How about we start with a point that most Americans, regardless of their political stripe, agree on? Something is wrong—really wrong. The tentacles of the economic crisis that entangle both Governments at every level and the private sector, point toward America’s decline. While most Americans won’t say it out loud yet, most of us know in our gut that we’re headed in the wrong direction, and we don’t know how to fix it.
America has been the world’s only superpower for more than a generation. None of us should be surprised. Our reservoir of national strength runs deep. Born in the crucible of revolution, an insurgent people defeated the British Empire and created a form of governance that is based upon freedom and liberty that became and has remained the envy of the world for more than 200 years. And what we have accomplished has not come easily and not without enormous sacrifice. A nation does not survive Civil War, a Great Depression, two World Wars, and the Cold War without willingness to sacrifice and sacrifice dearly.
Therein lies the way forward for America today—national sacrifice, painful national sacrifice. If we are not willing to pay that terrible price, we will deserve the fate that is the inevitable consequence of our national profligacy.
Thankfully the Bowles/Simpson Debt Commission, appointed by President Obama, lights the road we must follow. Is it perfect? No, but its recommendations are fundamentally sound—drastic cuts in Federal spending, fundamental revision to the income tax code, tax increases, and reform of entitlement spending, the “Doomsday Machine” that, without reform, will paralyze the national economy.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that this Commission is Obama’s creation. He gave it life, and he did so after the Republicans in the Senate torpedoed the better course of action—a Congressionally mandated Commission with real teeth.
So now Obama faces what will be the most fateful decision of his presidency. He can take the easy course and distance himself from the Commission’s painful recommendations, or he can bring the nation together behind their enactment.
In case you’re listening, Mr. President, this is the choice between greatness and mediocrity. It’s also the choice between one term and two.
The way forward is for you to call for the implementation of the Debt Commission Reforms in your FY 2012 Budget and in your State Of The Union Message. At the same time you need to send Chairmen Bowles and Simpson, as your personal emissaries, across America to educate the nation and build the support necessary to force an otherwise unwilling Congress to enact these measures.
It’s been too long since America had a President who deserved to be profiled in courage. Here’s your chance, Mr. President, your only chance.
December 6, 2010
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