In the spring of 2009, asked whether he believed in American exceptionalism during a European trip Obama said, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exception­alism.”  Seemingly, Obama believes America is no different, no better, than Greece or Great Britain.

Obama’s fixed objective, to turn this country into a European-style social democracy while simultaneously minimizing America’s role which has provided peace and stability since the end of World War II, may be closer to realization than we would like.  Mr. Obama is a product of a political culture that counts among its fathers violent radicals like Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi.  These marginal groups of 1960’s leftists are as convinced now as they were then that the United States is so rotten that only a revolution can save it.

Unlike Thomas Sowell I don’t believe Obama is “indifferent [to] the best interests of the United States”.  I think Obama believes that by forcing the US into the mold of a European democracy he is making America, and Americans, different and better. It is not inexperience, incompetence, weakness or stupidity that has lead to failure at home and misguided policies abroad.  It’s not a bug, it’s the fix.

Last week, beginning with Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. Treasury Bonds from AAA to AA+, 5-hours after the markets closed on Friday, the US stock market, and markets world-wide, resembled nothing so much as the Flip-Flap Railway.  The Flip-Flap was unfortunately best known for snapping riders’ necks due to the extreme g-force through the circular loops.

Neither Obama nor any Congressional Democrat has offered a budget for 800-plus days.  Obama’s 2011 budget was simultaneously voted down by the Senate [97-0] as the President replaced it with a speech at George Washington University.  The Congressional Budget Office, when asked, said they couldn’t score a speech.

Since the Republicans took control of the House last January they have offered two serious budget plans – Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America and H.B.2560, Cut Cap and Balance.  CCB cut $111 billion in FY 2012, places firm caps on future spending, and – conditional on House and Senate passing a Balanced Budget Amendment – agrees to President Obama’s request for a debt limit increase.  Cut Cap and Balance passed the House mid-July 234-190, but was blocked by the Senate a few days later, 51-46.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not want to allow debate on Cut Cap and Balance, saying

“If they [Republicans] want to debate it tomorrow for a period of time, they can do that, but I’m going to — I think this piece of legislation is about as weak and senseless as anything that has ever come on this Senate floor, and I am not going to waste the Senate’s time day after day on this piece of legislation which I think is an anathema to what our country is all about. So everyone understand, we’re going to have a vote tomorrow. I’m not going to wait until Saturday. We’re going to have a vote tomorrow. I feel confident that this legislation will be disposed of one way or the other. The American people should understand that this is a bad piece of legislation. Perhaps some of the worst legislation in the history of this country.”

The Democrats, and Obama, were presented with not one but two serious plans that could have been debated, and possibly some compromise reached that would have prevented the S&P downgrade.  They refused.  In the Friday night press release, S&P said

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.

More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

If I’m not mistaken, that’s financial-speak for “lack of civility”.

• Jan 2010 – “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun” [Obama, Philadelphia]
• Oct 2010 – “ We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us,…”  [Obama, LA Radio Show]
• July 2011 – MSNBC – Republicans are on a mission to “murder the American dream”, “suicide bombers” who want to “destroy the U.S. government”
• July 2011 – Obama, talking about the debt ceiling debate the via live news conference - ”the Republicans are putting guns against the heads of the American people. That the debt ceiling should not be used as a gun against the heads of the Americans to retain breaks for corporate jet owners or oil and gas companies.”
  • Aug 2011 – Wasserman Schultz noted in a tweet that she agreed with Kerry, calling the Tea Party “tyrants” who blocked a more comprehensive bargain on the debt ceiling. …
  • Aug 2011 – “We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Rep Mike Doyle [D, PA] said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”

How can a compromise be reached with a side that has no plan?  And more to the point, how is it possible to negotiate with people who demonize you, your beliefs and your supporters.  How exactly does that work?

Grassroots Constitutional conservatives, aka the Tea Party, are fighting to return America to its first principles –

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Personally, I think these AAA principles are worth fighting for.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raisingAmerica’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.”  Then-Senator Obama, 2006.

The budget debate confuses me – what exactly is a trillion anyway, besides a whole lot?  Back in the day, Sen. Everett Dirksen [D-IL] was reputed to have said, “a million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re
talking about real money.”  Wonder what he would say about billions and trillions so casually tossed about?

We have the Gang of Six from the Senate and their “bi-partisan” plan embraced by the White House.  The Senators announced their plan the same day the House over-whelming passed Cut, Cap and Balance [234-190], which was then dismissed by both the President and MSM; Sen. Rand Paul and the Senate’s Tea Party Caucus have a plan, Rep. Jim Jordan and the House Republican Study Committee support CCB; I guess the Democrats have a plan but no one has seen it.

On the surface the debates, discussions and competing plans seem to be all about numbers; they’re not.

The debate about the debt ceiling, the deficit, taxes and spending is a debate about our values.  Late Friday, in a letter to House Republicans, Speaker Boehner said the breakdown in discussions was “not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country.”  The Republicans, whether it is Speaker Boehner, Rep. Jim Jordan, Senator Rand Paul or Leader McConnell, talk about preserving the American dream for our children and grandchildren; they talk about the job creators and entrepreneurs. In his press release Friday evening Boehner wrote “The White House is simply not serious about ending the spending binge that is destroying jobs and endangering our children’s future.”

