Finally, an issue all Americans can rally behind: Winning the future! Surely most of us would like to be victorious down the road. The alternative is losing the future, and that doesn't sound very good, does it? If the future is lost, then what will become of us? Thus, President Obama's new mantra, "Winning the Future," got immediate traction. His State of the Union speech was full of optimistic ways that we can win. Most of those ways involve "investing" in stuff like education, infrastructure jobs, and alternative fuels. "Investing," of course, is the new word for government spending. The president doesn't want to spend anymore—he wants to "invest." So Mr. Obama's speech was uplifting, to say the least. We are going to beat those Chinese people in the marketplace and our kids will be smarter than those Korean kids. Yes we can! And the federal government's checkbook will lead the way. In response, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan essentially said, "No, we can't." We're broke. How uplifting is that? Barack Obama is a liberal man who is convinced that a large federal government can, indeed, improve the lives of most Americans. With a $14 trillion debt, however, Mr. Obama can no longer trumpet expanding the federal apparatus, but that doesn't mean he's against it. Let's take the high-speed train deal as an example. The president loves the idea of these trains, and they do work well in places like Japan. But over the last ten years, the government-run Amtrak outfit has lost an astonishing $13 billion dollars. So what makes Mr. Obama believe that pumping even more tax money into high-speed rail will be good for the country? Talk about losing the past. Continue reading this column on BillOReilly.com... |