Archive

Herman Cain's Commentary Archive 2009-2012

May 30, 2010

Nobody’s in charge

May 30, 2010
By Herman Cain

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is plagued by finger pointing and government bureaucracy. Nearly 40 days after the tragedy in the Gulf president Obama made a “photo op” visit to Louisiana, while his administration Cabinet heads were still jockeying for “who’s in charge” when it is clear that nobody is in charge, not even the president.

Despite the unprecedented technical challenges of stopping the massive oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the lack of leadership in coordinating the various federal, state and local agencies and their respective functions in this ecological disaster is even worse.

This dangerous lack of leadership starts with the president and his unmanageable executive structure. This is bad for our nation, because it impedes the ability to get the right things done at the right time. Just look at the handling of the tragedy in the Gulf.

Or consider the months of delay by the president to send additional troops to Afghanistan in 2009. We will never know how many lives might have been saved with a more timely decision.

When president Obama took office he inherited a 9.5 trillion dollar national debt. It has increased by 3.5 trillion dollars in his first 16 months in office. It should not have taken 16 months to appoint a “debt reduction commission”. In the real world of business that decision is called a no-brainer. Just do it!

Or consider the token gesture of sending 1,200 troops to the southwest border, but not to enforce immigration laws according to the State Department at the urging of the Mexican government. Additionally, the president of Mexico blasted the new Arizona Immigration Law in a speech before the United States Congress, and then received a standing ovation from the Democrats. What an insult!

Since President Obama has also publically stated his disapproval of the new Arizona Immigration Law, and Attorney General Eric Holder is challenging the law, maybe Mexico is in charge of our southwest border.

Ordinary citizens can only sit on the sidelines and hope that our elected officials and their respective agencies get their act together in handling the disaster in the Gulf, but we can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for “just in time” leadership to address the coming economic disaster and other major problems we are facing.

We face national security threats from terrorists, our military is still fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tensions between North Korea and South Korea are about to erupt even more. Our economy is stalled, federal spending is out of control, Social Security and Medicare are financially dysfunctional, and the new health care “deform” legislation is only going to make economic matters worse.

The partisan divide in Congress is horrendous, because, thankfully, the Republicans have not caved to the ultra liberal agenda of President Obama and the Democrats. And also, thankfully, many people are waking up to the empty gestures by the president and the Democrats of reaching across the political isle seeking Republican input. The Democrats’ idea of input is for the Republicans to just cave and do things their way.

Again, here’s some good news! In addition to the Memorial Day recess, Congress has at least two more major recesses between now and the November 2010 elections. The more Congress is in recess the better off we are for now. Secondly, more and more people are starting to recognize this huge leadership void and will remember in November, and again in November 2012.

We are extremely thankful for the men and women who fought and died to defend this country throughout our history. Memorial Day should also be a reminder that it is up to us to defend this country from destructive forces both outside and within our borders. And some of them are in Washington, D. C.

We are still in charge of the ballot box, but we must elect some real leaders.

May 23, 2010

Seven deadly problems we’re not solving

May 23, 2010
By Herman Cain

Most people are able to avoid committing all of the seven deadly sins (vanity, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth), but our government has managed to solve none of the seven deadly problems that could destroy the future of our nation – health care costs, financial reform, Social Security, Medicare, national debt, immigration law and lack of real job growth.

These seven deadly domestic problems have three things in common. First, inept politicians and bureaucrats have consistently worked on the wrong problem. They have put political agendas and political pandering ahead of what’s best for the people.

Much has been written about the fact that we do not have a health care crisis in America, we have a health care cost crisis. The recently passed health care deform legislation does not address the real problem, nor will it bring down the deficit as we have been falsely told. The right steps to solve the right problem have also been written about extensively, but those steps would get in the way of the all-out power grab we are seeing from this administration and the Democrats in Congress.

Congress is about to pass financial reform legislation, which will also be another “deform” bill, because it establishes another un-needed oversight bureaucracy to oversee all financial institutions except Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One would think that the two entities that were the catalyst for the financial meltdown over a year ago would be included in any so-called reform legislation even if the new bureaucracy is un-needed. But, we are not supposed to think.

Secondly, these same politicians provide lip service to the least informed voters who usually continue to re-elect them, while they let the problems grow for decades. The Social Security and Medicare systems are in desperate need of modernization. This could start with the novel idea of just using payroll taxes for their originally intended purpose of providing benefits, but legislation introduced by Senator Tom Coburn a few years ago to do that failed with 85 votes against.

And thirdly, we know how to solve all of these problems, but we do not have the leadership or political courage in Washington, D.C. to solve them. Instead, problems go unsolved, or we get incremental band-aids and, worse yet, more problems are created. The exponential increase in the national debt is simply irresponsibility on steroids!

