The Path to National Redemption | Eastern NC Now

    This budget also calls for action on Social Security by requiring both the President and the Congress to put forward specific ideas and legislation to ensure the sustainable solvency of this critical program. The risk to Social Security, driven by demographic changes - namely 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day - is nearer at hand than most acknowledge. According to the 2011 Social Security Trustees Report, beneficiaries will face a painful 23% benefit cut in 2036 when the Social Security Trust fund is exhausted. Both parties must work together to chart a path forward on common-sense reforms, and this budget provides the nation's leaders with the tools to get there.

    (4). Pro-Growth Tax Reform. The current tax code for individuals is too complicated, with high marginal rates that discourage hard work and entrepreneurship. Ryan's plan embraces the widely acknowledged principles of pro-growth tax reform by proposing to consolidate tax brackets and lower tax rates, to just two rates of 10% and 25%, while clearing out the burdensome tangle of loopholes that distort economic activity and primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans.

    American businesses are also overburdened by the highest corporate income tax rates in the developed world. The perverse incentives created by the corporate income tax do a lot of damage to both workers and investors, yet the tax itself raises relatively little revenue. Ryan's budget improves incentives for job creators to work, invest, and innovate in the United States by lowering the corporate rate from 35% (the highest in the industrialized world) to a much more competitive 25% (the international average) and by shifting to a territorial system that will ensure a level playing field for American businesses.

    It is also important to remember that most small businesses file their taxes as individuals, and not as corporations. Ryan notes that 9 out of 10 small businesses in Wisconsin file their taxes as individuals. These small businesses, known as "sub-chapter S corporations," limited liability corporations (LLCs), and partnerships, employ more than half of all private sector workers. The President is proposing that the top tax rate for these businesses be raised to 45% in January of 2013. With two thirds of the net new jobs in America being created by small businesses, the President's tax proposal is a plan to kill job creation. Some of our foreign competitors are lowering their tax rates on businesses to as low as 15%. As noted above, our budget lowers the top individual tax rate to a more competitive 25% while broadening the tax base by eliminating loopholes and tax shelters.

    (5). Providing for the Common Defense. With American men and women in uniform currently engaged with a fierce enemy and dealing with emerging threats around the world, Ryan's budget takes several steps to ensure that national security remains government's top priority. It rejects proposals to make thoughtless, across-the-board cuts in funding for national defense. Instead, it provides $554 billion for national defense spending, an amount that is consistent with America's military goals and strategies. The budget preserves necessary defense spending to protect vital national interests today and ensures future real growth in defense spending to modernize the armed forces for the challenges of tomorrow.

    The defense budget is slated to be cut by $55 billion, or 10%, in January of 2013 through the sequester mechanism enacted as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011. This reduction would be in addition to the $487 billion in cuts over ten years proposed in President Obama's budget. The President's proposal for defense spending represents a budget-driven strategy, not a strategy-driven budget. Ryan's budget eliminates these additional cuts in the defense budget by replacing them with other spending reductions. Spending restraint is critical, and defense spending needs to be executed with effectiveness and accountability. But government should take care to ensure that spending is prioritized according to the nation's needs, not treated indiscriminately when it comes to making cuts. The nation has no higher priority than safeguarding the safety and liberty of its citizens from threats at home and abroad.

    The Ryan budget plan also honors the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have served our country and made tremendous sacrifices on behalf of this nation. Not only does it match the President's FY2013 request for $61.34 billion to spend on veterans, it calls for more than $16.6 billion in additional spending on veterans and their families over the next ten years. As a country, we must remember the sacrifices of our veterans and their families, who have bravely served our nation, and this budget proves committed to providing the best care possible for them and uniformed service members.

    Not exactly a "radical" and "extreme" plan, as President Obama accused it of being.

    [After reading what Paul Ryan's plan provides, you will notice that there are several advertisements - "approved by President Obama" - which appear not to be truthful].

    The budget that Rep. Paul Ryan wrote came up for a vote before the House on March 29 and was passed by a margin of 228 - 191. Americans were encouraged that the House again voted in favor of a Paul Ryan budget plan instead of continuing down the path of debt, doubt, and decline. Before voting to pass this budget proposal, the House had the opportunity to vote on President Obama's budget proposal for FY2013. The House unanimously rejected the President's proposal, by a vote of 0 - 414, a clear indication that Republicans and Democrats alike did not believe the President put forth a credible plan to address America's challenges.

    The economy is the number one issue in this upcoming election. People want jobs. Fathers and mothers want to earn a living for their family. They want the dignity that comes with earned success and not the indignation that comes from accepting a hand-out without producing anything or offering a service in return. Our elderly and disabled want to know that our economy is strong enough to protect the programs on which they depend. Businesses want to trust that the government supports their efforts to invest and grown their operations and create jobs and not punish them for taking risks or for their success. Is it reasonable that small businesses must incur the debt and provide their female employees contraceptives so they can live a sexually-free lifestyle? Is that the role of a business owner?

