OBAMA LED DEMOCRATS ADVOCATE

ELEMINATION OF MEDICARE?

     At the outset let me say that I am by no means an expert in the field of economics. I hold no fancy Ivy League Degree. My degrees are in Political Science and American History from a small university in the good state of Texas. In short I am a simple old country boy armed mentally with only common since. I shall let those with more prominent academic credentials argue such technical subjects as the GNP, National Dept, percentage of unemployment and other sophisticated national economic indicators. For those who would like a lesson in the fancier factors that explain the economic woes of our country I should like to refer you to Congressman Conoway of the 11^th Texas Congressional District. Big Mike is not only a noted legislator he’s a CPA. The tall man from West Texas is smarter than either one of us look.

      It should be noted that although I am lacking in the higher levels of economic expertise I am not without government power. I hold the highest government position in the world. I am a U.S. Citizen. That title makes me one of the members of the board of directors of the most powerful and greatest nation in the history of the world. You see in this country the government governs only at the will of the governed. I read that somewhere. In America smart guys like Mike Conoway and Paul Ryan work for us common folk.

      While I do not profess to understand the sophisticated technicalities of why my country is in a money crunch I certainly am bright enough to understand that we are in a financial bind. I like all Americans have been in difficult situations myself. I have never seen a problem of any magnitude that's solution didn’t require sacrifice. Let there be no question that we are in big financial trouble and like all trouble the solution is not going to be accomplished without a degree of pain.

        It does not take a super smart guy to understand that since the government in America belongs to the people the government's financial problems are the problems of the people. That would be all of us folks. Legally and ethically every dollar our country owes is our personal obligation. Every dollar we spend as a government is a dollar spent by every individual American. To engage in the politically charged current rhetoric on Capitol Hill and the White House regarding who’s to blame for our current embarrassing financial problems is counter productive and lacks focus on the real issue at hand. Many of us have given a kid or grandkid a credit card for emergencies when they go off to college. I can assure you that if that youngster abuses that credit card your creditors are not remotely interested in the fact that the exorbitant dept was not your fault. You have the responsibility of paying the bill regardless. So it is with our current national debt.

       Let us get our financial house in order and then perhaps we can speculate on who the heck caused the problem. At present as an American citizen who is the ultimate boss in this country I have neither the time nor the inclination to cast blame for this serious problem. I am candidly tired of hearing the accusations from both sides of the aisle as to who is actually responsible for my nation’s current financial debacle. Let me put that subject to rest right now. I am responsible for the financial problems of America. Bill Thomas and the other citizens of this nation are equally responsible for our nation’s debts and everything else regarding our government.

        Let me do the unthinkable and attempt to apply a bit of truth to the current right and left wing garbage coming form our elected leaders. Candidly both sides of the political arena are falling woefully short of honesty. Both the left and right wings of our American political scene seem much more interested in their political well being than actually solving the problem.

        It doesn’t take a financial genius to understand that our country is spending too much money. The rhetoric from both the left and the right propose to cut spending. However, the fly in the buttermilk is that to spend less we will have to cut not only the waste, but we must cut down or cut out some of the programs that benefit our citizens. The admission that our nation is going to have to cut some good programs to right our financial ship is a fact. This admission by those who propose to cut spending seems to be viewed as political suicide by most of our politicians on both sides of the aisle.

       The standard political posturing today is a pain in the posterior. The Democrats led by their standard bearer in the White House accuse the Republicans of wanting to harm our kids and seniors based on the right wing position that cuts in quality entitlement programs are needed. The President recently stated that he was for cuts in government spending. However, he was not for cutting anything that would include entitlements for the seniors or education. Let there be no doubt that on a personal basis I believe in Medicare. My bride of the last 46 years has been the recipient of Medicare and the program has been a God sent to the Thomas household after Georgia’s stroke. That said, the President’s position is of course standard political nonsense that is simply directed toward painting the right wing as being insensitive to the needs of our children and senior citizens. Let me if I might translate the President’s words from politically motivated double talk to plain English. What the President really said was, “I advocate the total abolishment of all the government’s responsibility to the education of our children and the care of our elderly. As long as the government continues to spend money we don’t have for what is popular I don’t care if we go totally broke and can no longer pay for any of these good programs at some later date. After all I’ll be out of office by then anyway. ” Common since must take over here gang. The fact is we have reached a point where we are faced with only two choices regarding excellent programs such as Medicare, Social Security and educational programs. We can limit now or eliminate later. Maintaining the current level of spending on even the best of programs is no longer an option. To do so simply means that at some point the program will fail to exist. Given the common since approach it is transparent who the true champions of our seniors and our children really are. Better to cut back and preserve a good program than lose it at a later date. I am reminded of the words of our founders regarding their devotion to their “posterity”. Are we now so weak that we care only about ourselves and we are no longer willing to sacrifice for future generations. In the words of Patrick Henry, “Forbid it All Mighty God!”