The biggest problem with federal immigration laws is that they are not being enforced. So when the state of Arizona passed a bill to empower its law enforcement authorities to do what the federal government was not doing, the president and the administration spoke out against it. The new Arizona immigration enforcement law is not discriminatory as many have claimed, and if they would actually read it they might discover that for themselves.

Real job growth is not going to happen in this economy until the private sector receives some real economic stimulus. Many alternative ideas such as lowering the federal corporate tax rate, suspending taxes on repatriated profits, removing the uncertainty about tax increases, and suspending payroll taxes for a period of time have been made to this administration and the Democratic leaders, but those ideas have been sentenced to committee in Congress and they can’t get out.

Collectively, these seven deadly un-solved problems have us headed for the same type of economic and social turmoil we are seeing in Greece. It’s just a matter of time, and there is no “sugar daddy” to bail Uncle Sam out.

There is some good news! The informed voters are showing tangible signs of not continuing to tolerate the Washington D.C. culture of corruption, cronyism and complacency by electing a different breed of representatives.

As this new mood of the electorate continues into November 2010 and beyond, we might be able to avoid a disastrous future. We might even be able to send some of the seven heavenly virtues (faith, hope, charity, courage, justice, temperance and prudence) back to government.

Let’s dream big!

May 16, 2010

Optimism in the midst of bad news

May 16, 2010
By Herman Cain

We learned some more bad news last week about ObamaCare. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has now reported that ObamaCare is projected to cost an additional $115 billion, and will exceed $1 trillion over the next 10 years.

This latest revelation about ObamaCare is just another installment on a coming financial and health care disaster. The legislation was supposed to reduce the federal deficit, according to the president and the Democrats in Congress, but it will not.

I will repeat a previous observation. No social program in the history of the United States of America has ever hit or come in below projected budget.

As more and more people have gone from “concerned” to “fearful” about the future of this country due to fiscal irresponsibility and the current lack of effective leadership in Washington, D.C., there are still some compelling reasons to be optimistic about the future of our nation.

The Founders of this nation did not put “In God We Trust” on all of our currency by accident. It was a bedrock belief, and it still is today despite the liberals’ attempt to have people believe otherwise. The president’s declaration on his first world apology tour that we are not a Christian nation is dead wrong. We are indeed a Christian and God-believing nation, based on the faith of an overwhelming majority of Americans.

Disagreeing with the president makes me a racist according to liberal political correctness. But I guess it depends on their definition of racist, because the last time I looked in the mirror I was still a very black American not afraid to speak up and speak out.

Even though the Democrats’ latest legislative actions have ignored the will of the people, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, those founding documents still confirm that we the people are in charge of this country. We just have to exercise our voices louder and stronger for those founding conservative principles, and vote the right way at voting time.

Too many people were fooled by President Obama’s promise of “hope and change” without knowing what kind of change he was talking about. Now they know, and many of them, not all, will make some changes in November 2010 and November 2012.

The recent elections of Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey and Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts are two more compelling reasons for optimism. They were not supposed to win, but the majority of the voters thought otherwise.

We can also be optimistic about the fact that Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Majority Leader in the Senate, is trailing at least three Republicans running in the primary race to be decided in June. That’s no guarantee that a Republican will win in November because of dirty politics and Harry Reid’s sizable campaign war chest, but this is the first time in a long time that the chances have been this great.

I also continue to be encouraged by the consistent Gallup poll result that conservatives outnumber liberals two to one, and moderates outnumber liberals nearly two to one. That means that if only half of the moderates have seen the light on this president and the Democrats, then conservatives can win in November and re-establish some balance of power in Congress. Right now there is no balance of power. It’s all about the Democrats’ insatiable grab for power.

In a recent commencement speech at Hampton University, the president said that people having access to too much information was putting a strain on democracy. On the contrary, people who are becoming smarter about what they are being told by the president and the Democrats are helping to liberate our representative democracy.

Oops! I disagreed with the president again. My bad!

Optimism in a sea of bad news is our real hope for the right kind of change.

May 9, 2010

Obama may have surrendered to high unemployment, but the rest of us don’t have to

May 9, 2010
By Herman Cain

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just reported for April 2010 that 290,000 private sector new jobs were added (66,000 census workers), and productivity increased 3.6 percent in the non-farm business sector during the first quarter of 2010. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent from the previous three-month rate of 9.7 percent, which means 15.3 million people are still unemployed.

Here’s what the president’s economic advisors have said about the persistent high unemployment rate:

Obama’s National Economic Council Director Larry Summers “Predicts Perpetually High Unemployment.” The Hill 4/30/10

Obama’s Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says “Unemployment Will Stay Unacceptably High for a Long Period of Time.” (NBC’s “Today Show, 4/1/10)

Obama’s Council Of Economic Advisers Chair, Christina Romer, says “Current Economic Growth Not Enough To Get A Lot Of Job Growth.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 4/4/10)

Obama’s Economic Recovery Board Chair (Paul Volker) says that “Unemployment Will Be Too High for Far Too Long.” The St. Louis Beacon, 5/4/10)

Although the unemployment rate is getting worse, the president’s advisors have surrendered to high unemployment. They don’t even expect a different result, and they have given no indication of trying some different ideas.

