Dave Belton

Dave Belton

By Dave Belton


“We’ve seen the deficit cut in half,” he says. Then why is Obama’s deficit spending vs. GDP triple that of Bush (10 percent vs. 3 percent)?

Bush added $5 trillion of debt in eight years. His average deficit was $250B and his worst was $450B. Keep in mind, this was during our military response after 911 (which virtually every Democrat on the Hill voted for) and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Obama added $6 trillion in four years during a time when we’re no longer in Iraq and we’re leaving Afghanistan. Obama tripled the deficit in his first year, raising our national debt from $10 to $17 trillion by 2013 and over $20 trillion by 2017. He is the only president to ever have over a $1 trillion ($1000B) deficit in any year, a feat he’s accomplished every year.

Yet, “we’ve seen the deficit cut in half.”

Fast and Furious, the assassination of our ambassador at Benghazi, the 100,000 Syrians that have been murdered, the tsunami of unrest in the Middle East, the military coup in Egypt, the unprecedented closure of dozens of embassies after the aborted Arab Spring: any one of these “Phony Scandals” would have rocked the administration of a Republican president. Yet the Pravda Press of the mainstream media ignores the news, selling their journalistic souls to prop up these epic failures.

Obama, of course, pays no mind, offering “advice” to Republicans. If we would just spend more money, give amnesty to millions of illegals, bail out Obama Care, and give up our guns (and our religion)… he’s sure people would like the GOP.

Union bosses say the 40-hour work week is imperiled by Obama Care. They warn millions will be forced from full-time to part-time jobs in order to avoid its onerous fees. Democratic writers of Obama Care say it’s a “train wreck” waiting to happen. Senator Harry Reid admits that a single-payer system (where everyone is forced into government healthcare) is inevitable.

An IRS agent admits that they’re still targeting TEA Party. The IRS official in charge of that just got a promotion. To top it off, the IRS has started a campaign to threaten thousands of small businesses according to the Wall Street Journal.

Yet, “the economy is my top priority,” says the President.

Obama leaked two important secrets last week. Bush, even Clinton, would have protected these secrets to ensure our national security. Not Obama, who tells our enemies exactly how we’re spying on them in order to give himself political cover. Not that it’s helping… after he betrayed our allies and gave Russia everything they wanted by taking down our European missile shield, Putin’s famous smack-down over Snowden is yet another example of Obama’s failed foreign policy.

Still, last election showed it’s not enough for Republicans to lambast Obama. Like Reagan, we need to come up with a single, coherent message of positive ideas that will make Americans believe in America again. So far, we haven’t done that, and there’s a huge divide in just how conservative Republicans ought to be. For my part, Republicans should stop trying to placate the ever-shrinking Independents and focus on our conservative base. Obama won by energizing the Left. We should do the same.

We should also focus almost entirely on the economy. It breaks Leftists’ hearts to think that some people are wealthier than others. What breaks my heart is that people can’t find jobs because Obama punishes people who make money. By large margins, Americans reject every Obama economic policy. Republicans need to stop fighting each other and come up with viable, positive solutions we can rally around.

No system is perfect. We will never (in this life) create a perfect utopia where everyone is equally happy and prosperous. Capitalism is the best way we’ve found to make people happy and prosperous. Equal outcomes, on the other hand, are impossible to achieve and disastrous to attempt: just ask the Soviets. Republicans need to effectively communicate that idea or die as a political party.

Dave Belton is the vice-chair of the Morgan County Republican Party.