Leaving the Tab for the Kids

By Terry Paulson

It took nearly 150 years for Congress to pass a resolution apologizing for slavery. We should apologize now to future generations for what we’ve done and are doing to America. Though our generation’s motivation was compassionate, we’re leaving America worse.

They called the World War II generation "The Greatest Generation." They survived the Great Depression by becoming resourceful and forging strong bonds of family and community. Thousands died fighting tyranny and securing liberty for others. Workers had no 401Ks and no paid health insurance. Citizens took pride in personal achievement, treasured their faith, families and freedom. They were good parents, balancing a healthy dose of discipline with loving support. They didn’t brag about what they did; they just got busy taking responsibility for their own lives. They wanted a government that would leave them alone, not take care of their every need.
Their offspring wanted their children to want for nothing. Supported by Dr. Spock, many parents stopped the lectures and disciplined less, shielded their children from failures and poured on affirmations to boost their "fragile" self-esteem. They allowed religion to be taken out of schools. By failing to teach strong values, too many parents left their children’s values development to television and Hollywood. They wanted only peace, not war. But it didn’t stop there.

We continue to vote for indulgent politicians. Prior to World War II, the cost of government never exceeded a few hundred per American citizen in today’s dollars. Now, government costs over $13,000 per citizen. Instead of promoting personal responsibility, freedom and free-enterprise opportunity, our "nanny-state" fosters dependence, promotes victim thinking and entitlement programs, and micro-manages every facet of our lives. Politicians, Democrats and some Republicans alike, have given us what we demanded—more spending to meet our every need!

Unfortunately, since we keep adding more entitlements and refuse to pay as we go, we leave no inheritance of opportunity, just a horrendous, out-of-control debt. Our current deficit is over $12 trillion, but that’s just what politicians will admit. Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker estimates the total "unfunded liabilities" at $56.4 trillion. That’s the bill to pay off the publicly held portion of the national debt and all the benefits already promised through Social Security, Medicare and other welfare programs minus what will be collected for these programs under existing tax laws.

Because there is no reserve fund for these liabilities, any shortfall is taken out of general tax receipts unless politically difficult changes are made. In 1946, 42 workers were available to support the cost of each Social Security recipient. Without changes, by 2030, there will be only two workers to support each retiree.

Unfortunately, instead of facing these growing costs, our Washington politicians are busy creating greater dependence and more debt. Whether it’s cash-for-clunkers, bailouts of companies "too big to fail," or funds to keep states afloat, they’re printing money faster than they can find investors willing to purchase Treasury notes.
The cost for the proposed healthcare plan appears manageable, because the plan requires Americans to pay taxes for ten years and get coverage for only six! But using the CBO assumptions on growth of the cost of the healthcare program beyond the initial decade, the annual cost for the healthcare plan after the second decade will be more than the entire federal budget the year President Obama was elected.

It’s no wonder that on his recent trip to China, President Obama warned, "It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession." Whether it’s another recession or an anemic recovery, America is not returning to economic health any time soon unless we change course. We need smaller government, not more entitlements. We need to return to the policies and incentives that have helped America bounce back and create jobs in past recessions.

Instead of making an apology, we can still change the future, but politicians won’t cut costs or eliminate expensive entitlement programs unless more citizens demand it. Now is the time for all generations to tell our Senators and Representatives to stop this madness. Stay informed by visiting www.townhall.com and exercise your citizenship by making a difference on healthcare using the resources and links at the National Center for Policy Analysis (www.ncpa.org).

Like Boy Scouts who work to leave the wilderness better than they found it, every generation should leave America better for having lived. Leaving future generations the bill for our excesses doesn’t leave a legacy we can be proud of!

Published Townhall.Com, December 7, 2009. Used with permission.
Terry Paulson, PhD is a professional speaker, an author of soon to be released The Optimism Advantage, and a columnist for the Ventura County Star and Townhall.com. Contact him at terry@terrypaulson.com. Website: http://www.terrypaulson.com.

Time to Pack Up and Leave Our Chief

By Terry Paulson

Obama's an articulate bull roaming the china shop

President Barack Obama is no horse whisperer wooing America into embracing change. An articulate bull has been unleashed in America’s china shop. His sweet talk and promises of bipartisanship have given way to a radical liberal bent on transforming America into a socialistic nightmare we can’t afford!