Some of us are not willing to give up on creating jobs for the 15.3 million people that are still unemployed. We have persistently offered suggestions on how to create millions of jobs in the economy instead of imaginary “saved” jobs and more government jobs. We can create job growth across all sectors of the economy.

In February of 2010 The Economic Report of the President was released by his Council of Economic Advisers. It was repackaged propaganda about creating jobs and rebuilding the economy through health care legislation, clean-energy initiatives, infrastructure projects, small-business tax breaks, and more ineffective gimmicks.

The propaganda may be working on some people, but their economic recovery strategy is not working. The modest job gains are not seismic shifts in businesses’ plans for growth. They are the result of businesses stabilizing their businesses while squeezing out more and more productivity gains.

Nearly every night on my radio show, I receive calls from small businessmen who say they are just trying to survive. Even worse are those that call and say that they cannot survive any longer and may have to close the doors on their businesses.

One caller shared with the audience that he had lost his job that day, because his company was trying to get below 50 employees so it could avoid the health care mandate penalties it could not afford. On the other hand, three CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies told me recently that they would be continuing to reduce their workforces this year. Though not statistically determined, these stories are real.

It pains me to hear real-life stories like these, just as it pains me to personally know many talented people who can’t find a job because this economic recovery is stalled, and the administration and Congress will not try any ideas that just might look like they came from a conservative.

Whereas I am happy for the 290,000 people who found jobs last month, I will not trumpet an economic recovery until the unemployment rate starts to consistently go down, businesses are in a growth mode again, and 15.3 million unemployed people are happy again.

It’s going to take more than propaganda to make that happen.

May 2, 2010

10 cans amidst all the can’t thinking

May 2, 2010
By Herman Cain

The Gulf Coast states did not need another disaster to deal with, but the bad news just keeps on coming. People were killed when the British Petroleum oil platform exploded, along with what will be the worst oil spill in history.

As we hear the news each day about the difficulty in stopping the spread of the oil spill in the Gulf, and the impending dangers to wildlife, fisheries, businesses and the coastal states, we become more and more frustrated because there is nothing most of us can do individually to help the situation.

We can only pray for the people and agencies trying to remedy the situation, that they will have the resolve and resources to stop the spread of the impact of this disaster.

Consistent bad news leads to a bad attitude, lack of confidence and, eventually, failure. Just ask any high achiever in business, sports or any endeavor of life.

Since the summer of 2008, we have been fed a constant diet of more and more bad news about the economy, the credit crisis, the housing crisis, the recession, political scandals, a dysfunctional federal government, crooked politicians, crooked lenders, crooked borrowers and crooked executives.

We are constantly being reminded that it is going to take time to fix these problems, and that there are no quick fix solutions. We know that, but the Obama Administration and Congress continue to believe that they can spend us out of these problems. They can’t. The math does not work.

The president’s campaign promises about transparency, bipartisanship and no earmarks in legislation have been broken. And as the mainstream media looks the other way and tries to rationalize the broken promises, the informed voters get more and more frustrated, while the uninformed voters stay stuck on stupid.

Many voters are frustrated with both the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress, because they have failed to fix the real problems, as they continue to ignore lessons from history and the voting public.

As a result, many people are losing hope.

Last week President Obama issued a challenge to his supporters to help him re-elect Democrats to Congress so he can continue to “deliver on the promise of change, hope and prosperity.” I shared that with the listeners and asked them to share their feelings and opinions about change, hope and prosperity.

Only one caller out of about 20 thought the president was doing a wonderful job delivering change, hope and prosperity. But before I could ask him why he felt that way, he hung up. The other 19 callers totally disagreed and stayed on and gave reasons as to why, which we talk about nearly every night on the show.

The response by a 29-year-old first-time caller summed it up when she said, “This change is killing my hope for prosperity.”

I have not lost hope, because there are things we can do to capture the change people were hoping for but are not getting. We have our voices, our votes and our valuables (time and money) to work with.

For those that are losing hope I offer these “Ten Cans”:
 
You CAN have a dream, without knowing how to get there.
You CAN have a life, just start somewhere. You CAN make a difference, one person at a time.
You CAN make things happen, don’t expect a straight line.
You CAN be happy, if you have a hope inside.
You CAN have love in your life, but look beyond the outside
You CAN solve your problems, but FIRST, count your blessings.
You CAN find the strength, like an eagle, waiting, and resting.
You CAN make this a better world, but life is just a minute.
God CAN lead you through it, if all your heart is in it. – The Hermanator

Despite all the bad news, there is hope if we do what we CAN do.