    We all secretly, or openly, are looking for certain promises from the Republicans at their convention this week. For those disillusioned Democrats, they want to know that if they take the chance and vote against their party, they will not be worse off in the next 4 years. Independents, who have been frustrated with both parties, have to hear something from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan that affirm their faith in American and not add to their distrust of government. And Republicans want to be inspired so they can organize their communities as they've never been able to do before.

    To defeat Obama, the Romney-Ryan duo must contrast our great Legacy of Liberty with the oppressive socialist doctrines advocated by the Left. They must energize the largest conservative grassroots movement in history and enlist the support of American Patriots from all walks of life. They must alert fellow countrymen that we are on the downside of the fatal cycle of human liberty and the only way to turn things around is by restoring constitutional integrity and governance.

    We see the same themes and issues that Ronald Reagan highlighted when he ran for the presidency in 1980. Under Jimmy Carter, Americans were suffering from out-of-control social programs, a recession, inflation, high unemployment, deficit spending, and runaway taxes. He asked the country if they were better off than they were 4 years earlier. He asked the people if they believe that a small, political elite in Washington can plan their lives for them better than they can. He urged a return to the timeless government principles our Founding Fathers wanted for us. Mitt Romney needs to do the same thing. Unlike Reagan, Romney is not necessarily a great speaker. But that shouldn't stop him from talking about great things and great ideas. Like Reagan did.

    The election of 1980, an election poised on the choice to the American people of opposing government ideology, was not unlike the election we face in November. Extreme government control with limited freedom OR limited government with extreme freedom !!

    At several events and fundraisers (2011 and 2012), President Obama attempted to compare himself to Reagan. Not to cheapen a good line, but I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan.

    In his acceptance speech of 1980, Reagan proclaimed,

    "I want my candidacy to unify our country; to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values. ... Never before in our history have Americans been called upon to face three grave threats to our very existence, any one of which could destroy us. We face a disintegrating economy, a weakened defense and an energy policy based on the sharing of scarcity. The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership -- in the White House and in Congress -- for this unprecedented calamity, which has befallen us. They expect you to tell your children that America has had her day in the sun and that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities.

    We need a rebirth of the American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private life as well. Back in 1976, Mr. Carter said, "Trust me." And a lot of people did. Now, many of those people are out of work. Many have seen their savings eaten away by inflation. Many others on fixed incomes, especially the elderly, have watched helplessly as the cruel tax of inflation wasted away their purchasing power.

    "Trust me" government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what's best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs--in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind of compact.

    Three hundred and sixty years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to cross a mighty ocean to build a future for themselves in a new world. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, they formed what they called a "compact"; an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its laws. This single act - the voluntary binding together of free people to live under the law - set the pattern for what was to come.

    A century and a half later, the descendants of those people pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to found this nation. Some forfeited their fortunes and their lives; none sacrificed honor.

    Isn't it once again time to renew our compact of freedom; to pledge to each other all that is best in our lives, for the sake of this, our beloved and blessed land?

    We must overcome something the present administration has cooked up: a new and altogether indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one part high unemployment, one part recession, one part runaway taxes, one party deficit spending and seasoned by an energy crisis. It's an economic stew that has turned the national stomach.

    Ours are not problems of abstract economic theory. Those are problems of flesh and blood; problems that cause pain and destroy the moral fiber of real people who should not suffer the further indignity of being told by the government that it is all somehow their fault.

    Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, "Well done?" Can anyone compare the state of our economy when the Carter Administration took office with where we are today and say, "Keep up the good work?" Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, "Let's have four more years of this?"

    I believe the American people are going to answer these questions the first week of November and their answer will be, "No! We've had enough." And, then it will be up to us, beginning next January 20th, to offer an administration and congressional leadership of competence and more than a little courage.

    We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable, and then the courage to bring our government back under control and make it acceptable to the people.

    I believe it is clear our federal government is overgrown and overweight. Indeed, it is time for our government to go on a diet. Therefore, my first act as chief executive will be to impose an immediate and thorough freeze on federal hiring. Then, we are going to enlist the very best minds from business, labor and whatever quarter to conduct a detailed review of every department, bureau and agency that lives by federal appropriations. We are also going to enlist the help and ideas of many dedicated and hard working government employees at all levels who want a more efficient government as much as the rest of us do. I know that many are demoralized by the confusion and waste they confront in their work as a result of failed and failing policies.

    Our instructions to the groups we enlist will be simple and direct. We will remind them that government programs exist at the sufferance of the American taxpayer and are paid for with money earned by working men and women. Any program that represents a waste of their money -- a theft from their pocketbooks--must have that waste eliminated or the program must go -- by executive order where possible; by congressional action where necessary. Everything that can be run more effectively by state and local government we shall turn over to state and local government, along with the funding sources to pay for it. We are going to put an end to the money merry-go-round where our money becomes Washington's money, to be spent by the states and cities exactly the way the federal bureaucrats tell them to.

