This weekend on Meet the Press with David Gregory the panel of political and economic experts discussed the Five Pillars that made America great and how these pillars are being degraded and the result has been a precipitous decline in the American way of life. Upon closer scrutiny it can be argued that the ominous growth of the federal government and its influence on every aspect of American life is the underlying reason for this decline.
First of all, it was pointed out that the Five Pillars are education, infrastructure, immigration, rules and regulations that spur investment and a strong capitalistic base and research and development. It was further illustrated how America’s greatness flourished when its population sought and achieved higher levels of education; when the country expanded its infrastructure that allowed goods and services to move freely throughout the United States; when America chose to attract the best and brightest talents from the four corners of the earth creating the greatest melting pot in the world; when a solid framework was put in place that allowed the United States economy to grow and prosper and become the engine that drove global economies for decades; and when American ingenuity chose to think outside the box and create most of the remarkable discoveries and achievements that benefits all of mankind today.
That all occurred when the government was moderately sized and its spending habits never exceeded 15-18% of our national GDP and for the most part stayed out of the way of the American dream. Today, government spending exceeds 20% of GDP, it’s inflicting its will on all aspects of American life and most importantly, it caused the national debt to grow to unsustainable levels and it is the strain of these forces that is causing the Five Pillars of our national strength to crumble.
Over the years, government at all levels has thrown trillions of dollars into the education system and with each recorded failure there was a cry for more money for education. Instead of looking for ways to improve the system by expanding charter schools or offering more school vouchers, for example and by taking steps to economize expenditures, the government chose, instead, to bolster the needs of teachers unions rather than the needs of the students which ultimately led to the dumbing down of America. It has been written that the government fears an educated public because they will come to realize that they don’t really need the government because they can survive on their own. Thus, Pillar #1 or our government education system is a failed endeavor and that failure is contributing to the downward spiral of a once-great nation.
We shutter to think how many trillions of dollars have gone to fund useless projects like the almost bridge to nowhere or in learning about the mating habits of the tsetse fly instead of pouring the money into maintaining and growing our existing infrastructure system? Now that our roads, bridges, airports and rail systems are in dire need of upgrade and repair, there is not enough money in the government coffers to complete the project; so Pillar #2 is being neglected and weakened.
Our Founding Fathers realized that the future success of this fledgling nation will rely on the immigration of the world’s best, brightest and hardest working people. They also realized that the influx of immigrants needed to be monitored and controlled and that led to the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 which protected our borders and let government authorities maintain quotas on nationalities and regions. Then in 1965 through the efforts of the Kennedy Brothers, Lyndon Johnson signed into law the amended Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 which shifted the quotas away from the more favorable nationalities and regions to most of the under-educated and under-productive third world nations.
Eventually, most of the immigration controls and laws were ignored which allowed an influx of millions of illegal and undocumented immigrants putting further strains on the Pillars. With today’s excessive government spending and expansion we see billions of dollars in hard earned tax receipts go to illegal immigrants in the form of tax credits; and, how about the Justice Department suing the States of Arizona, Alabama and elsewhere for trying to gain control of its own immigration problems? Unbelievable!
Next we are starting to see the very foundation of our economic strength undermined by the rapid expansion of government growth and interference with its ill conceived Keynesian economic policies and push towards a European-Socialist model. Our national economy is virtually stagnant and jobs are being lost faster than are being created. There is this naïve Alice in Wonderland notion that a “green” economy is far superior to a capitalistic one as evidenced by a federal loan guaranty for $535 million being offered to a solar panel manufacturer, Solyndra, which just filed for bankruptcy after a mere one year in business.
What about the federal government suing the Boeing Corporation for wanting to expand production into South Carolina, thereby, creating thousands of new jobs? Our bolder and more influential government said they could not do that simply because South Carolina was a right-to-work state and not controlled by the union bosses. And, there is the ever-expanding NLRB agency which is pushing the union agenda over the more productive free-market approach.
My favorite is a little known story about government intervention into the livelihood of U.S. guitar maker Gibson, who manufactures some of the finest musical instruments in the world. In a recent article, “Gibson Guitar Corp. is claiming the Obama administration wants more of its woodwork done overseas, as a bizarre battle heats up between the government and one of the country's most renowned guitar makers.” It was reported that the Obama administration suggested “Gibson's troubles would disappear if the company used foreign labor.” According to Gibson’s CEO, “the fact that American workers are completing the work in the United States makes it illegal, he said, citing the government's position.” How much more can our fragile economy endure before Pillar #4 buckles and the government succeeds in its quest to kill America’s golden goose? For the full article, see: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/26/feds-environmental-enforcement-on-guitars-leaves-musicians-in-fear/
Finally, there is the abandonment of research and development. Thinking back to our race-to-space, how many inventions and scientific breakthrough’s was the direct result of our national space program? How much did those technological advancements propel this country towards global dominance? All of those accomplishments were attributed to NASA and now government is abandoning those efforts and is shuttering the program. So much for Pillar #5.
Therefore, I conclude that government growth and interference is the direct cause of the decline of the United States and I cannot fathom how anybody can argue that more government spending and initiatives is what is needed to turn things around. Government cannot be the cause and the cure at the same time. In today’s environment and under the misguided vision of the Progressives and the Obama administration, the United States is teetering; its Pillars are eroding; and its future is looking more grave with each passing day. It is time to reverse course; refocus our attention on what made this country great; and take the required action necessary to return us to greatness:
1. Educate our children to be independent thinkers and contributors to society;
2. Rebuild from within;
3. Control our borders and select those immigrants who want to make America great;
4. Remove the barriers and let competition and free-markets lead the way;
5. Image, invent and implement.
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