Bush (41)
Administrations.]

Remarks Before the Reagan Centennial Dinner, Dulles, VA

(Michael Giere worked in both the 76/80 Reagan Campaigns, and served in the Reagan Administration from 1981-85.)

Reagan vs. the “Sound bite” Conservative

In 1946, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman traveled by

train to Fulton, Missouri. It was there that Mr. Churchill first

warned of a new, hostile and evil threat to Western

civilization; Soviet communism.  

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,” Mr.

Churchill famously said,” an iron curtain has descended across the Continent [of Europe.]”      

A little more than 30 years later, the reality of Mr. Churchill’s

warning reached critical mass, as the unrelenting

aggression from the Soviet empire seemed destined

to over-run the West, and drag the democracies by stealth and

deceit into the very darkness they had so narrowly escaped in

the Second World War.  

At the most crucial hour, at the last moment, and with

providential grace, two great leaders came to power; Prime

Minister Margaret Thatcher, and President Ronald

Reagan. It is no exaggeration to state that they, with Pope John

Paul and others, saved the Western World as we know it.

Human Liberty lives for another generation; this stands as

their enduring historical legacy.  

Now, literally as we speak, the living memory of the great

leaders of  World War 11  fades from memory as   

that generation passes on. Those of us here tonight

stand as keepers of the living memory of the Reagan era. We

are the touchstones for history; and as these great leaders

stood guard in the darkest hours of the last century, the task

now falls to us to help the emerging generations of this young

century by recalling, reminding and building upon the

greatness we were honored to have witnessed and in which we

were privileged to have had a small part.   

President Reagan stands among us today, two decades after his

presidency, as a continuing inspiration for this nation, an

enduring force in our politics, and still a significant part of

our national conversation.  

And try as some might, Ronald Reagan in death, as in his life,

still defies the attempts by so many to redefine and dismiss  

who he was.

They can’t, and the reason is not really complicated.

Ronald Reagan stood on the foundational principles of life,

liberty, property, and Constitutional order. He did not waver,

he did not pander, he did not flinch. He never apologized for

the greatness and the richness of the American experiment in

self-government, and he did not question for one second that

the Divine mapmaker of human destiny had a special place for

this nation and her people.

He had what we miss the most today; a powerful confidence in

the American people and willingness to fight for what was

right, even when the wrong solution was temporarily more

expedient.      

Tonight, I can tell you that the Reagan Revolution is alive, the

Reagan Revolution is in fighting form, and that in 2010, the

Reagan Revolution’s first born child, the Tea Party, changed

the face of American politics again.  

To my mind, the most important Reagan lesson for us today is

simple – yet its simplicity is overlooked time and again by

today’s “sound bite” conservatives:  Ronald Reagan was a man

who sought to teach others about the foundational first

principles of the conservative cause – he was a man of the story

- the “narrative.”

This means, as an example, that he didn’t just promote the

idea that you should have control of your own money for

practical economic reasons, as important as that might be. It  

means he educated a generation that economic freedom was a

moral issue crucial to all of our liberties.  He attached the trail dust of politics to the nobility of human dignity and freedom.

In plain words, he connected the line from high principle to

how we live our lives.

When he took the podium, Ronald Reagan became the

expositor – the narrator – of the American story, the

Constitutional epic; the exceptionalism and goodness of our

nation was the context of his politics.  

I have no doubt Ronald Reagan would tell conservatives today that if we if we want to lead our nation, then we will abandon the politics of the sound bite and the politics of convenience for the hard stuff of defending and explaining our national story. We will join the debate with deep substance and treat our fellow citizens as our partners, not our subjects. We will use the first principals of life, liberty and property as a cornerstone, not a distraction.  

My friends, if today we conservatives would

simply tell the American story with confidence in our
exceptional culture; if we would stand firmly and proclaim the

dignity of life, the inseparable moral importance of liberty

to both our spiritual and material prosperity; if

we would stand boldly on the truth, no matter the political

storms; then when we are gone a future gathering such as

this will look back and say; they preserved liberty for another

generation.

I judge our time is short, our nation is in grave danger from

within and without. Where will we stand, my friends, where

will we stand? For me, I stand on the same enduring truth as

our 40^th president, Ronald Reagan. I choose liberty.  

The Pledge. This Is What They Give Us?

