Why not Ron Paul?

“I mean, arguing over who mows Mitt Romney’s lawn … In the midst of a crisis, a sovereign debt worldwide crisis, the biggest in the history of the world, and the financial system of the world is about to collapse. We’re about to have another devaluation of … our credit rating. This is serious, and no control in the spending.  We’re going to have to get a hand on this.  We have to quit worrying over who’s mowing Mitt Romney’s yard.”  Ron Paul, Meet the Press, Oct. 23, 2011

“Mommy, turn the car.  We’re heading straight for a cliff.”

“Don’t worry, honey, we’re going to slow down some.”

The USA rapidly approaches an economic precipice and it’s much closer than we appreciate.   If so, the 2012 election is a referendum on national cliff diving.   The wreckage of great nations fill the history books, and rarely do last generations recognize the end before it’s too late.

We’re nearly 15 trillion dollars in debt, a number nearly beyond comprehension.  See debt clock here.  No nation in the history of mankind has accumulated such a deficit when compared to the worldwide purchasing power of the respective debt.  A few short years ago, our debt was nearly half of our GDP.  In 2011, at the time of this writing, our federal debt is approximately equivalent to our GDP.  See debt clock here.  Even the CBO acknowledges imminent crisis.  See here.  All levels of government spending presently consume nearly half our GDP.  See debt clock here.  We’re adding trillions of dollars of new debt every year.  How much is that?  If you counted a $1 bill every second, it would take you over 30,000 years to count the first trillion dollars. 

Newsweek’s Andrew Nagorski reports “America’s public debt could skyrocket from 44 percent of GDP before the 2008 financial crisis to 716 percent in 2080. If legislative reforms don’t expand the size of government, the CBO dials the projection back to 280 percent.”   As Mark Steyn observes in his recently published, must-read After America, that’s the difference between dead and more dead. Business Insider magazine reports that only 58 percent of Americans have a job right now; the median yearly wage in the United States is $26,261 and the average American household is carrying $75,600 in personal debt.  Including public and private debt, each American – man, woman and child – is each presently responsible for approximately $175,000 in debt.  And the figure grows. See debt clock here.  

The problem is systemic throughout the industrial nations and social-welfare states and no one is coming to our financial rescue.  Unfortunately, the US is the leader in this fiscal suicide. A leading German economist recently explained, “The alarmingly high national debt many countries now hold, as compared to gross domestic product, is by no means simply a result of fiscal countermeasures taken after the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. It is just as much a product of a policy, carried out for decades and widely accepted, of perpetually borrowing money for public budgets.”

We don’t need to slow down this economic death spiral, we need an abrupt turn-around.  Not a slight change of angle, but a U-turn.  Our current path is unsustainable.

A new tax plan alone is not good enough, even if it means giving Congress a new pipeline to take money from us in the form of a sales tax.  The problem is spending. The government of a free people should not be the largest employer, should not consume nearly half of the wealth of its people and should not burden yet unborn generations with trillions of dollars in debt.  King George III should not get the last laugh.

We used to pride ourselves in being the land of the free and the home of liberty.

Government, particularly the national government, should not be the central or primary organizing power of a free people.

Not only are we not governing ourselves as a free people, but we no longer think of America as a land of freedom.  Love of liberty no longer unifies us as a people.  Our original national motto E pluribus unum means little to many.

So … in light of what appears to me to be a substantial, imminent and self-induced fatal threat to our Republic, I don’t particularly care who mowed Mitt Romney’s yard or about archival copies of President Obama’s birth certificate.  Not surprisingly, Congressman Paul made the same points this past Sunday on Meet the Press.  (Hat tip to and video of  excellent responses to tough NBC interview available at The Corner here.)  I don’t think our primary solution is a better energy program spearheaded by the federal government.  Energy development and independence is important, but in the end, it’s another government project.  We need far less government and we need that U-turn immediately.

Only one presidential candidate has presented any policy proposals that address the scope and root of our impending financial disaster.  Dr. and Congressman Ron Paul’s “medicine” is strong and aggressive.  He promises a balanced budget within three years, ie before what would be his reelection.  It would not be easy or painless.  Ron Paul proposes:

SPENDING: Cuts $1 trillion in spending during the first year of RonPaul’s presidency, eliminating five cabinet departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education), abolishing the Transportation Security Administration and returning responsibility for security to private property owners, abolishing corporate subsidies, stopping foreign aid, ending foreign wars, and returning most other spending to 2006 levels. 

ENTITLEMENTS: Honors our promise to our seniors and veterans, while allowing young workers to opt out. Block grants Medicaid and other welfare programs to allow States the flexibility and ingenuity they need to solve their own unique problems without harming those currently relying on the programs.

CUTTING GOVERNMENT WASTE: Makes a 10% reduction in the federal workforce, slashes Congressional pay and perks, and curbs excessive federal travel. …

TAXES: Lowers the corporate tax rate to 15%, making America competitive in the global market. Allows American companies to repatriate capital without additional taxation, spurring trillions in new investment. Extends all Bush tax cuts. Abolishes the Death Tax. Ends taxes on personal savings …

REGULATION: Repeals ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley. Mandates REINS-style requirements for thorough congressional review and authorization before implementing any new regulations issued by bureaucrats. President Paul will also cancel all onerous regulations previously issued by Executive Order.

MONETARY POLICY: Conducts a full audit of the Federal Reserve and implements competing currency legislation to strengthen the dollar and stabilize inflation.

Dr. Paul lists specifics, to include the numbers.  See here.  Recently, the Vision Forum gave Dr. Paul its highest grade in its analysis on how well the candidates’ proposed policies adhered to the US Constitution.  See here. 

Having delivered thousands of babies, Dr. Paul is also solidly pro-life.  See here and  here.    He is a strong advocate for homeschooling; his campaign states “no nation can remain free when the state has greater influence over the knowledge and values transmitted to children than the family does.”  See here and here.

Dr. Paul is not nearly as smooth or well-funded as Gov. Romney. Paul lacks Gov. Perry’s executive experience and made for the camera looks.  He has no trace of Mr. Cain’s bold rhetoric and infectious smile.  Dr. Paul has, however, diagnosed a terminal disease in this Republic and Dr. Paul is the only one promoting an adequate cure.  Further, he made and has spent his life’s energy publicizing this diagnoses.  Only now after the Bush-Obama fiscal conflagration do I appreciate the accuracy of what Ron Paul has been championing for years.