Recreating the Dream

I have never been as optimistic about the future of our great nation as I am today despite significant leadership shortfalls in our elected leaders.

The solutions to our crisis are so apparent and so easy to enact once our Congress either gets in the fight or gets out of the way. The sheer unwillingness of Congress to stand firm on a national program of controlling spending is mindboggling. It can only be explained by recognizing that entitlements are and stimulus funding is how politicians get reelected.

Many legislators are only about getting reelected. Problems that they create will have to be dealt with by someone else. Even then, the smart politician can create the problem and then in an election cycle or two develop a plan to solve the problem that they, in fact, created.

However, the politicians' world as they now know it is about to end. Many Americans are beginning to awaken to the financial irresponsibility of reckless spending in Washington.

The politician does not know how to deal with an engaged electorate. As a former Congressional candidate, I was appalled at the thought process of only catering to the “super voter” until I realized that most people at that time truly did not care. Former Vice President Spiro Agnew’s comments about the “Silent Majority” seemed to me to be a mere fiction. But then the tea party and other groups, both left and right, arrived and they are not satisfied. Congressional approval ratings have plummeted.

My great hope for our Nation comes from this rising urge of more and more Americans to get involved in the debate. Politicians may have to think twice about taking anyone for granted.

In over 35 years of helping organizations avoid bankruptcy and as a CPA, my experience has been that employees of troubled organizations know what the problems are and have solutions. Frequently, it is management and the Board of Directors who lack understanding or a willingness to make tough decisions. The free market takes care of those companies.

In government, our President and Congress are only doing what they know how to do. Get reelected. We should not be surprised by their actions because we put them there.

However, the average American is now fed up and everything will change as a result of the crisis created in Washington. The politicians have demonized the electorate, called them terrorists, and tried to distract citizens from the main issue. These despicable characterizations are their last ditch efforts to hold on to typical politicians dream to stay in office.

The voters, once engaged, must be dealt with. Crisis spurs citizens to action. The bombing of Pearl Harbor united a nation and solidified our course to prosecute World War II to a conclusion. In much the same way, most Americans realize that the current fiscal irresponsibility cannot be continued. Be it the credit rating agencies, a foreign debt holder of U. S. debt, or our citizens, a crisis will ensue.

Once the crisis explodes, change will happen, and balance will be restored to our country. Growth and opportunity will result. The basis for this growth and optimism is based upon three easy principles.

First we have a free spirit in our Nation. Our history has been one of creativity, innovation, and opportunity. What a great gift we have. If others try to hold us down, we will find a way to overcome any obstacle.

Second, we have been gifted substantial natural resources. The opportunities to reassert our productivity in the world in oil, gas, mining, steel making, automobiles, rail, and ship building are almost unlimited.

Third, our nation has a labor force that has the capability to be self-sustaining.

Our nation has the capabilities in labor when we reaffirm the value of working with our hands and our minds. Just look at what the American farmer and farm families have done with their willingness and determination over the history of our nation. There are millions of unemployed high school graduates and non-graduates who have been denied the opportunities because we have made manufacturing and “blue collar” jobs so difficult to create and sustain in our nation.

People have often asked me why the solutions which seem so simple are not put into law. The answer quite simply is that our government does not have the will to solve problems because if they do you will no longer need the career politician. For this type of politician it has never been about you. It has been about getting them reelected.

What the career politician fails to understand is that you have a limit and you have reached it.

The future is bright because it is in your hands now and not theirs. The greatest generation is about to take control and all will be well.

Frank Ryan, CPA specializes in corporate restructuring and lectures on ethics for the state CPA societies. He is on numerous boards of publicly traded and non-profit organizations.

Third, our nation has a labor force that has the capability to be self-sustaining.

I remember during the dark days of 1979 when we were experiencing double-digit inflation and interest rates and every said America was on its last legs--who could forget President Carter's "malaise" speech?

But yet, we snapped out of it quickly when the late Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981. It was so refreshing to see the famous "Morning in America" ad campaign for Reagan's 1984 re-election--Reagan instilled an optimistic attitude that resulted in the boom of the 1980's.

This is why I am one big supporter of Sarah Palin the day she announces her candidacy for President of the United States. Perhaps the most-vetted politician ever (the Left in its attempt to destroy her "shot the wad" and totally missed), Palin's optimism that America can be great again will literally sweep over the nation like what Reagan did in 1980.

America is a country that has suffered three major wars on its own soil (Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War) and multiple economic collapses (Panics of 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1907 plus the Great Depression) and always constant griping about the latest immigrant group (does anyone remember from American history how poorly the Irish, eastern Europeans, southern Europeans and Asian immigrants were very poorly treated between 1845 and 1924?), all events that could have ripped this country apart. But yet, we survived all these calamities, and have become probably the greatest nation-state this world has ever seen.

Yes, the current economic uncertainly will be a challenge, but I see Americans coming together the get through the tough times and come out stronger than ever.

Ray, good context: Carter & Malaise to Reagan and Optimism.

I, too, am a supporter of Palin (and a very few others) who brings optimism and American Exceptionalsim to the campaign.

We will get past these troubles. As Frank Ryan said: "Americans are beginning to awaken to the financial irresponsibility of reckless spending in Washington."

That's the Tea Party -- the first that have woken up to this disaster and the first willing to step out of their comfortable lives and declare that something is very wrong.

For the political class to smear them as terrorists and racists, blaming us for the downgrade is "their last ditch efforts to hold on to typical politicians dream to stay in office."

We will overcome this socialist agenda.

I have never been as optimistic about the future of our great nation as I am today despite significant leadership shortfalls in our elected leaders. The solutions to our crisis are so apparent and so easy to enact once our Congress either gets in the fight or gets out of the way. The sheer unwillingness of Congress to stand firm on a national program of controlling spending is mindboggling. It can only be explained by recognizing that entitlements are and stimulus funding is how politicians get reelected.

These statements are not reconcilable. People on the dole cannot be allowed to vote. Voting enables them to enslave others using the government as their slave master. Congress cannot be fixed until this stops.

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