By Michael Giere

[Michael Giere lives in Virginia and was an appointee in the Reagan Administration from 1981-5, serving in a number of executive positions. From 1991-93, he was an executive appointee in the Bush (41) Administration at the Department of Agriculture. He is a former Congressional candidate (TX-16), and has written extensively on politics and foreign affairs in various national publications. He is an active mortgage banker and businessman.   mcgiere@att.net]

Go big or go home. That’s the mood of much of the nation.

Conservatives, Republicans, independents and Tea Party Patriots are marching and organizing by the millions, unlike anything seen in our political history. They are insisting on honest answers in town hall meetings. They are demanding bold action. They want to shake some sense into a government that stagers with incompetence, and that has dragged the country to the brink of economic disaster. They’re beyond mad, they’re furious. These new patriots believe what the politicians can’t understand – if the nation doesn’t confront some critical issues soon, it may be too late.

Congressional Republicans, seeking to tap into the energy of this citizen movement, today issued their “Pledge with America.” At twenty one pages in length, it is not that there isn’t good “stuff” in the Pledge; rather it is that it treats the passion of this new political movement like another program to be managed. The nature of the passion that exists in these citizen patriots doesn’t take twenty one pages to capture. In a nutshell, here is what conservatives are bluntly saying.

The nation is bankrupt. No one is fooled, and no amount of obfuscation and double-talk can succeed as policy. The time has come – long past time – to start cutting spending. Not tinkering with spending, but cutting spending. Everyone but Washington thinks we have to stop the out of control, ever increasing, expanding size of government at all levels. Cuts of 10% a year, 15% a year? Now those are spending cuts! Not vague programmatic renditions of snips here and there, or rolling spending back to “2008 levels.” It was too high in 2008! Those types of reductions are simply a band aid, and informed citizens now understand the game. In addition, who doesn’t now understand now that if Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are to be saved as viable programs – there must be common sense rule changes. There is no choice.

American’s are screaming about jobs and job creation. And the linkage between jobs and our tax system is not lost on the vast majority of productive citizens – they “get it.” The tax system is a nightmare that serves only those who aren’t productive, or those who earn enough money to start a trust. It’s that simply. Citizen patriots clearly understand that huge tax burdens and mountains of regulations are a root cause of massive job losses – and they are more than sick of it.  American’s don’t want to be “number two” anything. They don’t want to hear every day about workers laid off, and companies shutting down or moving overseas. They don’t want to hear that we can’t do whatever we set our minds on. They’re ready for bold answers, such as a flat tax or a consumption tax, or some type of fair tax that isn’t simply a tool for “extracting” tribute on the one hand, and distributing favors on the other. The nation is sick of it – except in Washington.

The newly organized patriots are tired of arrogant politicians, bureaucrats and judges who increasingly look upon the average American as rabble to be controlled, not free citizens to be listened too. These new patriots are tired of being lied to as well. This has been heating up for years, and now the pot is boiling over. Who the hell do these politicians think they are? Many, if not most of them have never earned a real living in their lives. They get into office and believe they have a divine right to rule the “little people.” The answers are hard, but the problem is now of such size that it endangers the Republic. “They” simply no longer feel the necessity to listen to the citizens, and no one likes to pay the bill and be ignored.

The citizens of the country are looking at 2000 plus pages of legislation for health care and financial reform, and they know without turning the cover of the legislation that it is bad. They know it is written largely by vested interests that could care less about them. They know that a government that wants to control your toilet, your light bulbs and your diet is out of control. They don’t have to read any of the legislation to know this. They are “on” to the politicians and they know that, as citizens, they are being screwed. And, of course, they are. The Federal Government has become a major obstacle – if not outright adversary – in opening and pursuing business, creating wealth, raising families and living civilly with one another. .

Finally, for the first time in modern memory, there is a sizeable, loud and persistent belief in the land that the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing. Intuitively, the American public is studying the DNA of their heritage, and realizing that the Constitution and other founding documents are indispensable to secure individual and collective wellbeing and liberty. Citizens are re-learning the wisdom of our forbearers; if the government has no defined limits, and is not answerable to the citizens from whom they derive power, then the government will cease to be a servant and will become a master.

There are other issues to be sure, like the total meltdown of character and virtue in our culture, wide open borders and the importation of incompatible cultural styles, the War on Terror, Afghanistan, and others. But the national mood is fixed like a laser on the potential economic and cultural ramifications of the American Dream slipping away before our eyes; of the idea of America being lost forever.

