Posted on 09/23/2019 8:56:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I grew up during the Reagan years, and I remember them well. To me, the war and social upheavals of the 60s were history I’d never experienced and the country had thankfully moved past, and I was too young to remember the Carter malaise. So, the sense of national unity, patriotism, and optimism under the Gipper seemed like the norm, not an eight-year aberration, for a child of the 80s like myself. In hindsight, President Reagan was exactly what the country needed at the time. His inspiring speeches, calming demeanor, and even strident anti-communism were the perfect tonic for a previously fractured country. Obviously, he had his political enemies, but at least they were relatively congenial about it, and the partisan divisions didn’t seem quite as partisan, nor as personal, as they seem now.
Bush Senior’s 1988 victory was more than just a continuance of Reagan’s term, it was also a validation of his policies. The aristocratic, genteel Bush was no Ronald Reagan, but he was the next best thing. To someone who spent every year of grade school and high school with a Republican in office, it seemed like we would never lose. So, as you can imagine, Bill Clinton’s stunning 1992 victory over Bush not only denied him a second term, it absolutely broke the heart of a politically passionate college student who never really knew what it was like to lose to a Democrat, much less a socialist-loving, draft-dodging liberal. (In that sense, I do have a small slice of sympathy for how liberal millennials felt losing to Trump after eight years of Obama.)
Fast forward through eight years of Clinton, eight years of the younger Bush, and eight years of Obama, all the way to the election of 2016. Since 1992, no election result has rocked me to my core, in either direction, like 2016. As down as I was that year, the reverse and more defined my demeanor that November night 24 years later. If anyone could turn the map and win the Rust Belt, I knew Trump could. But whether ANYONE could was a question until that fateful night. When the talking heads first announced Wisconsin to Trump, I remember feeling like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. The die was cast and it was just a matter of time until either Pennsylvania or Michigan came along. When they did, our country had a fighting chance after all.
The past three years, of course, haven’t gone exactly as we conservatives would have liked, but all in all, it’s hard to dispute that Trump is governing as a conservative and is making decisions, especially in the realm of judicial nominations, that put us in a more solid place going forward than we otherwise would have been. The economy is booming. Unemployment is low, and opportunities abound for those willing to work hard.
Still, even with our victories, an unsettled feeling looms, a dark cloud hovering over what seems like should be a bright future. In truth, two ticking time bombs that could very well bring our country to ruin began in earnest under Ronald Reagan, continued under every previous president, and have only gotten worse under Trump, despite what I firmly believe are his best intentions.
National Debt
When Reagan assumed office in 1981, the less than $1 trillion national debt was 32 percent of GDP. When he left, it had almost tripled and was approaching 50 percent of an ever-growing GDP. Critics who were concerned then couldn’t possibly have imagined the debt being $24 trillion and well over 100 percent of GDP, but that’s where we are, and it’s not sustainable.
“Already interest on the federal debt – $324 billion – exceeds annual spending on transportation, international affairs, employment, training, and social services,” David Wessel of the Hutchins Center explains. “And since more than 40 percent of the federal debt is held by foreigners, particularly China and Japan, a lot of those interest payments go abroad. This, too, will erode the growth of U.S. living standards over time.”
“The longer we wait to put the federal budget on a sustainable course, the bigger and more abrupt the changes in government benefits and taxes will have to be,” he continued. “Changes are inevitable; the sooner we start, the more gradual and gentle they can be.”
Except politicians these days, including Trump, don’t have the political will or often even the desire to make any changes that would point this ship in the right direction deficit-wise, and they aren’t likely to ever have it unless they are absolutely forced to do so by a severe economic crash.
Immigration
Nobody imagined then that the amnesty deal under Reagan would result in tons of amnesty and virtually zero border control, but it’s only gotten worse since then. Like it or not, demography equals destiny. It … just … does. Fill the country with socialist-loving immigrants who think their countries of origin would be totally wonderful if only their former countries could afford to give them all the free stuff they’re about to score in the United States, and pretty soon they’re helping to ensure their new country is just as hellish as the old one. It happens inside the country too as. For example, Californians move to Texas to escape that state’s crappy policies and high standard of living only to vote to implement those things in places like Austin.
