A Patriotic Nurse

Forget President Obama’s 40 percent (and still falling) approval rating. That just means that less than 45 percent of those surveyed have no clue about the direction of the country. Or, those same people support the president’s weakening of America. And please spare me the worn-out excuses that it was Bush’s fault, or things are bad because it was worse than he thought.

Consider the facts:

President Obama ended the Space Shuttle program as of two weeks ago when the last shuttle returned safely from its mission. We will now have to thumb a ride from the Russians if we want to get to the Space Station, and it will cost us dearly. John F. Kennedy’s vision of our leadership in space technology and exploration will soon be a national nightmare. We will now be a follower instead of a leader.

When President Obama made the decision to terminate the missile defense system being built in Turkey, he made it easier for nations like Iran to attack our friends like Israel with nuclear weapons. In talking with a ballistic missile defense system expert recently, I was told that we could have enhanced our overall missile defense systems capability by upgrading our sea-based defense systems technology for a relatively small investment. The Obama Administration said no to the expenditure even though, as a result, the world is not safer.

And now that the “surge” in Afghanistan is working according to General David Petraeus and others, the president chose to withdraw about one-third of the troops over the next year. That means the remaining two-thirds will be at a disadvantage in fighting the remaining enemy. The enemy did not announce that they will reduce their efforts to try to kill our soldiers by one-third.

The U.S. involvement in Libya has deteriorated into a debacle. The objective was not clear. The exit strategy is not clear. But the fact that we are shouldering the biggest share of the costs in this war is real clear. That’s not leadership.

Instead of moving toward energy independence, the president has made decisions that would make us more energy-dependent. An extended unnecessary moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the oil-spill crisis, and telling Brazil we will be their best customers for their oil with our money, does not convey strength.

America should and can be its own best customer for energy because we have the natural resources to do so. We just lack the will and leadership to do so.

We should not be surprised that this same weak leadership has allowed the debt ceiling situation to become a crisis. It could have been avoided, as I discussed last week. But as Speaker John Boehner put it, the president’s solution to the debt crisis is to give him a blank check.

Once again, in my grandfather’s vernacular, “We ain’t stupid!”

Our sluggish economy is our biggest crisis after national security. The business sector is the engine of economic growth. But the Obama Administration has done nothing to fuel the engine. It has only loaded costly legislation and programs in the caboose of our economy. Just look at the most recently announced GDP growth rate of 1.3 percent for the 2nd quarter of this year, following a revised 1st quarter growth rate of 0.4 percent. This is simply pathetic – but predictable.

Because if there’s no fuel in the engine then there is no economic growth.

It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense.

The president and his liberal allies continue to play the class warfare card by saying the rich should pay more in taxes, and that big corporations should give up some tax incentives to solve our economic and debt crisis. That’s just hogwash!

Taxing the rich and big corporations more will not solve the problem. A president who can lead and understands business and the economy would solve the problem.

Every time I hear about the latest unemployment statistics, it breaks my heart for those who want to work and can’t find work. And as I told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday recently, I couldn’t care less about how much people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates pay in taxes. I care more about the nearly 15 million people who can’t find a job that they are capable of doing because this economy is stalled, while this president just gives another speech.

Ending the shuttle program, weakening our ballistic missile defense systems, the retreat in Afghanistan, the debacle in Libya, the energy crisis, the spending and debt crisis, our anemic economic growth, and the painful unemployment rate are the results of weak leadership and failed policies.

America! We have a problem and it’s getting worse.

The facts are clear. We’re on the wrong track.

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originally Published: Sunday, July 31, 2011