PrintJanuary 1, 2010
The Most Important Three-Year Period in History?
The most important three-year period in the history of the United States will start on January 1, 2010. The choices that we as a people make during this time may well relegate our country to secondary status (easily dominated by those who wish to make us subservient to their power, influence, and ideology) -- or, in the alternative, allow us to continue as the greatest nation in the history of mankind.
Is this unadulterated hyperbole? A statement made to incite fear and mobilize the electorate? No, it may well be reality.
Some would say that the four years of the Civil War were the most crucial to the nation's survival. Perhaps the war was critical to the maintenance of the union, and more importantly, to ending the stain of slavery, but regardless of the outcome, the nation would have survived, either as one country or two. There was no threat from outside the borders of the United States.
Others might claim that the Great Depression and World War II constitute the period of greatest threat to the nation's future. However, while devastating to those who suffered economically in the 1930s from flawed government policies, the financial and industrial base remained intact. Thus, upon the entrance of the United States into World War II -- and thanks to two oceans and the blessing of geography -- our country quickly became the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, easily able to defeat the Axis Powers. Other than Pearl Harbor, the United States suffered no devastation to its infrastructure or civilian population.
Today we are faced with circumstances of our own making in a world far different from any we have ever known. The choices we have made in the past and the policies that we are in the process of ratifying may well achieve what the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II did not: the downward spiral of the American people and nation.
In all the years of the nation's existence up to the end of 2007, the total national debt held by the public amounted to 36.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (53.8% by the end of 2009). By the end of 2012, based on the proposed budget of the Obama administration, that percentage will be 71.6. Thus, in five years, the debt will nearly double. If the trend is not stopped, then by 2019, the debt will triple to over 100% of GDP.
These projections do not include the overwhelming future impact of the health care reform bill recently passed in Congress, which will cost over $2.5 trillion in its first ten years of implementation. Nor does it include the carbon cap-and-trade or any other pending spending and regulatory bills. Beyond the expenditures contemplated, these actions will stifle domestic economic growth, so necessary for government revenue, and leave the now-global economy in the hands of our potential adversaries.
To put this into perspective, by 2019, three items -- interest on the debt, Social Security, and Medicare-Medicaid -- will account for 92% of all revenue to the federal government. Everything else will have to be funded by borrowing.
To whom will we turn to borrow the needed funds, and what exorbitant interest rate will we have to pay as the national debt exceeds 100% of our GDP? The answer: Countries such as China, who have their own designs on world hegemony, can dictate the interest rate. Will the first place the United States chooses to cut its spending be national defense? The answer: It has already been proposed by the current administration and Congress. In the future, could our lenders of record demand that we cut military spending? The answer: Yes.
A debtor nation, as we will be if we stay on this current path, cannot support a viable military, particularly one that has to defend our world-wide interests. Nor can we look to our traditional allies in Europe to increase their military spending, as they cannot financially, nor do they have the will to do so.
Yet the threat from radical Islam will not diminish; rather, it could well increase if a country such as Pakistan falls into the hands of the Taliban, or if Iran, using its radical surrogates, overwhelms its Middle East neighbors to control the world's oil prices. China could choose to exert its influence over Asia either militarily or economically, bringing the entire area into its sphere of influence. Russia may opt to reestablish its hegemony in Europe. In South and Central America, governments sympathetic to China and/or Russia could be implemented in virtually all countries.
The United States, unable to underwrite a powerful military, would then be totally isolated, dependent on the largess of its lenders, and forced to adhere to policies antithetical to its history and foundation of individual freedom and liberty.
The present administration in the White House, the majority of Democrats in Congress, the media, and academia believe in a utopian view of the world. They prefer a reliance on internationalism, open-ended negotiations, overwrought concern for the dubious claims and rights of any antagonist, and a belief in a unique ability to convince the most brutal of adversaries to live in peace.
This current ruling class believes that this approach, which has never succeeded, will keep the United States safe and prevent others from seeking to dominate our country. However, the very real danger of the Obama administration's socialist policies and their attendant spending and debt creation are ignored.
If the agenda of the most radical government in our history becomes embedded in the fabric of our society -- i.e., nearly impossible to overturn -- the long-term future of the United States will be bleak. Bankruptcy and secondary world status will be nearly inevitable. Thus, the next three years will be the most important in our long history.
We, our children, and our grandchildren need not see this devastating end. There will be an election on November 8, 2010, and numerous opportunities besides to petition, organize behind one political party, and peacefully demonstrate in huge numbers.
This is a great nation -- not just as a result of its founding documents, but also because of its citizens' willingness to defend the principles espoused by its founders. We must now summon up the same courage and determination that animated those at Concord, Valley Forge, and Yorktown and be certain the United States remains the greatest country in the history of mankind for many generations to come.