The message for Washington is simple – go big or go home.

America – Create Wealth Or Die

The Dilemma Washington Ignores

By Michael Giere

The tragic explosion of the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico was caused by a tremendous surge of methane gas that was under incredible pressure below 5,000 feet of sea water. Once the gas escaped into the drilling equipment, it raced towards the surface gaining volume and speed as the pressure eased, until it blew out the top of the rig. The resulting explosions and fire were so intense, that the enormous platform was totally lost in 24 hours.

Much the same thing is happening right now to the American economy.

The economy is under the staggering pressure of unchecked debt and spending, while real private wealth is being systematically eroded or destroyed. Within a matter of months our current debt – real debt mostly financed in short term bonds on which we actually pay interest – plus the annual Federal budget will breach 100% of our economic output, nearly $15 trillion dollars a year. As surely as the methane gas destroyed the Deepwater Horizon, our surging debt and spending cannot be controlled once it escapes. The only hope of averting disaster now is real economic growth – to create new wealth. Ironically, this is the only option not being discussed in official Washington. 

The situation is so simple every citizen living on a budget “gets it.” Once your income is consumed entirely by debt and spending, you lose realistic options in every aspect of your daily life. Every penny you take in goes out the door and soon, supporting the debt drives even more debt. The only way to alter this dilemma is to increase income into the budget – to generate more wealth – while not increasing expenses.   

For the national economy this means private wealth creation. The government, of course has no money except that which it prints, borrows or collects in taxes. None of these activities creates wealth or increases the production of wealth; it only consumes private wealth in some financial context. The nearly $800 billion dollar so-called “stimulus” package last year, as well as the $800 billion dollar TARP program used ostensibly to fight the financial meltdown in late 2008, was entirely borrowed and printed money. It didn’t exist in the form of wealth that the Federal government held in some manner, or had in its actual possession. Like every dollar the Federal government spends or obligates, the money came at the expense or detriment of the private economy. So when someone says that Federal government can “create” a job by spending money, or prop up a ailing economy by moving money from one citizen to another, it is either willful ignorance or political posturing. If I came over to your home and stole money that you had stashed in the cookie jar, I’ve not created anything. I’ve taken wealth that you’ve earned, and consumed it for the benefit of me, or someone else to whom I passed it on. (We call this stealing, except when the government does it!)  

While the government can’t create wealth, it can encourage or discourage wealth creation. For much of our history, the Federal government encouraged growth by consuming” a relatively small share of the goods and services produced by the economy – or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – in the form of taxes and borrowing. However, in recent years this percent of the national income that is bled away and consumed by the Federal Government has spiked dramatically, and it now takes nearly 25% of the national wealth. Of course, taxes, borrowing or printing money are not the only ways the government can negatively influence wealth creation. The government can create regulations or demands that require private citizens to not produce something they otherwise would (or to produce it elsewhere), or cause an expense that devalues the ultimate worth of something.    

Today, the wild excess of the Federal government stands as the single greatest threat to American prosperity and even to our constitutional government itself. The country is losing the ability to react and to create a prosperous future when every resource has to be marshaled to pay for our debt and mandatory obligations. Ominously, the nation also faces grave foreign policy issues as the practical potential increases every year that America’s debt holders will influence or demand specific policies in opposition to our national interest.

If we continue on the current path, the nation will have no choice but to de-value the debt by repudiation, inflation, or by allowing the dollar to sink in value – or some combination of all three. Any of these options would have terrible consequences for individual citizens whose homes, savings and retirement accounts would collapse in real value and potential value. The standard of living for Americans would out of necessity be drastically lowered by these measures. Another gloomy but growing possibility would be that we could be forced into selling hard national assets to raise money, such as timber, minerals or land. When you are a debtor, you play by the rules of the creditor, even if you are a government.

There is only one way out of this dilemma. We must severely restrict and cap the money Washington can spend and obligate; we must cut personal and corporate taxes in a radical, pro-growth manner; we must demand responsible trade practices; and we must take away Washington’s ability to interfere with the economy by transferring expenses via regulation and unfunded mandates to the states and the private sector. In short, America must create wealth the old fashion way, or it will simply die as the nation we have always known.

