The Greatest Challenge of Our Time

“This is the greatest challenge of our time”….what might that challenge be? The sub-prime lending crisis, healthcare, energy independence, global climate change? Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth last night he said, “This is the greatest challenge of our time.” Every time I listen to him speak there is one song that comes to my mind, one phrase that runs through my head, “It’s the end of the world as we know it, it’s the end of the world as we know it but I feel fine.”

I do feel fine. I do not believe that if the House of Representatives doesn’t pass a piece of legislation that the world will end. Based on the media and the political establishment it truly must be a miracle that the US is still standing, after the House said no the first time to the enormous bailout package that is now being sold as a “rescue” plan.

Even after it was passed and signed into law by the President, it did not stop the Stock Market from dropping below 10,000 this Monday? Amazingly though, people are still working, still eating, still shopping, still travelling, still buying homes and cars, still living as Americans have always lived.

Those in DC have a false sense of their own importance and significance. They believe that THEY can “rescue” banks, homeowners, and even the US economy by simply passing a piece of legislation. They have no control over the stock market; their attacks on Wall Street have attempted to shift blame. If they make Wall Street the bad guy, then they can come in and look like the heroes.

The funny thing to me is that they all talk about the middle class. How the middle class need a rescue plan, a life preserver thrown to them by the great Federal government, but you know whom Wall Street is? It is made up of the middle class; their 401K , their IRAs, their e-trade business, their Walmart stock, so when the politicians sit around attacking Wall Street they are attacking the very people they say they want to save.

Obama says that wealth does not trickle down, but it does. People with money should buy homes, because they can afford them and will pay their mortgage payments. They are the ones running the small business that has 20 employees, they are the ones investing into their communities and creating wealth for others. Obama’s philosophy and that of the Democratic party is what created this sub-prime lending mess. They sell a bill of goods that says that wealth can be created by giving people things, well if you are giving it to them, they are going to expect more giving and that does not create wealth. All that creates is a dependence on the government.

Apparently, John McCain is okay with that dependence mentality as well. He is planning on having the Federal government by bad mortgages and having the courts or others renegotiate those mortgages. No longer a free market system of supply and demand, if you can’t afford it, you should not have bought it, so you lose it. No now, both parties want to FIX things, take the consequence of bad business practices and poor choices away and make the government the savior of the people.

There is no fiscal conservative at the top of either ticket. Nina Easton of Fortune Magazine said last night was a historic debate. No longer are free market principles the standard, not even for the republican candidate.

The reason Sarah Palin won her debate with Biden is because she believes in the American people. She said last Thursday night “Government needs to get out of the peoples way, so that the people can continue to make the United States the greatest nation on earth.” Maybe this is just a trial run for the real conservative to arise four years from now and reclaim the true Reagan mantel, but until then this election is “the greatest challenge of our time”, and neither candidate has a plan to fix that.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, it’s the end of the world as we know it, but I feel fine…..