This past week President Barack Obama took additional steps towards the destruction of the very "Hope" and "Change" that he had promised in his campaign.
With the economy, as it relates to America's national security and the global struggle against terrorism, as it relates to the moral values that are distinctly American, and in his accountability to "We The People"--in each of these areas--President Obama has furthered himself from greatness, innovation, but most importantly--from finding solutions.
As the first pundit to predict that President Obama would rise to the office, I've seen it coming for more than four years. And now the challenges sit firmly before him. What will he do? Which direction will he lean? And will he finally begin to show some evidence of leadership?
Let's suspend partisan affiliation and political structures for the moment. Let's merely focus on a handful of ideas that could begin to move America in the right direction with.
Economically speaking: President Obama has to pass a budget. He must halt the rate of spending. And he must reduce the amount of burden placed upon the average small business in America.
The inability for Congress to get a budget passed his first two years in office, on many levels reflects his own ability to lead (or not), and the efforts by those that held power to conduct naked grabs at greater shares of it. Passing a budget is something that simply holds everyone to a measure of seriousness about the conduct of the government and whether or not goals will be met and fiscal priorities will reign in the inclination to go beyond that accountability.
In passing the budget the rate of what has already been promised through the over-reach of the Pelosi era has to not just be halted, but substantively reversed. Defunding Obamacare does help. (Especially this week after it was revealed that yet another $2 billion in set asides were uncovered in the bill.) But it doesn't get America all the way home economically. Deep cuts, significant reinvention, and looking to the private sector for services that can be provided competitively are going to have to be considered.
Most importantly President Obama must do those things that reverse the oppression that his administration has leveled against small businesses in the first two years. The fact that he was unwilling to reconsider his pledge to raise their taxes by default until the 59th minute of the 11th hour was an all too-telling sign of his general demeanor towards the sector of American business that is responsible for the growth in capital, production, and employment for the American future.
Obamacare, if left unattended, will likewise be the most oppressive assault on small businesses to come along in American history. And though it may be settled by the courts even before his re-election campaign, the President could demonstrate seriousness about our financial crisis in leading on the issue, instead of allowing the typical Congressional shell game to play itself out.
Deficit reduction is said to be a priority. But now is the time for President Obama to prove it. Building revenue to the treasury--even for his favorite safety net programs--will only be truly achieved by accelerating the growth of small businesses, not penalizing them.
The key to a healthy economy, is to fan the flame of small businesses--not public sector unions.
My just released book, "No He Can't: How Barack Obama is Dismantling Hope and Change," has been called a book of positive suggestions to move America to a truly better tomorrow. Governor Mike Huckabee, who penned the forward, called it "one of the most positive books to appear in a decade."
But it's ability to work good into the nation's reality will be determined first and foremost if President Obama will embrace the "bits of clarity" suggested at the end of each chapter.
The book itself is divided up into four sections of review of the President's stewardship these first two and half years. We look at his very different direction that he boldly has taken America in terms of foreign policy, and even our ability to defend ourselves. How sad it is that it wasn't until Libya that he finally decided that freedom is good, America is exceptional, and that our decisions matter vibrantly to the rest of the watching world. Additionally we examine the President's refusal to conduct his policies to the social and moral values that have always accompanied American greatness, and we put them into historical context. Finally we also deal with his true accountability to "We The People." And what we will be required to do about--HIM--should he choose to not change course.
But I begin with an in depth analysis of the economy, and I stock the pages full of suggestions to begin righting the ship.
Should he continue to choose to ignore such commonsense, it will cost him the Presidency.
More importantly should he continue choose such recklessness it will cost the American people much, much, more.