Senator Warner – Carnival Barker

by Michael Giere

The shameless mediocrity in both character and intellect in the U.S. Senate has long been ready made humor for the late-night TV shows. But Virginia Senator Mark Warner is putting downward pressure on even that low standard.

Some may recall that Sen. Warner made a pile of cash – more power to him, I guess – by using advance knowledge to organize investor groups to apply for free Federal frequencies set aside for wireless phones, way back when. (Regulators have since banned this practice.) This success made his reputation as a savvy business guy, and he parlayed that and his personal wealth into the Governor’s mansion in Virginia, then the U.S. Senate seat. Since then, like his fellow Democrat from Virginia, Sen. Jim Webb, Warner has been positively underwhelming in office. Both of them are like tortillas; they just lay flat no matter what.

But on May 18^th, the hapless Sen. Warner did the nation a favor. He sent out a memo to his constituents that demonstrates yet again that the Congress is filled to the rafters with unimaginative incompetents. Sen. Warner opens his memo lamenting the sad news that a furniture manufacture near Martinsville, Virginia – already a depressed area – is laying off 560 employees and moving its operation “overseas.” Of course, one would expect the rest of the memo to address ways in which to stop this exodus, or similar ones from occurring. If you thought that, you’d be wrong though.

Sen. Warner spends the rest of his predictable, pandering, preening message (without much concern for the 560 newly unemployed) rambling on about the wonderful things he has done for the job ravaged area. He landed $40 million (in stimulus money, what else?) to bring broadband to the area. He “brainstormed” with local officials recently about how to “promote the workforce.” Heck, he is even working in Congress to “unclog the frozen credit” market using – are you holding your breath? – incentives. Yup. Those things.

Curiously absent from the memo is any sign of intelligent life. Here are a couple of questions I had right off the bat. Why is the furniture manufacture closing the doors? What would it take for them not to do so? Where are they going? And when they get there, what economic factors will they benefit from besides, we assume, cheaper labor? What kind of tax issues will be involved?

Moving on from the parochial issues of this specific tragedy for the 560 good men and women of Martinsville, I’d start asking a whole range of different questions. Does the fact that the U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world have anything to do with the stalled job market? Do our impending Health Care changes have an effect? How about intrusive, excessive regulators? The EPA? Well, not to belabor the point, but is seems that this is a “teachable moment” that the Senator missed.

We have basically allowed U.S. industry to be vacuumed out of the nation, leaving whole sections of rural and semi-urban America awash in unemployed and underemployed citizens. The reasons are obvious. We tax the bejabbers out of corporations in the U.S. Unions often bedevil them. Then we regulate them within an inch of their profits. Then we chastise them. And when they move overseas, we allow the countries to which they move to have complete and free access to our marketplace to send back that which we used to make right here. Funny thing, of course, is that we never get the same type of free unfettered access to their marketplaces – but that’s another story that I’m sure Sen. Warner has little curiosity about either. 

I’m not at all surprised that Sen. Warner is interested only in government solutions, of course. That’s how he made his money, after all. I am somewhat surprised that he still has a reputation that he gives two hoots about the good folks in Virginia who are paying the price for globalization – whatever exactly that is. And I am continually surprised by the carnival barkers we send to Congress. Sen. Warner is close to the top of his class in that discipline.

The 15% Solution

How to Stop Congress Before They Bury Us

By Michael Giere

For the last few decades Americans have been very busy building and maintaining the largest, most productive economy on earth. While the taxpayers have been distracted by their labors, a rot has set into the largely unsupervised “political class.” The taxpayers worked hard, built things and saved. Their politicians binge spent and regulated.

Now, most of us are waking up to the bitter truth – the nation is bankrupt. We have no money except what we can borrow or print. As a bonus, we have systemic and blatant corruption in Congress – a body totally out of control and unaccountable to the Constitution and dismissive of the voters that elected them.   

Of course, if it is “broke,” we want to fix it. But what do we do first in such a target rich environment where virtually everything to do with the economy is out of whack? Is there a silver bullet – or some “big fix” that conservatives can champion?

My suggestion is “The 15% Solution.”  We must constitutionally strip – or cap – the power and ability of Congress to spend more than 15% of the nation’s “income” per year (defined as the prior year’s total “goods and services” produced by everyone in the nation, or GDP). Not a penny more. This would be a massive cut from our current year’s budget of 24% spending level of national income, and our recent history averaging more than 18%.  

