Washington Sucks! There. I said it.
But, I don’t feel any better. I’m just sick and tired of Washington betraying the American people time and time and time again.
We’re facing some serious challenges in 2016, both at home and abroad. America needs strong medicine. But far too few of our so-called leaders have been willing to risk their prestige and perks to make tough decisions that serve our national interest. We want and need strong leadership to get our ship headed back in the right direction.
Our forefathers risked their fortunes, their families and their very lives to create this country. What we have done with it over the last 230 years is sickening. No branch of the federal government is without blame.
Can you imagine during the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787 if someone had stood up and asked the Founding Fathers, “What about congressional pensions?” If those brave souls could walk down the hallways of Congress today, well surely they would be horrified at what they would see.
Have our problems become tougher to solve or are our leaders not tough enough to solve them?
The American people now owe more than $19 trillion in debt. Basically, the national debt has doubled in the eight years of the Obama presidency.
That’s money our children and grandchildren will be forced to repay because one party opposes raising taxes while the other party opposes cutting government spending. Neither can persuade the other, so the compromise is just spending money we don’t have.
We didn’t get into a fiscal hole this big overnight, so we certainly won’t get out of it overnight. But, we need to start the process of restoring fiscal responsibility to the federal budget now. We simply cannot afford to delay the Day of Reckoning for another five, 10 or 15 years.
Meanwhile, the cost of a child’s college education continues to soar beyond what most hard-working families can even imagine affording. For those families with more than one child, it’s simply mind-boggling.
How did Washington respond to these crises? Well, Washington reached into its limited bag of tricks and now proudly offers debt as the only solution. Making student loans smaller has now become a function of the federal government while the taxpayers are on the hook for more than $1.3 trillion in federally guaranteed student debt.
Obamacare started with failed websites and is ending with a total collapse of health insurance coverage providers. Stimulus One and then two were perhaps the greatest waste of taxpayer dollars we have ever seen. The Cash for Clunkers program seems like a quaint fairy tale now, but it was all too real.
Today, a short, chubby, crazy man in North Korea is flipping off the entire world. Iran is repeatedly buzzing our naval vessels with glorified bass fishing boats. Russia taunts our pilots in the skies. There are so many crossed red lines in Syria the country should be red on the map, both as a testament to our spinelessness and a reminder of the blood spilled needlessly.
Our leaders insist on resettling tens and tens of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees here, even though we know almost nothing about them. That doesn’t even include the fact that hundreds of these refugees have been mistakenly given U.S. citizenship.
Now, an NFL quarterback kneels, instead of standing, for the national anthem as a sign of protest. Mexican heroin mixed with elephant tranquilizers is killing hundreds of our young adults every single day. Ford Motor Company wants to move yet another manufacturing plant out of the United States and into Mexico. The streets of Charlotte, N.C., are on fire.
These are just some of the reasons Donald Trump may be our next president. The media focuses on the real issues of vital importance, like his hair and tax returns.
Americans are not in love with Donald Trump. The mainstream media will never understand. This is not the cool kids choosing a homecoming king in a local high school.
Voters are not angry. They’re furious. They think Washington needs an enema. It may get one, because voters just might give Washington what they think it deserves.
This is why millions and millions of Americans are going to vote for Donald Trump. Calling them deplorable, racists, homophobes and irredeemable convinces them they are right.
Donald Trump didn’t start this movement. But he speaks to it, understands it and leads it. Now, that same movement may just put him in the White House. A word of advice to Washington: Change is coming. Look busy.
Barry Bennett is a Republican Strategist based in Washington. He formerly managed Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign and previously served as a Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