    I will not accept the excuse that the federal government has grown so big and powerful that it is beyond the control of any president, any administration or Congress. We are going to put an end to the notion that the American taxpayer exists to fund the federal government. The federal government exists to serve the American people. On January 20th, we are going to re-establish that truth.

    Also on that date we are going to initiate action to get substantial relief for our taxpaying citizens and action to put people back to work. None of this will be based on any new form of monetary tinkering or fiscal sleight-of-hand. We will simply apply to government the common sense we all use in our daily lives.

    Work and family are at the center of our lives; the foundation of our dignity as a free people. When we deprive people of what they have earned, or take away their jobs, we destroy their dignity and undermine their families. We cannot support our families unless there are jobs; and we cannot have jobs unless people have both money to invest and the faith to invest it.

    There are concepts that stem from an economic system that for more than 200 years has helped us master a continent, create a previously undreamed of prosperity for our people and has fed millions of others around the globe. That system will continue to serve us in the future if our government will stop ignoring the basic values on which it was built and stop betraying the trust and good will of the American workers who keep it going.

    The American people are carrying the heaviest peacetime tax burden in our nation's history -- and it will grow even heavier, under present law, next January. We are taxing ourselves into economic exhaustion and stagnation, crushing our ability and incentive to save, invest and produce.

    This must stop. We must halt this fiscal self-destruction and restore sanity to our economic system.

    I have long advocated a 30 percent reduction in income tax rates over a period of three years. This phased tax reduction would begin with a 10 percent "down payment" tax cut in 1981, which the Republicans and Congress and I have already proposed.

    A phased reduction of tax rates would go a long way toward easing the heavy burden on the American people. But, we should not stop here.

    Within the context of economic conditions and appropriate budget priorities during each fiscal year of my presidency, I would strive to go further. This would include improvement in business depreciation taxes so we can stimulate investment in order to get plants and equipment replaced, put more Americans back to work and put our nation back on the road to being competitive in world commerce. We will also work to reduce the cost of government as a percentage of our gross national product.

    The first task of national leadership is to set honest and realistic priorities in our policies and our budget and I pledge that my administration will do that.

    When I talk of tax cuts, I am reminded that every major tax cut in this century has strengthened the economy, generated renewed productivity and ended up yielding new revenues for the government by creating new investment, new jobs and more commerce among our people.

    The present administration has been forced by us Republicans to play follow-the-leader with regard to a tax cut. But, in this election year we must take with the proverbial "grain of salt" any tax cut proposed by those who have given us the greatest tax increase in our history. When those in leadership give us tax increases and tell us we must also do with less, have they thought about those who have always had less -- especially the minorities? This is like telling them that just as they step on the first rung of the ladder of opportunity, the ladder is being pulled out from under them. That may be the Democratic leadership's message to the minorities, but it won't be ours. Our message will be: we have to move ahead, but we're not going to leave anyone behind. Thanks to the economic policies of the Democratic Party, millions of Americans find themselves out of work. Millions more have never even had a fair chance to learn new skills, hold a decent job, or secure for themselves and their families a share in the prosperity of this nation.

    It is time to put America back to work; to make our cities and towns resound with the confident voices of men and women of all races, nationalities and faiths bringing home to their families a decent paycheck they can cash for honest money.

    For those without skills, we'll find a way to help them get skills. For those without job opportunities, we'll stimulate new opportunities, particularly in the inner cities where they live. For those who have abandoned hope, we'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again!

    When we cast our eyes abroad, we see an equally sorry chapter on the record of the present administration. We are not a warlike people. Quite the opposite. We always seek to live in peace. We resort to force infrequently and with great reluctance--and only after we have determined that it is absolutely necessary. We are awed--and rightly so--by the forces of destruction at loose in the world in this nuclear era. But neither can we be naive or foolish. Four times in my lifetime America has gone to war, bleeding the lives of its young men into the sands of beachheads, the fields of Europe and the jungles and rice paddies of Asia. We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.

    We simply cannot learn these lessons the hard way again without risking our destruction.

    Of all the objectives we seek, first and foremost is the establishment of lasting world peace. We must always stand ready to negotiate in good faith, ready to pursue any reasonable avenue that holds forth the promise of lessening tensions and furthering the prospects of peace. But let our friends and those who may wish us ill take note: the United States has an obligation to its citizens and to the people of the world never to let those who would destroy freedom dictate the future course of human life on this planet. I would regard my election as proof that we have renewed our resolve to preserve world peace and freedom. This nation will once again be strong enough to do that.

    It is impossible to capture in words the splendor of this vast continent which God has granted as our portion of this creation. There are no words to express the extraordinary strength and character of this breed of people we call Americans.

    Everywhere we have met thousands of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans from all economic conditions and walks of life bound together in that community of shared values of family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. They are concerned, yes, but they are not frightened. They are disturbed, but not dismayed. They are the kind of men and women Tom Paine had in mind when he wrote--during the darkest days of the American Revolution--"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

    Nearly 150 years after Tom Paine wrote those words, an American president told the generation of the Great Depression that it had a "rendezvous with destiny." I believe that this generation of Americans today has a rendezvous with destiny.