Limiting the power of Congress to spend would require a Constitutional amendment which, of course, Congress would never pass. [Three courageous conservatives in the House, Pense (IN), Hensarling (TX), and Campbell (CA) introduced the Spending Limit Amendment in the House this year, seeking to limit spending to 15% of GDP.] Without Congressional action, citizen patriots would have to move such an amendment through a convention to get it ratified. A Herculean task to be sure (with its own share of risks). But the alternative is now startlingly clear – we have a tiny window of opportunity in which to rescue the nation from slouching into Second World economic status, where we move from technical bankruptcy to outright monetary chaos. If the citizens don’t do it, – who will?

Capping the Federal budget to the national income, or the GDP, addresses the core issue the nation faces and the logic is easy to explain to the taxpayers. The country is at this juncture because it has spent and obligated too much money, and the politicians refuse to do what every family or company must do when they get “upside down” – stop spending money. The citizens can no longer wait for the politicians to save the nation.  Of course, it would be easy for Congress to simply cut spending itself, and balance the budget. But, in truth, there is simply no historical evidence that Congress will ever eliminate programs and reform entitlement spending unless they are forced to do so. Politicians will simply never do the right thing. They’re no longer trustworthy, and are not likely to be any time soon. Perhaps they can’t help themselves, or they don’t have the guts in Congress to do what must be done. But, in the end it doesn’t matter why, it only matters that the corrupt government will not do what is necessary – so the citizens must do it for themselves.  

The “15% Solution” would finally demand the public examination and debate of the continued rationale for massive government bureaucracies, such as Agriculture, Education, Commerce, and literally hundreds of other agencies, departments and bureaus who serve only very narrow interest groups. Many of these federally funded entities should exist at the state or private level, or not at all. There are thousands of examples where taxpayer money is used – and in many cases simply wasted or stolen – to support, subsidize, or maintain programs that American’s would never support themselves.   

These types of large spending reductions look less radical when compared to our current fiscal health. Within the next year, total Federal spending and the national debt we pay interest on, will total 100% of our annual national “income.” In other words, every dollar produced in the nation by everyone (nearly $15 trillion), will be committed in the form of the Federal budget, or owed in current, mostly short term debt. Every penny. More staggering, tax revenue received this year by the Federal government only covers the spending on entitlement programs and interest payments on existing debt; the rest of the budget must be borrowed.

Perhaps no “one” thing can rescue the economy. However, if we cannot balance our expenditures and restore fiscal honesty to our government, reducing its scope and reach, then all the other “fixes” becomes meaningless. Conservatives need to open a public dialogue and educate the public in straightforward, unambiguous terms that resonate with normal citizens. Dismantling archaic bureaucracies that diminish, not promote, economic growth, attacking fraud and waste within our government that is of such size as to be unknowable, and de-funding political graft, should be the focus of every conservative’s argument. 

Even entitlement spending such as Social Security would become subject to more rational discussion if Americans knew that spending would finally be brought under control. Most voters could accept indexing, age adjustments, separate investment accounts, and means testing for Social Security as an example, if they saw a government finally being constrained in other areas. Common sense ideas such as converting Medicare, Medicaid and the Prescription Drug programs into subsidized private programs based on income level, would be far more attractive. Even the primary constitutional function of our government, defense, becomes more manageable if we cap spending and require other nations to bear more responsibility for their defense, such as with Western Europe.

Finally, the reason for the “15% Solution” is moral. No government should consume the labor of its citizens without check. Taxes and spending are in the end a measure of personal liberty and personal responsibility, and free citizens must reassert their claim over both.

Fellow Americans, we’re in a heck of a mess. Whether you’re a conservative or a liberal, Republican or Democrat, the signs all around us are more than alarming. You know it. Except for Washington D.C., everyone knows it.

We have a financial and moral catastrophe at our door that threatens the very foundation of self-government and our constitutional system. Left unheeded, the very legitimacy of our government could be in jeopardy. And the people who broke it can’t fix it.

It is no longer within the ability or desire of our government to constrain itself within rational economic or constitutional boundaries. The job of rescuing America is now way too big to leave to politicians. After decades of arrogant irresponsibility, the only answer that remains is for citizen patriots to step in and do what our government can’t do for itself – reform Congress and restore the constitutional balance to our government. We must directly and clearly restrict the power and the money – and therefore the individual liberty – which we cede to the Federal government for our collective wellbeing. 

