Empty Inaugural Words

Speaking of crafty speeches, on Monday I read the transcript of President Obama’s inaugural address. I have found it better to read the words and not sit there staring at the TV just to be enraptured.

As we prepare to launch our “Next Generation Today” show on Feb. 4, the critical theme will be “the next 100 days for the Next Generation,” and I read Obama’s words through that filter. I was struck by the fact that he did not talk about our growing debt and government spending.

If there is one glaring item that threatens our children’s future, it is our national debt. The president only mentioned our deficit once, and that was when Obama paid lip service to making “the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.”

Now, I am not a rocket scientist, but back in 2010 when he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the law was estimated to cost the American people $940 billion. That cost later skyrocketed to $1.7 trillion, and several new taxes from the law just hit all Americans this January. (Notice I said “all Americans.”)

Our deficits in the era of Obama have been $1.42 trillion, $1.3 trillion, $1.29 trillion and $1.1 trillion. We are on track for a fifth straight year of $1 trillion-plus deficits – the difference between revenue flowing into the government and government spending. We are now borrowing 46 cents on every dollar spent.

In his inaugural address, Obama did not mention how we will curtail spending.

On the other hand, average gasoline prices have gone from $1.84 in January 2009 to $3.30 in January 2013, and Obama said in his address, “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and grandchildren.”

When Moms cannot afford to take their kids to soccer or lacrosse practice because of rising energy costs, that is a betrayal.

As a young fella tanking up my Dad’s car on our assigned day during the Saudi oil embargo, I remember being told that government would create a Department of Energy to make us energy independent. Yeah, exactly what I’m thinking.

We sent $2 billion to Brazil for offshore oil exploration; we wasted taxpayer dollars on green energy boondoggles (Solyndra); we are sending jobs overseas for wind blades and solar panels, and anyone remember the Keystone XL oil pipeline?

We are betraying our children.

On the defense front, Obama said “a decade of war is now ending” and “we will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms.” But recent and current events suggest otherwise.

Last September we lost a U.S. ambassador, a State Department official and two former Navy SEALS in Benghazi, Libya. We just learned that radical Islamic terrorists murdered three Americans of the 10 they took hostage at a gas plant in Algeria. No one asked radical Islamists about an end to fighting, and sadly, they do get a vote.

“Strength of arms” – those Obama inaugural words are in contrast to the threat of sequestered defense spending, which would so promote a decline in American military strength that Obama-appointed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke against it.

We need a loyal opposition that will make a stand in the political arena, and the GOP must not continue to acquiesce under perceived media pressure.

Steadfast and Loyal,

Allen B. West

Allen West joined PJ Media as the Director of Next Generation Programming where he is leading the effort to develop new Internet TV shows and other media that can be viewed on NextGeneration.TV starting in February and March 2013.