He may actually believe that his vision for America is best, but the poll numbers for his plans are dropping fast. Americans are taking off their rose-colored glasses because the economy is not improving.

Brian Thompson of the Museum of American Financial History asserts: “Wall Street is predicated on optimism. The very acts of raising capital and making investments are based on the simple belief that tomorrow will be a better day. And that’s what makes economic growth and opportunity possible.”

Why are entrepreneurs not jumping at the opportunity to start and provide capital to new companies? It’s simple. All Obama has brought to our economy is an unprecedented soaring deficit racing past a trillion dollars, unemployment raging toward 13 percent, continuing economic uncertainty, constantly expanding regulations and higher taxes for the corporations and investors who could fund job-creating private- sector growth!

Conservatives want a world where we can celebrate more citizens becoming rich by earning it. Liberals seem committed to spreading misery by making everyone poor by taxing away wealth, killing incentives and making more citizens dependent.

As a result, Obama creates more fear than optimism, and that fear is warranted. China and other countries are balking at funding our debt, which means the government is left to printing money that will ultimately obligate future generations and devalue the savings citizens have worked hard to create. That means inflation and continuing economic stagnation are on the way.

Our next stimulus package ought to be what Obama calls a return “to the failed policies of the past.” Free enterprise, capitalism and limited government created this country’s unmatched economic strength. After the 9/11 attacks, our economy was severely tested. Within months, America was back on her feet and produced a sustained period of economic growth that lasted well into 2008.

Why? President Bush didn’t put his faith in Washington; he put it in the American people. He knew that when inspired and rewarded for their entrepreneurial and productive excellence, Americans would again rise to the challenge. He passed tax reductions, and the economy rebounded. The Bush plan was not a failed plan; it’s the American plan that has always worked and would work again.

In a recent Time magazine article, Michael Grunwald described how “a world-famous team of genius scientists, psychologists and economists” helped manage Obama’s winning campaign. Grunwald writes: “President Obama is still relying on behavioral science to transform the country. Because when you know what makes people tick, it’s a lot easier to help them change.”

“People want to do what they think others will do,” says Robert Cialdini, author of the best seller “Influence.” When they conveyed through the liberal-leaning media that “everyone is voting for Obama,” others joined the herd.

That’s Obama’s change mantra! “All reputable scientists agree” that global warming is caused by man and remains an imminent danger to Earth. Obama asserts: “Economists on both the left and right agree that the last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending.”

Not all scientists agree with Gore’s environmental jihad and, certainly, not all economists agree with Obama’s record spending and higher taxes. There is no united herd, but Obama wants you to believe everyone that is anybody is on his team, whether it’s true or not! He’s the master in using empty words and empty phrases to manipulate you into buying his America.

Behavioral science, popularized by “Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds, Predictably Irrational, Nudge and Animal Spirits,” has become a must-read in Obamaworld, and it’s already shaping dozens of administration policies. For example, since it is hard for people to choose to change, policies will be constructed that require you to opt out if you don’t want to participate. They put you with the herd and force “radical” mavericks to choose to resist. Most just go along!

This is political paternalism at its worst. Well-meaning or not, America has become a nanny-state run by an elitist Big Brother who wants to manipulate us into driving smaller, eco-friendly cars, eating less fat and using less carbon-based energy.

It’s time to resist Obama’s manipulations and socialist vision. Some native Americans had a way of taking care of chiefs they no longer respected. The chief would wake up one morning in their dwelling and find that the rest of the tribe had left them during the night. Get your tent ready!

Re-published by permission of Terry Pauson.  Originally published by the Ventura County Star, July 20, 2009.  — Terry Paulson of Agoura Hills is a psychologist, speaker and author. E-mail him at terry@terrypaulson.com. Website: http://www.terrypaulson.com

Paulson: What would we do if Ayn Rand's novel were real? Galt wants Atlas to strike

By Terry Paulson

President Barack Obama’s rapid race into socialism is creating an escalating tax revolt. With a never-ending stream of stimulus packages and new entitlement programs, the Americans who will be stuck with the bill are shouting a clear message: “Enough!”

