Ron observes The REAL State of the Union – Part 1

Ron Observes The REAL State of the Union – Part 1
Ron Boat

Recently we were exposed to the top down’s “indoctrination” or Obama’s perception of the State of the Union. A national time slot previously filled with the president’s rhetoric on economic misconceptions, the dressing down of our Supreme Court, and even the openly verbal expression of a leading Republican congressman reminding us what a liar the president is. A fact that more and more Americans are, or should be, realizing as they see the controlling, dictating thuggery of Chicago politics emanating from the hallowed halls of our own capital.

In keeping with my personal promise five years ago, I never watch or listen to “him” on TV or radio. I knew that he would become even more adept at portraying “his” truth, the “half-truth” and nothing like the “real” truth of matters, because if you can tell a big enough lie long and loud enough…people will believe it. And through blind belief you garner support and ultimately total tyrannical power and control. Are you buying that “Nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime?”

Personally I have come to not believe what I hear out of the White House or Washington in general. Job numbers are manipulated; laws are passed without being read while others are blatantly broken and then covered with lies and misdirection; leaders deceive us by making decisions not based on America’s greatness but their personal weaknesses of power, greed and wantonness; Money is being irresponsibly borrowed, spent and wasted with disregard to our future and the consequences. All of this leads not to a state of the union which is relaxed and productive – or real.

We’ve heard the previous, and surely to be repeated, lies that the private sector “is doing just fine and  we’re on the way back.” We’ve heard about the “recovery summer” which morphed into the fall of anxiety, which dissolved into the winter of discontent, which faded into the spring of hope which of course didn’t materialize as “hoped.”

The REAL State of the Union for me is what real, down to earth intelligent people around the country and the world really experience and think about the state of our country in two main areas: Our ability to productively work and produce, and the other to freely live our own personal lives without intrusion and authoritarian loss of rights and much valued freedoms. These make up the REAL state of the union in my mind. When these work in harmony, we see a free society, a truly efficient working populace happier and all functioning together for the good of themselves, each other and the country as the ultimate beneficiary.

In pursuit of finding out what real people think about our current direction and state of affairs, I'm blessed to have input from some valued friends and professionals. People with “real life” opinions and insight into the issues that shape our current world, and who possess governmental, business, financial and religious foundation and awareness of the circumstances we find ourselves faced with.

·        Bernie Finn:
Parliament of Victoria, Australia
Member of the Legislative Council · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

·        Dorina Lanza:
CEO of White Tiger Group, LLC
Strategy and International Business Consultant, Business Mentor, and Speaker
Adjunct Faculty Northeastern University School of Business and Department of Mathematics
MBA in Strategic Planning and International Business
PhD Candidate in Applied Mathematics at Northeastern University

·        Erik Rush:
Columnist and speaker
FOX Contributor
Author -  “Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal ~ America’s Racial Obsession,”

·        Todd Feinburg:
Tufts University graduate in political science
Evening, late morning and most recently morning drive time talk radio host on WRKO in Boston
Named three times to Talkers Magazine's “Top 100 Most Important Talk Hosts in America”

With the insight and opinions of these valued contributors, I’d like to answer the following and see if we’re really living the American dream or just dreaming of an America once great. Each answer is their own rational and poignant opinion, quoted exactly as presented by them.
PART 1 -

1)      How do you feel about where we are and more importantly, where are we going as individuals and as an economic force in the world?

Bernie: “Economically, it is difficult to see how America will ever pay off its debt - particularly with an administration that clearly has no interest in doing so. To make matters worse, the Republicans seem equally disinterested in taking on this challenge. John Boehner's recent performance has been abysmal as the GOP rolls over at the very time it should be standing strong. Further lifting of the debt limit is just postponing the inevitable - and making the situation worse. The US may think it’s immune from the problems hitting Greece but it may be a case of 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'. There is very real concern about how the financial collapse of the US would impact the rest of the world, particularly those countries who are America's closest trading partners.”

Dorina: “As individuals it is getting harder because of the proliferation of parasites. As a force in the world we are weakening, but that is a sensible historical trend because the other nations of the world are getting stronger. The recent, purposeful acceleration of the trend is a Bad Thing (tm). In my day to day observation of the mass market I am noticing less traffic, empty stores, people postponing spending on what they deem non-critical, and a general malaise. I am also seeing a distressingly high proportion of people who are unemployed or underemployed and display little hope for improving their situation.”

