Timothy Lawton

The purpose of this blog is to foster REAL debate. People from ALL ideologies are welcome. I only ask that we keep our discussions focused on the issues and use appropriate language. Hopefully we can have meaningful exchanges that allow us all to more completely understand the challenges that face us in our society and world.

Since this is my first post I’d like to take a general view of where we now find ourselves. The United States has just elected one of the most liberal politicians in our nation to the office of President. Thus far almost everything he has done has been the wrong thing to do. Outside of sending more troops to Afghanistan I can not think of a single act that I approve of by Barak Obama. His negligent spending, rescinding of Bush’s ban on Federal money going to embryonic stem cell research, and his egregious errors on the international stage are just a few of his blunders.

The debt we have accrued in just around two months of this administration is mind boggling. The same Democrats who bemoaned Bush’s spending and the cost of the war in Iraq have authorized TRILLIONS of dollars to be spent in a number of pork laden bills. I felt that the waste of the former administration was disturbing, but the waste that is occurring right now is maddening. If the average person understood how badly this spending spree will impact the America of the future they would be taking to the streets. In fact some already are. Witness the “Tea Parties” that are being held around the country to protest these insane fiscal policies.Instead of profligate government spending we would have been better off reducing tax rates on individuals and corporations. Our corporate rate of 35% is one of the highest in the industrialized world. Reducing that would incentivize corporations to maintain or open operations here in the states. Lowering individual rates would help all people who pay taxes and allow them to decide how to spend their money. I trust the people over politicians any day.

Mr. Obama’s ridiculous attempts to try to get the rest of the world to like us would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so serious. His changing of the name of the War on Terror to the Global Contingency Operation is Orwellian. The fact that Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, has used the term “man caused disaster” instead of terrorism is truly scary. What objection could she possibly have to calling terrorism what it is? I guess being from Arizona she didn’t see New York City burn with her own eyes like I did. The President’s use of the term “arrogant” to describe America’s foreign policy over the last eight years is also a rewriting of history. It is the Europeans and the U.N. that abandoned the United States. They were more interested in keeping their cash cow the Oil for Food program than they were in stopping an “unnecessary war”.

On the homefront we have seen a number of questionable policies and ideas floated that have the potential to destroy this nation. One of the first is the cap and trade proposal. It has not come to fruition yet, and it may not because even many Democrats are opposed to the concept, but if this were ever passed into law it will put our economy into a tailspin. The U.S. is already at a disadvantage when it comes to keeping production in this country. If cap and trade were passed it would saddle the economy with another massive burden to our ability to compete. This is especially true when the emerging world, China, and India will not have the same degree of impediment placed on their nations. We need to improve our economic competitiveness not hinder it. No less when this entire idea is based on remedying unproven human induced climate change.

Lastly, I would like to look at the repeated statements by the teleprompter reader about how his energy policies will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. As nice as this may sound it is not reality. The only way we will make a significant reduction in our consumption of foreign oil is to produce more domestically or reduce our use of oil overall. Obama and his Party are opposed to the former and their proposals on the latter will only drive costs up for consumers. Yes, we need alternative sources of energy, but our economy is not presently equipped to meet our needs from renewable resources. We must have a transition source in between and that is only when we find alternative energy sources that will be able to power our society.

The liberals are now firmly in control. It is their policies that will now be put to the test. I hope that people will not be fooled by a temporary improvement in the economy. It takes years for policies to show their full effect. Our current crisis traces its origins to the Community Reinvestment Act of the Carter administration, but that is not its sole cause. On the world stage the blunders of Obama will be much quicker to bear their rotten fruit. His weakness is palpable and our enemies are salivating as they wait to take their first strike. The future being created by those in power in Washington D.C. today is a world we may not recognize and an America that has lost its strengths and ideals.