Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 8, 2011

9

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday, January 8, 2011


As we turn a new year, we find ourselves confronted 
with many problems that collectively 
have caused some to claim that the American era 
is finished. Wars, terrorism, recession and debt 
have given rise to a crisis of confidence. But I 
write today with unshakeable conviction that 
the American era is just beginning. This is not a 
wish, it is a certitude, and to prove that, we have 
only to look at our history and character. 

We can start at the very beginning if you wish. 
Our country was birthed in total opposition to 
the prevailing wisdom which held that the young, 
untrained, ill-skilled farmers and yokels of these 
distant colonies would never be able to hold off, 
let alone defeat, the British Redcoats, believed 
by many to be the greatest army ever fielded in 
combat up to that time. Our country also faced 
a grave test less than one hundred years into its 
young history in which brother fought against 
brother in a civil war that was all but sure to end 
the experiment in self government and devotion 
to the rights of all men. But America prevailed as 
it has always done.

Coming into modern times, there has been no 
shortage of pronouncements that the American 
era is ending. In the 1930s, the Great Depression 
was supposed to mark the end of our economic 
system. The rise of Nazi Germany and then 
Stalinist Russia both promised the triumph of a 
better engineered man, devoted to the common 
good rather than the selfishness of the individual. 
In the 1950s, Americans were caricatured as 
unthinking, unimaginative company-men. The 
1960s saw a counterculture movement which 
again postulated the end of traditional American 
culture. The 1970s witnessed recession and 
inflation of such magnitude that many believed 
we truly had reached the terminus of our age of 
plenty. In the 1980s, we were told that the Japanese 
model of state-directed economic policy, 
with its emphasis on the collective at the expense 
of individual dreams and aspirations, was the 
only model which could guarantee economic 
dominance. In the early 2000s, it was Europe’s 
turn to be our superior. Given our tech-bubble 
collapse and the rise of the kinder, gentler European 
Union, we were relegated once again to has-
been status. And finally, today, we are told that 
China will inevitably dominate us and the rest of 
the world.

The common thread across all the years, decades 
and centuries has always been the absolute 
conviction in the irrelevance of the American 
model and the pronouncement of its imminent 
defeat. But that hasn’t happened; it isn’t happening 
now; nor will it happen anytime in the 
foreseeable future. The common thread is a lie 
postulated by those who stand opposed to the 
American ideal of self government and individual 
freedom, both of which necessarily undergird 
and sustain the economic success and international 
influence we have enjoyed and will continue 
to enjoy.

After all was said and done, America was born 
and survived its civil war to see its founding principles 
finally extended to all Americans. The massive 
economic dislocations of the depression, oil 
shortages, stagflation and tech-bubble collapses 
pushed us back a bit into unfamiliar, defensive, 
self-doubting postures, but they didn’t last for 
long. So, too, the false prophesies of a superior 
man engineered and controlled by strong fascist 
or communist elites collapsed on to the ash 
heap of history – ironically, the place where we 
were supposed to land. The most highly touted 
of the Asian models, Japan Inc., has flirted with 
national bankruptcy for more than a decade, and 
Chinese successes of the last several years mask 
growing social and political problems which are 
more likely to rip the country apart than to propel 
it into a world leadership role.

America is not dead, nor is 
it terminally wounded. Our 
future today is brighter than 
it has ever been, despite the 
current economic statistics. 
We’ve overcome 10% unemployment 
before; we’ve overcome 
the ravages of inflation; 
we’ve risen out of the public 
malaise and self-doubt which has periodically 
gripped our national psyche. The reason we have 
overcome all previous setbacks and challenges, as 
we will overcome our current challenge, is found 
in our national character. The true strength of a 
nation can’t be measured by the sum-totalling of 
its economic parts. Those are but a result of true 
strength. America has been great and remains 
great because its people are free and believe in 
themselves. The two are inseparable and thankfully 
they exist together in our country today, as 
they have since the beginning.

We are a people who can do great things. We 
are free-thinkers, tinkerers and perpetually restless, 
always seeking to build a better mousetrap 
and reap the rewards there from. We are fortunately 
also a free people where such innate 
human curiosity and desires are allowed a free 
rein. Spiritually, philosophically and politically 
we seek to improve what already is and to create 
what is not yet. 

In contrast to our national character, stands 
the rest of the world. Europe still clings to the 
privilege of birth and cannot assimilate those 
foreign to its shores. The Muslims cannot provide 
tolerance to the different religious factions 
within Islam, let alone to its other religious minorities. 
Japan remains focused on genealogy 
and still cannot let its dead economic entities 
die. Russia sadly has returned to rule by a cleptocracy, 
although it clothes itself in the shallow 
appearances of democracy. And China remains 
opposed to the freedoms demanded for creativity 
and progress to truly flourish. They copy and imitate 
well, but they create very little that is unique 
and boundary-breaking.

