Energy, Economy and Integrity
The political system in the USA works best when power shifts back and forth between the major parties. Since the Democrat party seems to be temporarily (?) in the ditch, I offer this speech pro bono for their soon to emerge (?) serious contender for the 2008 presidential election. Here’s my Presidential stump speech.
My Fellow Americans,
We face three critical problems: Energy, our Economy and Integrity. With your support, we can and must develop practical solutions to these challenges, so we get our great country back on track.
America’s energy situation is critical. Every time you fill your gas tank, or order fuel oil for your furnace you instantly understand that something is very wrong. It doesn’t take a political scientist to explain that America is at the mercy of major oil producing nations. Oil is so vital that it has shaped our decisions in the Middle East. Although nobody will say it out loud, we all know that one motivation for the Iraq war was to stabilize the region and protect our access to oil.
That price is too high. America must make smart but tough choices. Now is the time to define a realistic plan to win our energy freedom. We must conserve, we must aggressively invest in new renewable sources of energy. We can and we must end our dependence on foreign oil if we wish to remain a free and sovereign nation.
Our economy is sputtering. We have maxed out America’s credit cards. When we face a new crisis such as the devastation caused hurricane Katrina, instead of figuring out what sacrifices we must make, we’ve applied for more credit cards.
As we all know too well, living beyond your means is a dangerous game. America is borrowing money, billions of dollars of money, from the very same people who control our supply of oil. That’s crazy, and we must stop.
Finding our path to a strong economy and fiscal sanity will not be easy. Your government always likes to say “yes.” It is far easier to get elected by saying “yes” and spending wildly than by saying “no” and living within our means.
But we cannot keep living on borrowed money. The interest that accumulates on our national credit card will increase $$(need correct number) BILLION dollars between now and this time tomorrow. Then, just like the plastic you carry, tomorrow the interest will increase because we pay interest on interest.
Our economy is out of whack on many levels. We are buying more goods from other countries than they buy from us. That makes their currency stronger and the American dollar weaker. There is not a simple solution, but we must be smart and find ways to successfully compete. It will take sacrifice; there will be tough decisions. But the worst possible answer is to continue doing nothing.
The third crisis America faces is the decline in integrity in our political process, in our business dealing and in our treatment of those less fortunate than us. We have suffered scandal after scandal in the national and local political arena. As we have adopted electronic voting, many Americans question whether their vote counts. Is there an audit trail so a disputed election can be audited without question?
We have seen high-level government positions filled with political buddies, often with little qualifications for the job. We’ve seen the tragic effect of this casual disregard for integrity, where personal loyalty is valued above competence. We’ve seen lucrative major government contracts that are awarded to firms with good political connections. That’s simply wrong.
But when there are great challenges, we also have great opportunities. Our vision must be to return America to greatness. We must seek energy independence. Our way of life depends on making smart new energy decisions so no foreign power can control our lives.
We can and we will adopt a conservative and sane economic policy. Make a pledge with me that we will join hands and pay off our national credit card! Tell your elected officials “No more wasteful pork spending.” Don’t expect the government to be able to solve all of our problems, because we simply can’t afford to. Yet we must protect those who are less fortunate. We must remain compassionate while being careful with what we spend.
Overcoming the crisis of integrity means we must always demand fair treatment. Corporations must meet their obligations to be good citizens. The government must always select employees and contractors without regard to politics. We must treat our international partners with respect, yet be firm and always protect our vital national interests.
Together we can achieve energy freedom, return to economic freedom (and pay off the USA national credit card), and once again embrace high integrity in business, government and our personal lives.
Thank you, and God Bless America.
A personal postscript. I’ve really got to start charging something for my speeches if I’m ever going to save enough to buy my URal (or maybe a Dnepr) rugged Russian motorcycle.
October 5th, 2005 at 5:00 am
THE CROWD ROARS MADLY!!!
October 6th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
You’re right about everything but the loss of integrity in our government. That happened when George Washington left office and the idea that the party of Ted Kennedy and Hilary Clinton will find it again is pretty ludicrous.
They might at least be able to separate church and state again - that is more recent, more easily fixed and something Hilary might do if elected.
February 1st, 2006 at 7:26 am
[...] I’m delighted President George W. Bush took inspiration for his state of the union speech from my blog. The president’s speechwriters obviously cribbed from the speech I wrote for him (pro bono). [...]