The dynamics and urgency of our economic chaos are so obvious and well chronicled, that there is little point in delving into them here, except for highlights. We have a staggering real debt skyrocketing towards 100% of our annual national output within the next few years (where the nation has a dollar of payable debt for every dollar produced in the country). Beyond this real debt, we have even more astonishing “unfunded liabilities,” or guaranteed pledges, far exceeding $100 trillion. We have imploding tax revenues; shriveling employment opportunity and the specter of systemic unemployment. We have political, corporate and union cronyism welded to in-your-face corruption overwhelming the land, aided by massive out of control bureaucracies, accountable to no one and bedeviling the citizens’ every enterprise. We have punitive tax rates that punish success, discourage investment, fuel a black market economy, and worse, force businesses overseas. Perhaps most  distressing, we have arrogant leaders of both major parties who have a tin ear and show little regard, less respect, and no tolerance, for the voters whom they purport to represent.  

Taken all together – and the list is much longer – the issues we face speak for themselves and aren’t complicated. America is bankrupt by any reasonable standard. We spend and pledge as a nation far more than we can afford to spend, borrow and repay out of what we produce; far more than we can tax to cover; and more that we constitutionally empower the Federal government to do in the first place. We have no money except that which we choose to print or borrow, unsupported by the creation of new wealth through production. We are very close to point where merely pledging assets will no longer finance our debt. Soon, we will have to devalue our debt or the dollar, dramatically raise the interest rate we pay to our lenders, or sell off assets to raise money – or some combination of all three. It adds up to one outcome; individual American’s will become less wealthy and our standard of living will drop. Economics 101 is an unforgiving master.  

And we have not even touched upon the devastating moral chaos afoot in the land.

We’re at this juncture because we lost our constitutional focus and direction over many decades. The rule of law became a yield sign, not a stop sign. A huge bureaucracy became obsessed by its own excess, enlargement and authority. The appetite to take one person’s money and give it to someone else to use became the standard, not the exception. And politicians, who craved notoriety more than they cherished liberty, were fed policy by intellectuals with ideas discussed at coffee house and universities, but never tried on Main Street. Slowly, before many of us realized it, we changed into servants for the state, not the grantors of power to that state.

The most important issue before us now is not just how to save our standard of living and way of life, but how to preserve liberty and individual freedom – and a God-ordained Constitutional government. One cannot be done without saving the other.

It will take dramatic, radical steps to prevent the complete meltdown of our economy, our way of life, and to reclaim our sovereignty as individuals. But, we must admit we have the problem, and then we need to stop the behavior. Cold turkey. There is no longer any middle way.   

Step 1: Reform Congress; term limits, end gerrymandering; cap Federal employment.

The first radical step is the most desperately needed, and will be the most difficult to enact. What needs to be done economically will be less contentious than the first step of reforming the process that can get it done – our failed Congress and government. No change is possible and enduring without changing the corrupt institution and the government apparatus it has built to insure its own survival.

The word “corrupt” stings – but the truth is clear. For generations Congress and its bureaucracy has progressively become the handmaiden to a complex web of special interests who fix the game and feed at the public treasury; with the Congress leeching off the special interests. Not only does this relationship insure corruption, it has increasingly removed average Americans from the processes of their own government. Policy in Washington is now crafted almost exclusively by vested special interests and unions, with billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money spread around in the incestuous inter-relationships. It has come to the point that we make millionaires in Congress like Hershey’s makes chocolate bars; while the average American can’t even find their public servants at a Town Hall meeting.

Constitutional Term Limits. The first battle line is to install term limits. Many of us who revere the Constitution have long recoiled at this idea. But we now have political gangrene endangering the national life – in the form of a “permanent” political class that is increasingly resistant to the will of the citizens. Many members of this permanent political class are in office for the majority of their working lives; with a decreasing relationship to the citizens they propose to represent.

The case for term limits is the chaos in Congress itself. Besides, any Congress that takes to itself the power to regulate how much water your home toilet uses per flush is simply out of control. Likewise, a government that routinely points a finger at the crooks in business, or the corruption in some area of life, or the incompetence of some institution, is simply farcical. Where in the nation is there a higher density of crooks than on Capitol Hill? Where is the corruption worn so proudly, even flaunted? And where is the utter intellectual and functional incompetence so perfect as to render each new failure unremarkable!