Thirty years ago, we faced an economic and 
philosophical crisis similar to the one we face 
today. Both then and now we were caught in a 
moment of national self-doubt. Back then on 
January 20th, 1981, a new president rose to the 
lectern on the west terrace of the capital and 
called a nation back to its self. Ronald Reagan 
told us that “we achieved so much, prospered as 
no other people on earth [because] in this land 
we unleashed the energy and individual genius of 
man to a greater extent than has ever been done 
before.” His words rekindled the American spirit 
which has always been the true backbone of 
our strength and success. It hasn’t died, and we 
have no reason today to limit ourselves to small 
dreams. We remain a great nation and thus are 
worthy of great dreams, big dreams that others 
will say are impossible. The true test of where 
we will go from here forward is whether the prevailing 
wisdom in the rest of the world claims 
it to be impossible. If we find ourselves dreaming 
of what they say is possible, we’re finished. 
If we dream of what the rest say is impossible, 
then our brightest days still lay ahead of us. We 
are Americans, and we must be willing to believe 
in ourselves and in our ability to accomplish the 
impossible. Through confidence and faith, and 
with God’s help, we will rise above the problems 
of today and accomplish deeds that have yet to be 
imagined. We may be down, but we need never 
be done. That’s what it means to be an American.

About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is a 
freelance writer and has spoken to several civic 
and religious organizations on cultural and 
moral issues. He lives in the Los Angeles area 
with his wife and 3 children and is active in the 
community. He can be reached at gregwelborn@
earthlink.net.

HOWARD Hays

 As I See It

America, Down 

But Never Done

GREG Welborn


The new (pre-owned) Republican 
leadership will be pursuing 
something Democrats have 
yearned for: hearings and Congressional 
investigations into the 
Executive Branch. 

Since Democrats took control 
of Congress, there’s been clamoring for thorough and 
transparent investigations into the Bush Administration’s 
dismissing warnings prior to 9/11, “fixing the 
facts” to lie us into the Iraq War, sanctioning torture 
and “renditions” to “black-site prisons”, etc. There 
was disappointment when President Obama said we 
should “look forward, not backwards”, confounding 
those who saw public accounting not as settling 
scores, but as deterring others who’d consider such 
malfeasance in the future.

 Republicans harbor no such reticence. Their target 
is one whom House Oversight and Government 
Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-
CA) referred to on comedian Rush Limbaugh’s show 
as “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern 
times”, Barack Obama. (Later on CNN, Issa said he 
was referring rather to a “corrupt administration”. 
Then, he explained what he really meant to say was 
handling so much money, much of it appropriated 
under President Bush, can’t help but have a “corrupting 
effect”.)

Top priorities for Congress were to be jobs and 
the economy, but Rep. Issa’s committee is set to 
tackle more urgent matters, such as overreach by the 
FDA under the food safety bill signed by President 
Obama. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), Chair of the 
appropriations subcommittee covering the FDA, referred 
to “nanny-state politicians” and assured that 
“the system we have is doing a darn good job.”

HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius might testify at Rep. 
Issa’s hearing that, as she’s stated before, “Today, one 
out of six Americans gets sick from food-borne illness 
each year with 128,000 people ending up in the 
hospital and 3,000 people dying every year.” Republicans 
would argue that doesn’t justify the bill’s 
cost of $1.4 billion over five years. Democrats could 
counter by comparing that to the $152 billion annual 
cost to the U.S. economy of food-borne illnesses 
(according to a Georgetown University study) - but 
Republicans have never been good at math.

Another concern to be addressed by Rep. Issa’s 
committee is the hurt feelings of multi-millionaires 
on Wall Street, who’ve had to endure accusations 
they share culpability in the 2008 economic meltdown. 
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the new 
designated culprits. If they’re at fault, though, it’s for 
coming late to the party; Fannie and Freddie being 
prohibited from dealing in sub-prime mortgages 
while Wall-Streeters were already making fortunes 
off them - along with their collateralized securities, 
derivatives and credit-default swaps.

The task of Rep. Issa’s committee is to place blame 
for the Great Recession on those grifters who snookered 
naive loan officers at Chase, B of A and Wells 
Fargo into granting bad loans. Blame a meddlesome 
government and shiftless poor folks, not victimized 
Wall Street innocents.

Other committees are planning their own hearings. 
Homeland Security Chair Rep. Peter King (R-
NY) wants to delve into the “radicalization” of Muslims 
in the U.S. He might attempt to debunk reports 
that recent terrorist plots have been thwarted by authorities 
who’d been tipped off by - Muslims. Rep. 
Lamar Smith (R-TX) wants his Judiciary Committee 
to hold hearings on whether Attorney General Eric 
Holder has sufficiently addressed threats to election 
integrity posed by members of the New Black Panthers. 
(“Both of them”, quipped Keith Olbermann).

Barely into his seat again as Chair of the House 
Rules Committee, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) has already 
embarrassed himself and his constituents here 
in the 26th District. Try as he might, he was unable 
to make sense to Greta Van Susteren in an interview 
on Fox News. When asked about Republican pledges 
to hold hearings on proposed legislation, then 
scheduling a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act 
with no hearings at all, Dreier replied there would 
indeed be hearings on the matter - after the vote 
had been taken. This didn’t get him anywhere, so he 
then explained there would be no hearings because 
the legislation itself was one sentence long. The impact 
of repealing the ACA might be monumental, 
but the language itself was short, so therefore no 
hearings. (Van Susteren evinced a clear expression 
of “Huh?”)