Erik: “As a nation, there’s been an effort made to maintain the illusion that there are garden variety economic problems that need to be addressed, when in reality (as experts have indicated) we are teetering on a precipice. The illusion is maintained by the Obama administration because they don’t want widespread panic – yet. They do know that the tipping point will come, probably at a time of their choosing, at next to which the 2008 downturn will pale.”

Todd: “We’re still teetering on a cliff. We’re still in the problem area. We could still fall off the financial cliff. A lot of what gov’t is doing is fear driven - they're scared we'll understand how bad things are and then we'll be scared, which of course would be very scary for politicians wanting to win reelection. So they have a rabid belief in stimulus - stimulus creates the illusion that we're in a recovery from the crash rather than that we're still in the car bleeding waiting for the ambulance.”

2)      What can/should the government do to create an environment conducive to job growth? Can we grow or is the government hurting jobs by driving business out of the country by its tax and regulatory overreach?

Bernie: “The US also seems to be hit hard by the entitlement mentality. Americans were once seen as resilient, enterprising and independent. No doubt, many Americans still are but that general image has been shaken of recent years. The 'something-for-nothing' mentality is leading the United States down a path from which it may not easily return.”

Dorina: “Get out of the way. Stop "protecting" people with the overabundance and incessant increase in regulation. Stop with the money grab and the class warfare. Stop trying to "help" people by force. Forcible charity is not charity.”

Erik: “The problem here is not that we have an incompetent or shortsighted government (we do), but an administration whose intention is to bring about the social and political change they desire partly through manipulation of the economy. Thus, doing anything to arrest the decline would be working at cross purposes. They have no motivation to do so. B) Definitely; anything that will stultify or hamper business will harm the economy, so naturally they’re going to do it. It doesn’t take much investigation to see that this administration has taken the opposite tack from that which would turn the economy around right down the line.”

Todd:  “There are lots of things that could be done to spur economic growth. Generate jobs by allowing oversees funds to be repatriated at reduced tax rates or even tax free. We need better tax policies for job creation, better healthcare policies, a pullback on regulation rather than a government eager to create more bureaucracy... We should have a president that goes to job creators and says “let’s partner on creating new jobs.” Instead the president threatens job creators with higher taxes and more regulations.”

3)      Is the role of government in our “personal” lives reaching the point of overbearing and therefore hampering the quality of life in our country and the real state of the union?

Bernie:  “The MSM [Main Stream Media] in the US is corrupt and no longer interested in reporting facts during news services. This has to adversely affect the thought processes of those who watch, listen and read it. A free press is crucial to democracy. Whether much of the American media can still be described as 'free' is very much open to debate.” 

Dorina:   “Yes. It is beyond that point. Note that that trend of discouraging success began in the late 1800s and is accelerating.”

Erik:  “Absolutely; it has been increasing incrementally for decades as we gravitate (regress) away from a model of governance, toward a model of ruling. The Founders knew that it was the nature of government to behave in this manner; that’s why they put provisions in the Constitution to prevent it. Through abysmal education and propaganda, the political left has succeeded in removing, ignoring, or superseding those provisions because the public no longer knows any better.’

Todd:   “Oh, sure. How do you have a representative government when the people we elect to represent us no longer hold the power? This is the hazard of big government - huge amounts of money flowing through Washington fund oversized bureaucracies that make decisions on auto-pilot. Members of congress don't know where the levers are to pull to affect change because institutional Washington is bigger than congress. One example - There are 16 different intelligence gathering agencies in the federal government, very good at hiding what they're doing from each other and from oversight. Do our elected representatives even bother trying to regulate them, or do they spend their time raising the $500,000 or million dollars they need to raise each year, on the low side, to run their reelection campaigns?”

Through these writings and views of fellow workers and others in my circle, I’d like to say that I would see a positive expression but I fear that the reality of America’s future may well be staring us in the face. With a lessoning of regulation and invasion of our personal and business lives; with a return to morals, values and real authentic governance, without racial or class warfare, then the REAL state of our union would be improved… if we can work positively toward our futures monetarily, spiritually, socially and patriotically.

Even though Bernie lives and works in Australia, his grasp of our future may be most foretelling: “In a nutshell, it seems the United States is in an advanced state of decay on a number of fronts. I am desperately keen to see a strong USA leading from the front but fear those days might be rapidly coming to an end.”

In my next article we’ll continue this Q/A approach from around the world with the subjects of national security, our real future as a free country, and the question of election fraud and trust emanating from our last national election.