        President Obama’s liberal solution of denying the successful Americans equal tax relief based on their success is not only un-American it is transparently condescending to believe even the blue collar Democat base believes this nonsense. There is no way that anyone with an IQ above that of a retarded door knob believes that the money gained by taxing the wealthy will make the slightest dent in our debt. I am glad Mr. Obama was not serving at 93^rdEvac Hospital in Vietnam when they brought me in unconscious with a 50 caliber bullet in my side. If this guy was a triage medic he would have put a Band-Aid on a hole big enough drop a half dollar in and sent me on my way. While closing some tax loop holes for the wealthy and corporate folks may have limited merit philosophically it is in fact from a practical point of view simply a Band-Aid on a machine gun wound. As for taxing the wealthy and making successful Americans pay their “fair share”, I question what these guys fair share is. The top 1% of wage earners now pay well over a third of the total federal taxes. The battle cry of taxing the wealthy Americans at a higher rate to pay our debts is of course purely a politically motivated ploy by the left. For starters we would not gain any additional revenue by bleeding the job creators and businesses of America at a higher rate. The projected additional tax revenue would be offset by the lack of profits the business community would make with the higher percentage of overhead. The tax coffers would further suffer from a serious decrease in the jobs a higher tax burden would place on the wealthy. While it is obvious that the folks in the top one percent of our tax structure are of course opposed to paying an even higher amount of taxes, the blue collar and middle class American should be as zealously opposed to this nonsensical solution offered by President Obama. The simple question that must be answered by the wage earners at all levels is, “Do I want to leave money in the hands of the folks who write my pay check to allow them to expand their business and hire other folks or do I want to the money in the hands of the government?” It must be noted that when the left wing attack corporate America and the business community they are not attacking the fat cats at the top of the latter. They are attacking more wage earners who work for big business than leaders of that business. Our American free enterprise system is made up of both management and labor. Neither can exist without the other. They can not be separated by politically motivated deception. Contrary to the left wing concept the workers of America ain't that stupid. As management profits so does labor at all levels. As American business profits and expands, so does the amount of revenue gained by the American government. We're not talking rocket science here, troops.

       While the Democrats and President Obama irritate me with their purely politically motivated accusations toward the right wing, the response to those false accusations from my political bedfellows is even more disturbing. I honestly feel the conservative voices from Capitol Hill are lacking in honesty with their standard rebuttal to the left wing political charges. It seems that the Republican counter to the accusation that the proposed fixes from folks like Paul Ryan will hurt old folks and our students is an absolute denial of the obvious facts. Will fixing our financial problems hurt many Americans? Will there be good programs harmed by the Ryan solution? Will our nation suffer from solving our problem? The answer to all the above is absolutely yes. While politicians from both the left and the right like to stand on their collective soap boxes and shout that the remedy for our financial woes lies in cutting the waste and unnecessary spending, the fact is we are beyond a cutting the fat solution. Our nation’s problem will require more than cosmetic surgery. Tough problems require tough solutions. We have reached a point far beyond liposuction. Our country’s financial problems will require cutting into muscle and frankly possible bone grafts.

       The creation of our nation required a great deal of sacrifice on behalf of our fore fathers. The maintaining of the greatest nation in the history of the world has required more sacrifice. At what point did we become so timid that we are reduced to cowards who shirk our responsibility to our country. If we are to preserve our nation sacrifice is absolutely part of the equation. It is high time for what Grandma used to call a come to Jesus meeting by our elected officials. I want to hear one Republican stand up and say plainly that the plan for solving our nation’s economic crisis will involve cutting some programs that are quality programs and will involve more than simply cutting the fat. No longer can we spend money on programs based on the fact that they are good programs. Nice to have programs must be cut. Frankly, a fair case can be made that we should at this point avoid the word “need” in approving government spending. Like all the private citizens of this country our government must now do without some things we arguably "need". Tthe key to government spending now must be based on the harsher yard of "survival" not simply need. As honorable Americans we often do without what we need to solve our problems. So it must be with our citizen owned government.

       It pains me to say that the obvious reason for the lack of honesty of my conservative cohorts is based on their lack of political courage and lack of respect for the courage of our people. I once had a commander who was a terribly nice fellow but a pore combat commander. He had a very bad habit of painting the best possible picture of an upcoming battle. During every pre-operational briefing he interpreted the intelligence with a degree of unrealistic optimism that made the most difficult of situations seem like a walk in the park. After a series of unappreciated tactical surprises I had a serious but respectful chat with the old man. “Sir, if our intelligence tells us that the resistance can be anywhere from token to three times our numbers, give it to us straight. My boys can handle knowing the enemy may seriously outnumber us. If they don’t out number us more the better, but we need to hear you tell it like it is.” There are no greater nor more courageous people in the world than can be found in America. We can handle the truth and make whatever sacrifice necessary for the survival of our country. If we have to sacrifice a degree of our own comfort now for the sake of our posterity we will do so. America’s track record would dictate that sacrifice for our future generations is not something we are adverse to. The economic medicine needed to cure the problem is going to taste bad. However, we are grown ups and can handle it. The Democrats need to stop treating us as if we were stupid. We know that the Republican proposals to cut some needed entitlement programs will hurt. However, to accuse the Republicans of wanting to cut entitlements is disingenuous and frankly dishonest. The right wingers correctly feel we must cut some good programs because we will lose these programs if we attempt the impossible. We are beyond trying to maintain the current spending level for even the best of programs. Republicans need to stop treating us as if we are so timid we are not willing to hear the truth and accept the obvious sacrifice needed to defend the future of our children.