Republican handlers are aware of the concern over 
jobs, and that President Obama, at fifty-percent approval, 
is still polling significantly higher than Congress. 
“Obamacare”, therefore, won’t do anymore as 
the label for the Affordable Care Act; it’s now “The 
Job-Killing Healthcare Act”. Rep. Dreier had some 
trouble following the script in his interview with 
Van Susteren; at one point simply referring to “The 
Healthcare Act”, then stammering to retroactively 
add the “Job-Killing” part.

In this new hearings-crazy House, why no hearings 
on repeal of the Affordable Care Act? Probably, 
because then they’d have to specify what they’re 
willing to repeal. Referring to parts of the act that 
are already in effect, or will be this year, do they 
want to return to having young adults kicked off 
their parents’ plan at 23, rather than 26? Let insurance 
companies deny coverage to sick kids upon 
discovery of a “pre-existing condition”? Let insurance 
companies cancel coverage if you get sick? Allow 
lifetime caps on coverage? Revoke tax credits to 
small businesses providing coverage for employees? 
Force seniors to again pay full price for prescriptions 
falling in the “doughnut hole” of Medicare 
coverage? Let insurance companies spend as much 
of your premium dollar as they want on marketing 
and executive bonuses, and as little as they want on 
actual healthcare?

Already, Rep. Darrell Issa has sent over 150 letters 
to businesses, trade associations and think tanks requesting 
lists of regulations they’d like to see eliminated 
- regulations established in the interests of 
We the People, but which might affect the profits of 
those who purchase House members.

We’re told such actions relate to jobs, but the 
end result is more jobs moved overseas, continued 
high unemployment at home, and more tax breaks 
encouraging off-shoring defended by Rep. David 
Dreier.

I wish there’d be a Congressional hearing on that.

DAVID Dreier

 News From The Hill

Dreier Introduces Four Key Bills on Opening Day 
of 112th Congress


WASHINGTON, DC – 
Congressman David Dreier 
(R-San Dimas, CA) today introduced 
several bills aimed at 
helping our economy recover, 
cutting federal spending, securing 
our borders and protecting 
our natural resources.

“My top priority is to get 
our economy going again,” 
Dreier said. “Helping families keep more of their 
hard-earned money and providing businesses with 
additional resources to invest in their operations 
will help create jobs and get our economy back on 
track.”

Dreier re-introduced the Fair and Simple Tax 
Act, a comprehensive tax reform plan to simplify 
the code and reduce the burden on taxpayers. The 
bill creates an optional one-page tax form with three 
simple rates of 10, 15 and 30 percent. The bill also 
preserves major deductions, including mortgage interest, 
charitable, state and local taxes, the child tax 
credit and the personal exemption.

Dreier also re-introduced his bill to enhance 
oversight of government programs and eliminate 
waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending. The 
Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, establishes 
a two-year budget cycle to streamline the 
budget process and improve the fiscal management 
of government programs.

“It is critical to our economic recovery that we 
rein in the size and scope of government,” Dreier 
said. “Reforming the federal budget process will 
allow Congress to better scrutinize federal spending, 
helping us to cut wasteful and duplicative 
programs.”

In addition, Dreier is demonstrating his long-
standing commitment to stopping illegal immigration 
by introducing the Illegal Immigration Enforcement 
and Social Security Protection Act, to 
crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants.

“The roots of our broken immigration and employer 
verification system can be traced to three underlying 
factors: too many unreliable documents, 
including the Social Security card; a faulty employment 
verification system; and lax enforcement,” 
Dreier said. “Improving the security of the work 
authorization verification program will help to stop 
the hiring of illegal immigrants.”

The legislation creates an easy-to-use electronic 
verification system based on a secure, tamper-proof 
Social Security card, which employers can use to 
electronically verify the work authorization status 
of prospective employees. The bill also raises penalties 
for employers who hire illegal immigrants and 
increases personnel to enforce compliance with the 
law.

Finally, Dreier is introducing bipartisan legislation 
to protect and enhance recreational opportunities 
on our federal lands in the San Gabriel Valley. 
The Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests 
Protection Act adds to existing wilderness areas in 
both the Angeles and the San Bernardino National 
Forests and directs the Forest Service to address the 
backlog of maintenance, focusing on the recreation 
areas impacted by the Station Fire. In addition, this 
legislation includes language expanding forest fire 
prevention activities.

“As two of the most visited national forests in our 
nation, it is vital that we preserve recreational opportunities 
in the Angeles and San Bernardino National 
Forests for future generations,” Dreier said. 
“In addition, we must continue to ensure that the 
men and women who work to prevent and contain 
wildfires have the ability to do their job safely 
and effectively.” In drafting this legislation, Dreier 
worked with dozens of individuals, organizations 
and local officials who are focused on protecting 
this area, including property owners, as well as 
the Los Angeles and San Bernardino County Fire 
Departments.

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