Term limits will require a Constitutional Amendment, and it will be a dog fight to accomplish, and obviously, Congress will not pass it. It will be up to citizen patriots in the states to build public support and pass term limits. But surely twelve years is enough for both the Senate and the House, and Federal Judges.  

End Political Gerrymandering. In this day and age of super-computers, there is no rational reason to leave the territorial design of congressional districts up to politicians. The only effective thing that this does is to allow politicians the opportunity to construct “designer” districts to insure they never, or rarely, lose elections.  

This ritual process is required by the Constitution. Every ten years following a census, the states redraw their allotted congressional seats through the state legislatures. Both Parties engage in careful horse-trading to literally “hand build” congressional districts to insure easy reelections without serious opposition. This is how we end up with congressional districts with tentacles here, and dead ends there – all to cement the sitting congressmen and congresswomen in place, and insure that over 95% of incumbents are reelected.  

One answer is for each state to redraw its districts after the census, using the geographical center of the state as a starting point, and utilizing even or concentric district lines from that point out by population, without regard to any other factor but the number of citizens within the district. With this method, you would have districts determined solely by the population within that boundary, unaffected by prior voting habits. It would break up urban, suburban and rural areas in a more random manner, allowing a better mix of America. But mostly, it would break the back of the career politician in both political parties in “safe” seats.

Since redistricting is a state function, no constitutional change is needed, but you can be sure there would be litigation over this type of change. The citizens of the various states will have to build the political will and education within the states for this reform. It won’t be easy the politicians will fight like a pack of wolves dining on elk to hold onto the power to design their own districts.

Immediately cap the Federal payroll of civilian employees at 2.5 million employees. The number of government workers is rocketing towards 3.5 million. There are now more government employees than employees in the U.S. manufacturing sector. As with spending, we must remove the ability to grow government at will. And, we need to demand a review of higher grade level salaries that now far outpace equivalent private sector jobs. Part of this process might be to install an “up or out” system for civilian executives and demand accountability, much like the military. 

 STEP 2: Establish a five year mandate to reduce and cap Federal spending to no more than 15% of the goods and services produced annually; Massive Federal Spending Cuts and Budget Reform.   

The second radical step is to Constitutionally limit the Federal government’s budget to 15% of the total goods and services produced the prior year, unless two-thirds of the Congress votes to override in times of national emergency (implemented over 5 years). This cap would do nothing to stop unfunded mandates to the states and off-budget pledges and guarantees, but discipline must start with the obvious.

This budgeting restriction would demand the public examination of the continued rationale for massive bureaucracies, such as Agriculture, Education, Commerce, and literally hundreds of other agencies, departments and bureaus who serve only narrow interests groups. Many of these federally funded entities should exist at the state or private level, or not at all. The deciding question should be, “is the Federal government empowered constitutionally to do this?” There are thousands of examples where taxpayer money is used to support, subsidize, or maintain programs that American’s would never support otherwise. We simply can no longer afford to do things citizens don’t want to do, or wouldn’t support, themselves.   

While citizen patriots are preparing a term limit amendment in the states, they can add this one.

In addition, there are other critical budget steps that must be made to restore solvency. Immediately cut “real” discretionary spending 25% across the board, in the current fiscal year, followed by a 25% spending cut the following fiscal year. (This would eliminate the approximate increase in discretionary spending currently proposed.)

At the same time Congress needs an immediate end to “base line” budgeting, a practice where last year’s budget, plus proposed new spending, becomes the basis for new budgeting. All future budgets must be based on the “real” dollar level allotted the prior year.

While Congress grapples with a restricted budget, one would hope that part of that process of looking at the mechanisms of the Federal government, must be to diminish fraud and highlight waste. There was a time, not too long ago, when “waste, fraud, and abuse” was a derisive and chiding phrase; now, it is simply a descriptive phrase of much so much of what the government does. The mindless waste and outright fraud in our Federal system is now of such size as to be unknowable. Every aspect of Federal spending must be publicized and defended.

