What's the main stumbling block?

Tuesday - July 26, 2011

What’s the main stumbling block?

Well, we’re still a country and our economy is still here though sour, at best. We still have a triple A debt rating. The U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate are still in business. And there is yet another sex scandal on the hill. David Wu, a Democrat Congressman, is the center of today’s controversy. All is well and the State of the Union is strong.

At the writing of this FORUM, at 8:00 pm EST on July 25th 2011, our national debt was $14,536,336,700,785.If you check http://usdebtclock.org this morning you will see what approximately 12 hours can do when there is no balanced budget amendment and the government is free to spend at our expense. All is well and the State of the Union is strong.

The question is: how do we really measure the strength of our union? This is why our debt rating is so important and why we must maintain the triple A debt rating we have now. I am just as confused as you might be as to what debt plan is the best and what debt plan should be favored. The House has one and they are willing to bend. The Senate has yet another plan, but it’s not as good as the House plan. The president still doesn’t have a plan, except the one that gets him past the next election.

The president will not sign on to a plan that doesn’t include a debt ceiling hike that won’t let him get past his re-election in November. The House wants to have two hikes between now and the election. The Senate wants to have one after the election and promises, with no specificity, that there will be cuts, but doesn’t say how deep they are willing to cut. What we do know is that cuts in entitlements are not included in the Senate plan.

So, you tell me. What is the main stumbling block in all of this? I will give you a hint: his initials are BHO, the president.

The latest Gallup poll for July 18 thru 24 showed that the polled 3,577 adults had gave the president an approval rating of only 43%. This is the lowest it has been since he became president. In the same poll, his disapproval number of 48% is now a consistent number. This number must have the president and his men in a deep quandary as to how they can get an acceptable outcome to the situation they have caused.

But if the president is only concerned about one thing, that being his re-election, why must we suffer for his antics and his self centered, narcissistic, troubled personality? We have no choice, because he is president. Bill Daly, the president’s Chief of Staff, said Sunday, “The reason they question (the S&P and Moody’s) our economy right now and the reason we may get downgraded is the present political system can’t deal in a serious way with our deficit.” He is right, but I think he is describing his boss.

If we get downgraded, it will be the president’s fault. He has done nothing except to call commissions and not follow their recommendations. He has done nothing to reduce the spending or to reduce the tension between the two parties. So, if you ask me who the stumbling block is, I say the president. But then again, that’s just me with another opinion.

When our leaders look at themselves as being more important than the cause they represent, it becomes incumbent upon the people to act. When a president looks at himself as being more important than the country he has sworn to protect and defend, it becomes incumbent upon the people to act. Many of our forefathers knew that this approach is the only approach that will protect and keep the state of the union strong. When a president purposely tries to manipulate the House and the Senate to protect himself, it becomes incumbent upon the citizen to act. When the president becomes the stumbling block, it becomes incumbent upon the people to act.

It’s no longer about the president’s ideology, it is about his survivability. To Obama, it’s about his legacy and nothing else! In the meantime, the citizen can either become weak or strong. It’s the difference between the citizen being dependent or the citizen exercising their individual independence. When a president takes away the ability of the citizen to remain strong and the ability to live independently of government, then the accomplished goal of making the citizen weak and dependent can be accomplished. This is why the president wants all the hard decisions to be made after the election. We cannot trust that the hard decisions will be made, because he has no intention on making the needed, hard decisions that will keep the union strong.

The president spoke last night. He blamed Bush and made himself out to be the Liberal version of Ronald Reagan. He did this, because he knows he is in trouble with his base, his party and with the Republicans. He knows that Reagan took his case to the American people on many occasions. He knows that Independents gave Reagan the presidency. He acted like he was the balance and his program is the balance that will bring the country back from crisis. His speech was disgraceful, because it exhibited what the rest of the world fears; a leader that has no rudder to steer the ship of state and a leader that has lost his credibility. This cannot be blamed on George Bush.

Thomas Jefferson said, in his first annual message to Congress, which is now termed in today’s parlance The State of the Union. He said on December 8, 1801, “Agriculture, manufacturers, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left to individual enterprise.”

I didn’t hear anything like this in last night’s speech. I haven’t heard anything like this during President Obama’s first term. The lack of these four pillars is the stumbling block that Obama has created.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The stumbling block that we have today is not our political system. It is the head of the political system. It is the president that is now stumbling, because of the blocks that his ideology has constructed.