I, myself, haven't made up my mind yet, I like to watch, research and generally consider this decision as with any Presidential election as one the more important decisions an American can make.
With that said, I ran across this, coutesy of memeorandum.
Of course Iraq is a large part of it. Not only is it tough going, but the effort is besieged on all sides. From those playing the most crass kind of politics with it at home to criticism from around the world.
Even at home, as we enjoy the benefits from one of the best economies we've ever had, people seem uncertain; they raise concerns about global competition or a growing economic disparity among our citizens.
These are challenges. But how we react to them is more important than the challenges themselves. Some want us, to the extent possible, to withdraw from the world that presents us with so many problems, in the hope they will go away. Some would push us towards protectionist trade policies. Others see a solution in raising taxes and redistributing the income among our citizens.
Wrong on all counts. These are defensive, defeatist policies that have consistently been proven wrong. They are not what America is all about.
The man makes sense, no matter how you cut it and the more I see of him the more I like him.
Let's talk about the issues here at home, first. A lot of folks in Washington suffer from a big misconception about our economy. They confuse the well-being of our government with the wealth of our nation. Adam Smith pointed out the same problem in his day, when many governments mixed up how much money the king had with how well-off the country was.
Taxes are necessary. But they don't make the country any better off. At best they simply move money from the private sector to the government. But taxes are also a burden on production, because they discourage people from working, saving, investing, and taking risks. Some economists have calculated that today each additional dollar collected by the government, by raising income-tax rates, makes the private sector as much as two dollars worse off.
To me this means one simple thing: tax rates should be as low as possible. This isn't anything ideological, and it really isn't some great insight. It's common sense arithmetic.
Right here, in my mind, this puts him ahead of many of the Democatic candidates because he can add 2+2 and come out with 4--- amazing how many are incapable of this simple arithmetic.
That's why the economy booms when taxes are cut. When the Kennedy tax cuts were passed in the 1960s, the economy boomed. When Reagan cut taxes in 1981, we went from economic malaise to a new morning in America. And when George Bush cut taxes in 2001, he took a declining economy he inherited to an economic expansion -- despite 9-11, the NASDAQ bubble and corporate scandals.
The Democrats, of course, want to raise taxes. They only want to target the rich, they say. A word of advice to anyone in the middle class -- don't stand anywhere near that target. Wouldn't it be great if, instead of worrying so much about how to divide the pie, we could work together on how to make the pie bigger?
I have said time and time again that we should be encouraging our rich to keep producing, not punishing them for it, you encourage it, they keep creating jobs and keep the economy going, you punish them with higher taxes you are encouraging them to say "the hell with you" and stop producing, which lowers jobs and hurts our economy.
The government could start by securing our nation's borders. A sovereign nation that can't do that is not a sovereign nation. This is secondarily an immigration issue. It's primarily a national security issue. We were told twenty years ago if we produced a comprehensive solution, we'd solve the illegal immigration problem. Twelve million illegals later, we're being told that same thing again. I don't believe most Americans are as concerned about the 12 million that are here as they are about the next 12 million and the next 12 million after that. I think they're thinking: "Prove you can secure the border and then people of good will can sit down and work out the rest of it, while protecting those folks who play by the rules."
Speaking of reforms and our economy, there is nothing more urgent than the fate that is awaiting our Social Security and Medicare programs. The good news is that we are living longer. However, we don't have enough young working people to finance these programs from their taxes.
People say the programs are going bankrupt. They won't go bankrupt. Even as these programs sap every dime of the government's revenue, the folks in Washington will raise the taxes necessary to cover the problem. At this rate the federal government is going to wind up as nothing more than a transfer agent -- transferring wealth from one generation to another. It will devastate our economy.
Sometimes I think that I'm the last guy around who still thinks term limits is a good idea. The professionalization of politics saps people's courage. Their desire to keep their job and not upset anybody overrides all else -- even if it hurts the country.
Another point we have made here quite often, political aspirations come before the country to many of our leaders today, just look at how Hillary changes her votes and "opinins" as the polls tell her to. That is just one example, but look to the headlines in every days papers to see it happening across the spectrum. You see Democrats more worried about losing a voter than they are for our soldiers overseas and demoralizing them, you see a speaker of the house, willing to play footsie with al-Assad from Syria instead of understanding that the United States needs to be united or at least show a united front to our enemies, all so she can keep her voters, you see the Senate Majority leader claiming that America has "lost" because his far left wing voters want to hear it, instead of realizing how this encourages our enemies.
The examples go on and on and on.
Not many these days will say what has to be said, whether it hurts them politically or not, because love of country comes second to them, than love for their political career.
The message would be simple: "My friends we have entered a new era. We are going to be tested in many ways, possibly under attack and for a long time. It's time to take stock and be honest with ourselves. We're going to have to do a lot of things better. Here's what we need to do and here's why. I know that, now that you're being called upon, you will do whatever is necessary for the sake of our country and for future generations. You always have."
When the American people respond to that, as I know they will, you will have your bipartisanship.
I still reserve judgement for who this blog will officially endorse, but I have to say, after watching the Republican debate and live blogging it, then posting reactions to it, I saw everyone doing their damndest to invoke Reagans name and image, yet the one person that is most like Reagan, Fred Thompson, is the one person not invoking Reagans name, he is simply showing us with his words and actions, that he very well could be, the Reagan of our time.
Read everything Fred Thompson had to say and let me know what you think.
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