We've been told recently by this administration and their economic experts that inflation is actually quite low. By their standards I suppose that is true, but then again that inflation calculation does not factor in gasoline and food prices. Since the price of gas has doubled since Obama took office, which is worth making note of.
Why has the price of gas doubled? A number of reasons, and right near the top is an administration that desires high gas prices. Candidate Obama said his policies would make energy prices "necessarily skyrocket." He wants our gas prices to align with Europe, which is often triple ours. To achieve that, his administration has done everything in their power to block domestic energy production. They've revoked oil and gas leases, delayed research on locating new energy sources, and used the Gulf oil spill as a pretext to ban offshore drilling, despite the exact opposite recommendation of the commission he appointed to study the issue.
Despite the tragedy in Japan, nuclear energy is one of the safest, cleanest energy resources available. Yet miles of bureaucratic red tape and endless regulation make it nearly impossible to build a new reactor, despite the fact that about 20 percent of our currently electricity production comes from nuclear power plants built decades ago. Wouldn't it make sense to build newer facilities which employ the latest technology?
Gas prices are also high because so much of the world's oil is produced in the Middle East, a hotbed of political instability. Every time violence and unrest flares up the price of oil goes up. We send hundreds of billions of dollars overseas to buy oil from countries that then use those petro-dollars to fund radicals that want to see our nation destroyed. The same day that the tsunami hit Japan, a group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the Jerusalem home of a young Jewish family. These animals stabbed the father to death, and then stabbed the mother as she came out of the bathroom, and stabbed and slit the throats of a 4-year-old son, an 11-year-old son and finally, stabbed and slit the throat of the 3-month- old daughter. The same animals have for years lobbed rockets and mortars into civilian populations while the world looked idly on and only showed outrage for Israel's "disproportionate response."
Other than Israel, virtually every Middle Eastern country has an economy based on oil production and exportation. Why are we not embarking on a Manhattan Project-type effort to develop and exploit every energy resource available domestically? We have massive quantities of coal and oil, which can be supplemented by nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass and other fuels where they are cost effective. Doing so would end our dependence on foreign oil and starve these nations of our petro-dollars. Then these savages who so revere a culture of death can either come into the 21st-century and learn to get along peaceably, or they can starve to death while they throw rocks at each other. I really don't care which. How long must we excuse such savage, violent behavior? Would we tolerate it on our own soil?
Back at home we are going bankrupt and have two political parties that are so intent on keeping their jobs and the power and perks that go with them that they refuse to realistically address the financial crisis we are facing. A just released report shows that the 10-year economic estimate has been revised to reflect more than $2 trillion in additional deficits above what was predicted just a few months ago. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars in just the interest payments on the debt, never touching the principal itself.
The Obama administration is projecting average annual deficits of $1 trillion, and even that is based on rosy economic growth scenarios that are not coming to pass. This is fiscal insanity! Yet we have one party that acts as if we can keep escalating spending and the payments will never come due (and that people will always lend to us), and another party that KNOWS what must be done but is afraid that to do so would be to lose elections, so they are trying to swallow a 20-pound loaf of bread by scraping off a few crumbs at each meal. The proposed $100 billion in budget cuts is less than 3 percent of the annual deficit, and a rounding error on the national debt. We must have a massive reduction of government spending, returning it to the taxpayers so they can provide for themselves and create new jobs. Centrally-planned government economies have a 100 percent track record of failure.
Yet all of these things and so many more are symptomatic of a larger set of problems. They are the natural result of a nation that no longer teaches its children what makes their country great, of its rich and noble heritage, or of the principles and values upon which this country were founded that led it to become the freest, most prosperous nation on the face of the earth. It is a result of a nation that has come to expect the cradle-to-grave protection of government, while avoiding risks as all cost. We built this nation into a mighty power because people took risks, they built things, they invented things, and they worked hard to succeed. They didn't expect the government to protect them from every possible unpleasantness.
Where is that spirit today, the spirit of men and women who loaded wagons and traveled thousands of miles to find California gold? That put a man on the moon in less than a decade? That invented mass production and created the internet? That built the Empire State building in 18 months (even as we await the rebuilding of the Twin Towers a decade after they fell)? That went from the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor to rebuilding the Navy and winning the Battle of Midway to gain control of the seas in only six months? Where is that spirit? It is crushed by government.
Am I mad? I'm furious! We've allowed the roaring fire of the American spirit to turn to cooling embers, lulled into complacency by the siren song of a government that promises to take care of all our needs in exchange for servile obedience. We are a nation of Gullivers who have voluntarily lain down and allowed ourselves to be bound by thousands of government Lilliputians, binding us into immobility using the threads of high taxes, burdensome regulation and promises of protection.
On Aug. 1, 1776, speaking at the Philadelphia State House, Samuel Adams threw down the gauntlet to his brethren and issued a challenge. Said he, "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
If we are to be free men and women, we must throw off the chains of a patronizing, oppressive government and once again take control of our destiny. Clearly, the politicians in neither party are willing to do what needs to be done. Are you? America is great because she is filled with great people that do great things. We must remember and embrace that if we are to become great again.
Louis DeBroux is a Taylorsville resident, married, with eight children. He is chairman of the Bartow County Republican Party. He owns Gatekeeper data backup and recovery. He can be e-mailed at led@gatekeeperbackup.com.