By Dr. Larry Moses

No one asked me but…As I listen to the Republican debates, I feel like I am viewing a re-run of Gilligan’s Island. The professor (Gingrich), the millionaire (Romney), and Gilligan (Paul) are all vying for the presidency hoping to unseat Alfred E. Neumann (Obama) from Mad Magazine.

While the first four years of Obama’s administration has left me with little doubt that he is in over his head, the Republican candidates have worked hard over the last several months convincing me that each of their opponents for the Republican nomination are either morally, ethically or intellectually incompetent. I can only take them at their word.

I would support the first person who actually presented a plan to solve the problems facing the American people. We are at war in the Middle East. We have troops in the vast majority of the countries of the world as we try to do our best impression of the Roman Empire. We are a debtor nation to the tune of over $14 trillion. We have almost fifty percent of the American people living on a government dole of one kind or another. Our manufacturing jobs have fled the country. Decent paying jobs are being replaced with minimum wage jobs. While we graduate more college students than ever before, we are importing college-educated workers to take the jobs undercutting our own graduates. We are not only out-sourcing our manufacturing, we are in-sourcing labor. The American people are so centered on the illegal immigrants taking minimum wage jobs that they have missed the fact that legal immigrants are being imported to take middle class jobs. Nearly fifty percent of our youngsters are not able to acquire high school diploma due to federal programs like No Child Left Behind. The countries infrastructure once the marvel of the world, is decaying before our eyes.

With all these problems, all the candidates can do is call each other names. Where is the leadership and the plan?

Give me a candidate that will have the courage to say to the American people that there will have to be some sacrifice on the part of every American and explain what that sacrifice will be.

There is no doubt that wealthy Americans need to kick in more. Many of the richest people in America agree with this statement. They realize they have their wealth because of the benefits of this country.

However, if you believe taxing those making a million dollars a year at a thirty percent rate will solve the problems of America, you are still looking for unicorns and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The converse of that issue is that forty seven percent of the American people pay no federal income tax at all. This country does not belong to the extremely wealthy and they cannot save America. America belongs to the average American and will, as always, be saved by them.

Let no one kid you, America is in the midst of a great crisis. We are on the edge of an economic meltdown that will rival the depression of the 1930s. We are also in a military and political fight for our life as a nation. There are dangerous forces out there that would destroy America. It is imperative that we have leadership in America to match the problems. Frankly, I don’t see any of the present day avowed leaders.

It is time to quit voting for someone because he/she is a Republican or a Democrat and find someone who can get all of the brainpower of America on the same page. This will take people from all realms of American political philosophy.

We must, without a doubt, provide for the legimate poor. However, we also need to understand that we cannot continue to provide for those who are capable but unwilling to care for themselves. There is no question that the thought that the government should care for all the people all the time is as ludicrous as the thought that by giving more to the rich we will see them make sure the rest of the nation is taken care of. As much as it has been proven that welfare breeds welfare, it has also been proven that the trickledown theory of economics does not work either.

While the rich demand welfare so they can create jobs, no one has ever seen the jobs they have created. What we have seen is the rich take their tax breaks and put the money in their pockets. Rather than share the wealth produced by the corporate welfare, they take the money and shelter it in offshore bank accounts.

Where is Henry Ford when we need him? He understood that when he doubled the wage of his workers from $2.74 a day to $5.00, his worker could afford to buy the product they made in his factory. Today the manufacturer has found he can make it cheaper in Asia, Mexico, and South America and the American can still buy the product because they are subsidized by a government handout. If we are to be concerned about welfare for the poor, we should be at least as concerned about welfare for the rich.

It is time to put all government programs, from top to bottom, on the block. There should be an immediate ten percent cut in all departments. After the ten percent cut there should be a serious look at all programs and begin to decide if we are really better off with things like the Department of Education, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development. I know each of these is a pet of some segment of the American people but their demise would be a start in getting a hold on the ever growing and unsustainable national debt.