Editorial: Election Day doesn’t hold much choice

Election Day is less than seven days from now, and it’s anybody’s guess who will win – Barack Romney or Mitt Obama. After enduring what has become a $2 billion campaign between the lesser of two Democrats, America will go to the polls Tuesday to decide if the nation will continue on the fast track to self-destruction or take the slow scenic track to the same destination.

To be sure President Barack Obama is the worst of the two choices. Many of his supporters see him as a messianic leader who has been sent to right wrongs, correct historic injustices, and take America off its high horse. Many of his opponents see him as the antichrist whose reelection will hasten the coming apocalypse (either this December or at some undetermined date in the future but definitely soon).

This column thinks Obama is neither of those. Instead, he is quite simply a socialist who prefers a large overseeing government to help manage the affairs of a people too stupid to take care of themselves. He thrives on people being dependent on government and believes that government can solve virtually every problem we face.

So it would seem that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is the better choice, and indeed he is. But do not fool yourself into thinking that electing Romney will solve America’s woes. Hard core Republicans have convinced themselves that Romney is a great man who has a great plan, but after suffering through the three presidential and one vice presidential debate, your humble editor can’t tell you exactly what it is.

Oh yes, the governor got a few good jabs in on the president, but he never went for the jugular or did anything that would convince me that he can turn America around and most importantly reign in this out of control federal government. Time after time, Romney said, “I agree with the president,” before outlining some piddly way that he differed from the president.

Look at the government’s takeover of the health care industry for example. Romney promises to repeal Obamacare on day one when he takes office, but that is simply not going to happen unless the Republicans win the presidency and both houses of Congress. And even if they pull off that miracle, show me one massive federal entitlement that has ever been repealed.

But let’s assume that somehow all the prayers of everyone on the Religious Right are answered, and the Grand Old Party takes control of Washington. Romney, and indeed many Republican leaders, say they want to keep some of the basic requirements of Obamacare, including the ban on denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Romney and his party do not get it. You cannot mandate certain levels of coverage and not have the cost of providing insurance go up. The fact of the matter is the more the government mucks around in health care, the more expensive it gets. What America needs is to re-introduce free market principals back into health care and to recognize that it is a business, as horrifying as that may be to some folks.

Likewise on education, the governor agrees that the federal government should have a role in running our local schools, and in one debate he said he wants to “grade” public schools, which sounds like a proposal for another federal standard of perfection. Our local schools are overrun with federal programs and mandates that have made them less about educating students and more about meaningless scores and overbearing social agendas. The best thing that could happen to the federal Department of Education is for it to be abolished.

On taxes, Obama wants to raise taxes on “the rich,” whoever that is. And Romney’s plan, as I understand it, is to cut taxes (or maybe just keep the Bush tax cuts) and “close loopholes” by limiting people to just one “bucket” of tax credits and deductions, whatever the hell that means. Here’s a better idea: repeal the 16th Amendment and institute a national sales tax on every retail transaction. It’s fair, it’s easy, and everyone from the deadbeat on welfare to Donald Trump would have to pay it.

And finally let’s look at the budget. Obama doesn’t do budgets. It’s been about three years since one was passed in Washington. His fiscal plan is simple: tax anyone that works very hard, tax them more if they are successful, and then borrow money from China to keep spending when that’s not enough. Romney, by contrast, promises to balance the budget “in eight to ten years” in part by cutting off funding to PBS. At my house and in my business we don’t have ten years to balance the budget; we have to do it every month of every year. Any presidential candidate with a ten-year plan is worthless. If you can’t get it done in one year, you’re no good to us because the next election cycle starts 12 months after the president is sworn in.

The choices the two major parties have given us in this election are sickening, and it’s stark indication of how far this country has strayed. Perhaps this is a good time to consider voting Libertarian. But if by some miracle the Republicans make a clean sweep next week, then they better, by golly, find a backbone and get serious about limiting government or we are all destined for 21st century serfdom.