Who Can Say He's Wrong?

Before the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed the, "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road."

A month ago I would have laughed off such a statement as hyperbole. The usual propaganda that Ahmadinejad spews, along with similar banana republic leaders like him. But now his assessment rings true, like a bucket of cold sea water to the face. If our leaders step forward to dismiss the statement, they'll be putting a spin on these recent events. They will be selling something. Will U.S. citizens buy it? Less importantly, will international citizens believe it?

The painful reality is that our country is in big trouble. We weren't doing so hot before the investment bank meltdown. To hear our leaders describe our economy as teetering on a dark abyss that can only lead to utter financial ruin across the country isn't just sobering, it's almost too much to fathom. Honestly, I could really care less what a quaky Iranian dictator says or thinks about our country. Based on what's happened we deserve the scorn and ridicule of countries throughout the world, friends and foes alike. What matters most to me right now isn't our international reputation, but a realistic short-term plan for getting our economy stabilized and an even more realistic long-term plan that returns us to fiscal robustness.

Step one, the nation's debt. With the recent bailout, our country will have accrued more than a $1 trillion in debt. I want to start hearing politicians talk about how we're going to pay that off. I want a timeline. I want a budget. Maybe it's $500 billion over two years. Or $250 billion over four. Or $100 billion over ten. I want to hear specifics, I want the money allocated, I want the debt gone. I personally take out loans and I pay them off in a reasonable span of time. Our government should operate under the exact same parameters. It defies all logic that they don't. They must stop.

Next, I want limits put on what the federal government can spend. Infinite spending must end. Every human being on the planet has to manage their resources, our federal government should be no different. But James! What if the government needs to fund something but the money isn't there! Guess what? It doesn't get funded then! Limitations on spending can be the only rein that keeps Washington politicians from spending money we don't have. Only a hard ceiling can force elected representatives to make the hard choices of what gets funded and what doesn't, instead of the current system where everything gets bought even though the coffers sit empty. One component of the investment meltdown is that banks were handing out loans to people for homes that were completely beyond their means. Someone told me of their teacher friend who recently bought a $300,000 house with little down payment. Her salary? $45,000.

We all must begin living within our means. Our government must begin living within its means.

Third, any and all financial institutions that deal with so much money that they can potentially implode the entire U.S. economy must be regulated. And by regulation, I mean oversight. Someone in the federal government should have observed Mae and Mac and Lehman Brothers issuing loans well beyond their holding assets. If they had, they could have stepped in and put a stop to it. I think Ron Paul flat wrong on this issue. When an entity starts funneling billions to trillions of dollars, we can't trust that a free market will regulate it all on its own. The economic forces at work are too complex. The stakes too high. The consequence of failure too dire.

Finally, I want to see an end of multi-million dollar severance packages for CEOs who have run a company into the ground. The so-called "golden parachute." It's nonsense that provisions like that get written into contracts. But James! CEOs won't take the job without a generous severance package to protect them. Good! If that's a deal-breaker for some CEOs, then we more than likely don't want them running our nation's biggest corporations. No other institutions in the United States reward the greedy and the stupid with millions of dollars for catastrophic failure. If a CEO and his top executives destroy a company with their gross stupidity, avarice, and ineptitude, then they should fall just as hard as their worst paid employee. In fact, they should fall even harder because they were steering the ship and responsibility begins and ends with them.

As I read more about all this, I'm sure I'll have more expectations of our elected officials. I encourage all of you to also dig and drink deep into this issue. And for the love of God, don't get all your news from one source. If Fox news is your only lifeline to the world of current events, then I pray for your broad understanding of the issues at hand. Let's be clear: THIS IS NOT A PARTISAN ISSUE. The idiots that messed all this up hail from both parties. Attempts to spin this disaster as a Democrat or Republican created mess will lead to the usual gridlock we get out of Washington.

We can't afford business as usual. We require immediate, decisive, intelligent action. And we better get it.