Sadly, such immigration from both inside and outside the country is boosting Democrats’ hopes to win Texas in 2020 for the first time since Jimmy Carter pulled it off in 1976. The demographic changes are happening in other places as well, obviously, as Democrats continue their push for a “permanent Democratic majority” under the pretense of actually caring for the plight of immigrants. When Texas goes blue, the nation goes permanently blue as well, and when that happens it won’t be long before you can kiss your freedoms, and America, goodbye.
I believe Trump means well, and I think his reelection could put things off for several years if he’s able to somehow secure the border and curb spending to some degree. One thing is for certain: a Democrat in office would have absolutely sped this train to its ultimate derailing much faster. However, regardless of when it happens, a debt crisis will bring this country to its knees financially in ways none of us have ever experienced, only serving to exacerbate existing societal fractures the current rolling economy has managed to keep under wraps thus far. Immigration will eventually turn the country blue, ultimately meaning socialism, totalitarianism, freedom suppression, massive societal unrest and an unavoidable economic crash.
Either way or both, all of us should prepare for rocky times ahead.
“Reagan didn’t want him as VP and the choice boiled down to Gerald Ford or Bush”
Yes, Reagan could have anyone he wanted...of course, as long as they were involved in the JFK assassination, or the window dressing Warren commission.
I stopped worrying about the debt when I realized it wasn’t going to be our country much longer.
Trump is trying mightily, but not much progress has been made on reversing the Bush Plan for North Mexico (aka USA)
uhh….NO, it wasn't. If it had been we likely would not be in the mess we're in today.
POTUS #41 GHWB upon assuming office immediately went about purging, with extreme prejudice, the Executive Branch of RWR holdovers. 6
DING! DING! DING!
We have a winner!
My point is, the auto-pilot massive Fed.gov is fed by huge spending, and large debt. by saying “our debt is not that large” it simply confirms my point - the massive DC, leftist nanny state will continue to roll on! Please don’t complain then when we get more government and more leftist social engineering.
Regarding some of your other points:
**GDP will always rise with injections of money. It merely raises the overall price level. We are not Zimbabwe, but for comparison - what is Zimbabwe’s GDP in its local currency? Its probably a huge, and rapidly-growing, figure
**America’s “hard assets” - what does that mean? Does that mean YOUR and MY assets the gov’t can confiscate as needed
** Note that at present levels, the amount of debt-service of Fed.gov pays from budge will double from 2017 to 2026. That’s $400 billion more each year. And that’s at 2% interest rates. What if interest rates double to a still historically low 4%?
That's my point - its a global phenomenon.
but as long as I can remember, the govt has "reformed" or "fixed" SS by making younger people pay more and work longer....now that I am finally collecting at nearly 66 yrs I guess I'll start getting some back....but the younger workers are burdened already....
Nobody is going to fix the deficit, nobody is going to fix Social Security, and nobody is going to curb inflation. It’s all going to keep going on like this until the whole thing crashes. The best we can hope for is that the crash is something our country can still recover from and that we learn our lesson this time and don’t repeat the same mistakes again.
Bush was forced onto the ticket IMO....very very peculiar how it happened....
I’d add a third national crisis, Our Public education system and our college systems are broken.
Regan was more focused on taking out the Soviets than Islam at the time.
“Solvency is not about paying debt off but making interest payments...”
That’s the way a debt slave thinks: “Oh, I’ll be alright as long as I can make the minimum payment on the credit cards next month!”
If we keep thinking like that, our nation will always remain in debt, and the debt will always keep growing.
On the contrary, we have not left the 60s behind, drug abuse, broken families, race relations, pornography, democrat hatred of America, all started in the 60s and continue full speed today.
"Two Ticking Time Bombs that are Buried Seven Paragraphs into this Article"
We need to start working to abolish as many departments, bureaus, and agencies as we can.
Even necessary ones. We can always replace them with a new agency stuffed with our people. JFK did it, replacing the Republican-leaning Bureau of the Budget with a new Office of management and Budget, which got filled with Democrat-leaning bureaucrats.
The Federal Reserve should be abolished.
Repeal Amendments XVI and XVII, and adopt new amendments to limit government and move toward liberty.
I believe President Reagan said that Simpson-Mazzoli was his biggest mistake.
We should repeal it.
He should hve picked Kemp or Crane or someone like them.
Laxalt would have been a great choice. The only drawback I could see was that he was from a neighboring state, but then that worked out for Clinton and Gore.
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