2013 will be remembered as a time of rapid political transformation in the United States as a second term administration implements their progressive wish list. Americans are trying to comprehend a government that has replaced free enterprise and individual sovereignty with European-style socialism/progressivism and all its glorious attributes – income redistribution, massive federal debt and curtailed freedoms. Progressives have been pretty darn successful in their century-plus pursuit of expanding government. The limitations of our Constitution are being eroded at great societal and financial cost. Government’s growth is considered a necessary evolution beyond the Constitution as viewed by President Obama and his statist predecessors. George Will sums up the philosophy in The Danger of a Government with Unlimited Power, “Progressivism’s promise is a program for every problem, and progressivism’s premise is that every unfulfilled desire is a problem. The corollary might be, every government solution should only be measured by its intended purpose, rather than the results.
”The left’s philosophy allows no limits on expanding programs or the cost of paying for them. On our behalf, the federal leviathan borrowed $1.1 trillion dollars in 2012, adding to our accrued debt of 17 trillion. Those massive numbers pale when compared to the federal government’s (our) unpaid promises on entitlements. According to Veronique De Rugy writing in US News & World Report (12/23/13), “A recent paper by Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff for the Mercatus Center argues it adds up to $205 trillion over an infinite time horizon. Other estimates of the fiscal gap range from $54.4 trillion to $86.8 trillion.” Hearing these daunting figures convince many millennials to tune-out the message. In their defense, I can’t offer a scenario where America cover’s our unfunded liabilities. But the answer surely involves reducing rather than adding to the national debt and ignoring government’s intrusion into your life and wallet is the worst choice of all.
Thankfully, young adults are taking notice that even if they ignore government, the government still takes an interest in them…and their income. Healthy young men and women on the first rungs of the career or family ladder are already feeling the pinch as Obamacare jacks-up their rates to cover health costs of the baby boomer and senior voting blocs. At the same time, college debt continues to soar. Ohio college grads average debt is $29,000. A sum not easily repaid working a couple part-time jobs and living in your parent’s basement. Quality of life is also not a concern of corporate leaders and the Chamber of Commerce as these groups link arms with Soro’s National Immigration Forum (NIF) to legalize between eleven and twelve million illegal aliens. Again, the millennials will lose as they endure falling wages, higher unemployment and expanding entitlements.
My friends are mostly parents of 15 -30 year old teens/adults. When talking with new grads and their parents, I sense the smoldering anger as they witness leaders ignoring the rule of law, enriching themselves and their cronies in corporate America and on Wall Street. Teens and twenty-somethings are showing amazing restraint given their circumstances. Expect a more robust response as young Americans become fully aware of the situation.
Progressives in both political parties know the truth about socialism and the cost is impossible to hide forever. The left enjoyed success in 2012 creating a fictitious issue, the War on Women, to hold power and promote Obamacare’s contraception and abortion benefits. As we enter the 2014 election cycle, Dems are pinning their hopes on a new canard, the “War on Gays.” This faux issue will consume all the oxygen in every discussion to avoid addressing generational theft and encroaching tyranny. An opening salvo was launched when GQ magazine published Phil Robertson’s comments on gays. Immediately, divisive rhetoric erupted on all fronts. Aside from the fact that liberals must crush opinions deemed offensive, millions of debt-laden voters will follow the media pied-pipers, electing those who will lead them further into bondage.
The real “facts of life” conversations parents should be having with their kids, of any age, are about the responsibility of each generation to maintain and expand freedom.
