Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again

Barack Obama has done an incredible job of tarnishing our kids’ futures.

He’s saddled our children with more debt than we accumulated in 225 years in America. He’s bowed down to China and allowed them to steal our economic future through currency manipulation and ripping off our technological and military secrets. He’s failed to stand up to the Middle Eastern oil mobsters known as OPEC who think they can hold us hostage through higher prices at the pump. He’s unleashed Obamacare on our small businesses and brought job creation and hiring to a screeching halt.

And he’s created an economic climate where young people out of college face incredible uncertainty. Three years ago, 90 percent of college graduates landed a job out of college. Today, under the community organizer, that figure is a depressing 56 percent.¹

I love America. I’m saddened by what I see happening to our country. We’re being humiliated, disrespected, and badly abused. Obama was a leftist experiment that has failed and gone horribly wrong, and everyone knows it. Even friends of mine who voted for the guy privately admit that he’s been a huge disappointment. We cannot afford four more years of this mess. Our children’s futures are on the line-and we have to come through for them. We have to get tough so that our country can be great again.

We have to get tough on OPEC. These oil thugs rip us off year after year. We’ve had no leadership in Washington willing to stand up to them and put a stop to it. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq, and now Libya, and gotten nothing in return but disrespect and ingratitude. That must end. Now. I say we take the oil. No more free military support. Either you pay us to defend you or we take the oil. It’s fair and smart, which is probably why the politicians in Washington haven’t implemented it.

We have to get tough on China. For every one American child there are four Chinese. China is out to steal our kids’ jobs, and so far they’re doing a tremendous job of it. They’ve manipulated their currency to such an unbelievable degree that they have destroyed our manufacturing sector. It’s time to bring American manufacturing back to life. It’s encouraging that the U.S. finally did as I have been saying for over a year and got tough on China’s currency manipulation. The president should sign that measure into law effective immediately. Unfair trade is not free trade. China cheats and wins to the tune of more than $300 billion a year. No more. They either must play by the rules or they pay the price. End of story.

It’s time our leaders in Washington wake up and realize that China’s massive military buildup is producing weapons with our names on them. Our kids are the ones who will be facing down the Chinese in the years to come. If we don’t get tough and put a stop to their rampant theft of our military and technological secrets, we will have failed the next generation of Americans miserably. Those who pretend China is our friend are either naïve, incompetent, or both. The Chinese can be reined in easily-we are their biggest customer. All we need is a president willing to stand up, not bow down, to China.

I believe we are at a monumental fork in the American road. I always say that the next election is the “most important election” in our lifetimes. Our national debt is at $15 trillion. Just imagine what Obama will do if he knows he’s not facing reelection? What kind of damage to our national security and international standing will we suffer over the next four years with Obama bowing down to a rising Russia and China? It’s horrifying to think about.

America the Exceptional

But maybe my biggest beef with Obama is his view that there’s nothing special or exceptional about America-that we’re no different than any other country. If a guy is that clueless about the character of America, he has no business being the leader of America. Our country is the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known. We have big hearts, big brains, and big guts-and we use all three. In the past our free market capitalist system has created more wealth and prosperity than any government-controlled economy could ever dream of doing. Because of that wealth, we give more in charity than any other country, and twice as much as the second most generous nation.²

Obama thinks America would be better off if we acted more like European socialist countries-many of which are in default and economic freefall. I think America would be better off if we ditch the community organizer experiment and get back to being the America we’ve been since our Founding Fathers risked their lives to create our country.

In 2012, our nation needs to send Barack Obama a message. We need to say loud and clear: Mr. President, we’re not interested in your utopian vision of “fundamentally transforming America.” We like the vision our Founding Fathers and the Constitution created just fine. If that’s what you meant by “hope and change,” you can keep the change. We’re not interested.

We need a leader who will get tough, get smart, and get America working again. I believe America is worth fighting for. I believe America has nothing to apologize for. I believe America can get back her greatness. But we need a tough leader for tough times-someone who isn’t afraid to do hard things. We must find and elect that leader so our children and grandchildren will inherit an America as free and safe as the one we grew up in. The price of failure is too great-we have to succeed. The fate of freedom rests on it.

We have to get tough on the notion that government is the solution to every problem. It’s not. As President Reagan said, “Government isn’t the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Barack Obama is the most liberal president the United States has ever dared to elect. When he was running for office, Obama warned the country that his goal was to “fundamentally transform America” and that he believed in “spreading the wealth around.” Now, with three years under his belt, America looks like an economic wasteland. One out of every five men you pass on your way to work is out of work. Every seventh person you pass on the sidewalk is now on food stamps. Forty-six million Americans-more than at any time ever in the history of this country-now live under the poverty line. Businesses are being shuttered. Foreclosure rates are at historic highs. For the first time in American history, the United States has lost its triple-A credit rating. Gas prices have doubled. Our national debt has exploded. Jobs and economic growth are nowhere in sight.

How can we feel good about handing over this mess to our children and grandchildren? How can we think about the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have died for our freedom and way of life and not be ashamed at how we’ve allowed their gift to be trashed and abused? It’s a total disgrace. If we’re going to turn this thing around, we have to do it fast.

It’s time to get tough. The time is now.