This is what I do understand –

• The 2011 fiscal year began Oct. 1, but Congress then led by the Democrats, failed to pass any annual spending bills that would fund government.  Instead, Congress passed a series of stopgap measures, the infamous continuing resolutions, based on 2010 spending.  It’s important to remember the Pelosi-led House didn’t pass a budget for 2010.  This is the first time since current budget rules went into effect in 1974 that the House has failed to pass an annual budget resolution.
• In February 2011 President Obama’s budget was rejected 97-0 by the Senate, and would have run
  FY2012 deficit of $1.6 trillion
• In the past 7-months, since the Republicans under Speaker John Boehner took back control of the House, the Republicans have offered two budget proposals – Rep. Paul Ryan’s and the most recent so-called Cut, Cap and Balance – which have been either ignored or rejected by the Democrat majority in the Senate [on Thursday 7.21 CNN released a poll showing the House-passed Cut, Cap and Balance budget approach had an approval rating of 2-1, and approval in every demographic group, including approval by 63% of Democrats and 65% of Independents]
  • The Cut, Cap and Balance measure, would cut $111 billion in spending from the 2012 budget and
    require a new Constitutional balanced budget amendment be sent to the states for ratification before increasing  the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, passed the House on a 234-190 vote nine Republicans opposed [Rep.’s Michelle Bachmann [MN], Ron Paul [TX],  Paul Broun [GA], Francisco “Quico” Canseco [TX], Scott DeJarlais [TN], Morgan Griffith [VA], Walter Jones [NC], Connie Mack [FL] and Dana Rohrabachder [CA], and five Democrats in favor -
    Reps. Dan Boren [OK], Jim Cooper [TN], Jim Matheson [UT], Mike McIntyre [NC], and Heath Shuler [NC].
  • CCB would cut $6 trillion in spending over 10 years and cap the federal budget at 19.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product by 2021. Typically spending has averaged 20% of GDP, but under Obama now approaches 25%, which requires the federal government to borrow $0.40 of every $1.00 spent.

Is Sen. Harry Reid’s cowboy poetry more important to our country than our military? Does government funding, no matter how small, for NPR and Planned Parenthood rise to the same level as border security and Veterans’ Hospitals?  President Obama, as well as Reid and Pelosi, demonize the use of corporate jets in the private sector but just last weekend First Lady Michelle Obama used taxpayer funded private transportation for a day trip to Colorado.  When Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House she was well known for using private, but taxpayer funded, air transport for herself and her family and for keeping the planes well stocked with high end liquor.

Are these uses of government funds more important than medical care for our wounded warriors?

All Democrats have used fear-mongering to push their vision of more and bigger government; Obama, Pelsoi, Wasserman-Schultz among others scream if Republicans don’t immediately agree to raise the debt-limit then social security and Medicare will be in danger.  Grandma will be on the street with no access to medical care.

Which is confusing because as recently as January 10, 2011 in an interview with David Gregory on NBC Reid said social security was “fine” and “fully funded” -

REID: One of the thing that always troubles me, when we start talking about the debt, the first thing people do is run to social security. Social Security is a program that works and it’s going to be, it’s fully funded for the next 40 years, stop picking on social security. There are a lot of places…

GREGORY: “Senator, you’re really saying the arithmetic on social security works?”

REID: “I’m saying that the arithmetic on Social Security works. I have no doubt it does.

GERGORY: “It’s not in crisis?

REID: “No, this is something that’s perpetuated by people who don’t like government. Social
security is fine, are there things we can do to improve social security? Of course, I’m not going to go to backdoor methods to whack social security. I’m not going to do that, we have a lot of things we can do with this debt. But one places I’m not going to be part of picking on is Social Security”

Just two-weeks ago, July 14^th, Sen. Reid is quoted by AP saying

WASHINGTON (AP) — Echoing President Barack Obama’s warning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Social Security payments would stop if there is no deal to raise the government’s
borrowing limit by Aug. 2.

Speaking on the Senate floor, the Nevada Democrat said flatly that payments for veterans’ benefits and the military, as well as Social Security, would cease if the government defaults on its obligations.

Whether you agree with the 234-House members who support the detailed plan of Cut Cap and Balance, or the 6-Senators and President Obama who support a non-specific outline of spending cuts and tax increases this much is clear.  Republicans are forward looking, working to put our country and working families on the path to strong and vibrant self-sufficiency.
The Democrats, under Obama’s leadership, want more and bigger government with larger and larger groups of Americans dependent on big government programs.

It’s a rather easy choice – freedom or not.

As Americans have learned over the past two-years the Presidency is no place for on-the-job-training; the President can’t vote “present”; nor is it a reward for length of service and for being the next guy in line.  If the ability to raise more money than the other guy was the sole criteria then Meg Whitman would be the current governor of California.

The President of the United States has to be principled, disciplined, humble and prepared.  Gov. Tim Pawlenty is all of that and more.

As a low-key Midwesterner he may not have the glitz of some, but Americans are looking for substance and for results.  As a two-term governor of possibly the most liberal state in the union, and before that the Majority Leader in the Minnesota State House, as a self-identified social conservative, Governor Pawlenty prevailed in a three-way race for governor by  campaigning on a pledge not to raise taxes to balance the state’s budget deficit, requiring visa expiration dates on driver’s licenses, a 24-hour waiting period on abortions and implementing a conceal-carry gun law.

During his first year as governor, Tim Pawlenty balanced a $4.3 billion deficit without raising taxes; during his second term from 2006-2010 he erased a $2.7 billion deficit.  He received an A grade from the CATO institute, only one of four-governors to receive an A and the only one in a traditionally liberal state.

As Governor of Minnesota and since he has extensive foreign travel and clearly recognizes the need for Americans to be prepared, be vigilant and be informed about an enemy who wants to do great harm to America and American interests at home and abroad.

Tim Pawlenty is authentic.  He is competent.  And, I hope, he is the next President of the United States.