Many organizations are calling for a Tax Day Tea Party (http://taxdayteaparty.com/) on April 15. To Democrats, “the rich” aren’t paying their “fair share,” but many of the top 20 percent of wage-owners who pay 83 percent of the income taxes are taking to the streets.

Yes, Obama is my president, and as Warren Buffett said, “We’re all in the same boat.” But if the boat’s captain is so busy enjoying his applauding throng to notice that he’s sending us full-speed into an iceberg, you’d better do more than just disagree.

Writing letters, complaining to your representatives, even tax-revolt protests may not be enough. When workers reject their contract, they strike. Maybe it’s time for Atlas to do more than shrug! Is it time for the top tax-paying Americans to strike?

John Galt, the fictional protagonist in Ayn Rand’s classic novel “Atlas Shrugged,” responded to the growing regulations and taxation in Rand’s fictional socialist America by convincing “the rich” to leave and let socialism fail. How would you respond if John Galt wrote this letter today?

My fellow taxpaying Americans,

I write you to warn you and to challenge you. We deserve this economic collapse. We’ve allowed our politicians to sacrifice justice to forced compassion, trade our freedom for government dependence and confiscate earned wealth to fund more entitlements.

For more than two centuries, the American Dream has demonstrated what excellence unleashed can do, but for decades, politicians have conducted a war on excellence. Personal responsibility has given way to entitlement. Instead of honoring excellence, we elect politicians to confiscate as much money as possible from wealth producers to fund entitlements for those who haven’t earned it.

Some of today’s bailout recipients are no better than burglars, but burglars don’t ask us to sanction their crime. As the government seizes your wealth through unfair taxation rates, liberal politicians want voluntary compliance from you, the tax-paying victims.

When America began, government cost the average citizen $20 in today’s money. That’s $20 a year! Taxes rose during wars, but for most of the history of America, spending never exceeded a few hundred dollars per citizen.

During and after World War II, government just kept expanding.

The cost of the recent stimulus packages alone is more than $18,000 per household. We are witnessing the climax of over 70 years of creeping socialism. America created a system that produced the wealth of the world, and we’re letting the destroyers dismantle it.

Citizens and companies now compete not to achieve but to receive the biggest bailouts. The responsible citizens pay, and the beggars collect. But money taken from the achievement of others won’t buy intelligence for the fool, admiration for the lazy or respect for the incompetent. The irresponsible takers are unwelcome hitchhikers.

We have always been a compassionate people, but compassionate Americans, not the government, should help their neighbors in need.

When those who fund our growing federal debt stop buying, who’ll pay the bill? Washington could confiscate all the taxable income of everyone making over $75,000 and it would barely produce $4 trillion.

Our unchecked entitlement system will eventually collapse; I challenge you to make that happen now! It’s time for Atlas to shrug — to calmly, consciously and deliberately go on strike for true fairness. Our collective response must be simple and non-violent: “No more! I will cease to achieve, invent, produce, hire, serve or invest until all Americans pay the same flat income-tax rate!”

Re-engage when America once again is a country that protects everyone’s rights — the right to property, the right for every person to rise as far as she’s able. We ask for no special rights — only freedom to take our own risks, to bear our own losses and to experience our own rewards.

For those of you who voted for this liberal takeover, take pause. Do you have so little confidence in yourself and your children’s ability that you can’t succeed without government subsidies?

It’s not too late to choose freedom over dependence, earned rewards over entitlement and personal responsibility over collective rights.

American automobile companies can emerge from bankruptcy with a smaller but more vibrant business model. Out of a bankrupt America can emerge a leaner government based on America’s founding principles. With shared equal responsibility and shared equal opportunity, a new optimism and entrepreneurial spirit will unleash an economic recovery like we have not seen in decades.

Risk striking for a new America worth believing in!

— John Galt

There is no letter. There is no strike. John Galt does not exist. How would you respond if he did?

— Terry Paulson of Agoura Hills is a psychologist, speaker and author. E-mail him at terry@terrypaulson.com. Website: http://www.terrypaulson.com