For entitlement spending, immediately re-index future Social Security benefits to the increase in the real wages in the work force, versus the increase in consumer prices. “Means test” Social Security income, reducing the payout gradually for incomes over $250,000, and allow citizens 45 and younger the option of putting a portion of their Social Security payments into a private investment program.

Over five years, dismantle the Medicare, Medicaid and Prescription Drug program bureaucracies, giving the elderly and other eligible recipients medical access into the private system through Medical Debit Accounts, subsidized based on income level and private coverage.

Freeze defense spending at 0% in real dollars. While this is the preeminent constitutional duty of the Federal government, even here, the garden needs weeding. Our fighting forces in combat zones deserve every dollar they require to be successful, and for support, especially for the foreseeable future in Afghanistan. Beyond that, we need real reform in the whole defense industry process. Re-evaluate force commitments in Europe and Asia; expect foreign host countries to financially support American bases. Restrict Congressional ability to require the Pentagon to contract non-requested or unwanted material or programs.  

If this spending diet seems radical, it is because it is. The problem will be that every vested  and narrow interest group, and every vested organization will demand that their “critical” work continue and that every taxpayer be compelled to participate. But this could be a great opportunity for “faith” communities and free groups of concerned citizens come together to do as citizens what they once did, and should be doing. Citizen service deserves a Federal government that gets largely out of the way.  

STEP 3: Federal Tax Reform; Implement a “2 tier” flat tax and eliminate all deductions (not to mention the IRS).

The third radical step is to wipe away the tax code and the IRS. Replace the tax code with a simple two-tier tax system that can be filed on a postcard. Households at or below the prior years national medium income would pay a flax tax of 5% with no deductions. Households over the national medium would pay 15% of their gross income. Corporate taxes would be a flat 15%.

If there is long term hope of re-igniting the American dream, it resides in the ability of American families to keep, use and build their own wealth. There simply is no justification for the current system whose only single virtue is to hone the talents of tax evaders and cheats, and to encourage law abiding citizens to lie. Otherwise, it is a millstone around the economic system.

The evidence that the current tax destroys, diminishes and corrupts economic activity is overwhelming and so dense as to demand little serious debate. We cannot spend our way to prosperity – we must produce new wealth. The only way to create wealth is to produce it in the private sector with private capital.  To allow Congress the ability to determine tax rates is like driving a car with no brakes.   

Besides, how could the elimination of 180,000 employees of the IRS, be a bad thing? Dramatic personal and corporate tax relief would reestablish America as the place to do business, and, as with limiting government expenditures, unleash the creativity and passion of private citizens and “faith” communities to serve their communities in meaningful ways. It’s what free citizens do.

Step 4: Energy Production.

The fourth radical idea is simple – produce American energy. The explosion of American productivity and the astounding creation of wealth in this nation during the twentieth century were propelled by energy. Petroleum based energy to be specific. Oil is an amazing natural resource. It is used in transportation, drugs, manufacturing, chemicals of all kinds, and so much more. It is such a unique resource that it appears very unlikely to be replaced anytime soon, regardless of the pipe dreams of utopians. The capital and operational cost of “alternative” energy sources for transportation and manufacturing continue to be prohibitive when compared to petroleum based solutions. Especially in personal transportation options where the cost of production, maintenance and energy conversion ratios make gasoline engines so utilitarian.

While the free market and the allure of a better mousetrap may drive new innovations in alternative energy, the here and now demand that America have adequate, affordable energy resources. Fortunately, we do – and lots of it at that.     

The United States at one time was largely self sufficient in oil and refining, until a variety of global influences made it more difficult to use domestic supplies, and cheaper to import oil. However, in the last twenty five years the world’s reserves of oil have increased, not decreased, including in the United States. We have recent discoveries that dramatically expand our real and potential reserves both in both oil and natural gas (we now have the world’s largest reserves of natural gas). There is no credible argument that we cannot enormously – in an environmentally safe manner – expand our production of petroleum in this county. But we can’t do it if the anti-growth government and the rabid, anti-growth environmentalist movement override the will of the vast majority of American citizens.    

The simple economic reality cannot be ignored any longer. Modern economies run on energy, which must be produced. Alternatives to petroleum may become realistic in the future, but that day is clearly well into the future. Not to use and develop the vast supplies of energy (including coal, of which we have the largest reserves in the world) is nothing short of immoral – and no politician of either party should be allowed to stand in the way of a clear national imperative. We must drill here, and drill now.