Many of you agree with me that our country is in a time of grave crisis.  I believe many of the problems we face today result from the simple fact that we have far too many politicians and not enough leaders in Washington.   I want to give you some examples of how a leader, as opposed to a politician, solves problems.

The gravest responsibility we have entrusted to our federal government is to provide for our common defense.  In early December, President Obama announced a politician's solution to the war in Afghanistan.  Asked by his commander on the ground for 60 to 70,000 additional troops, President Obama is sending 30,000 troops.  This is the decision of a politician, not a leader.  Torn between his supporters who want to end the war now, and his constitutional responsibility to protect us from our enemies, he announced we would send the troops, but bring them home in July, 2011.   This is a politician's approach.  A leader would send America's finest, give our military the clear direction to complete the mission, and all the resources they need.  "We won't be back until it's over, over there".  A leader defeats our enemies, and keeps us safe.  A politician tries to make everyone happy, and, leaves us in danger.

We are facing the most serious economic problems at least since the Great Depression, and probably in our history.  A politician extends unemployment benefits and pours stimulus money into government and unions to ensure his reelection.  A leader turns loose the private sector to create new jobs.  A leader is courageous enough to extend the Bush tax cuts.  A leader votes "no" to any new taxes on individuals and small business.  A leader cuts spending in every government program except our military, now, in order to bring our unsustainable deficit spending under control.  A leader reviews every government law and regulation that prevents the expansion of private enterprise.  Then he votes to eliminate those laws and regulations, across the board, regardless of which political machine, special interest group, or PAC might be offended.

Americans are carrying a monkey on their back-the cost of health care.  A politician votes to expand government control of health care, rewards special interest groups like trial lawyers, and gives no thought to the fundamental issue, how to reduce costs.  A leader looks to the Constitution and says insurance reform is an issue for the states.  Then he creates a model for insurance reform that every state can adopt that fixes the problems of portability, pre-existing conditions, and prevents any insurance company from canceling protection after the first premium is paid, except in a clear case of fraud.  A leader ignores special interest groups, and enacts total reform of how we approach the tragedy of poor outcomes in medical procedures.  Get lawyers out of the system.  Replace malpractice litigation using the model of workers compensation insurance.   

A leader recognizes one way to reduce costs is to greatly expand the number of care-givers and make them available to more patients. He recognizes that our economic crisis has provided us two incredibly important resources, lots of people looking for jobs, and lots of vacant homes, and then he puts those resources to work.  We need to train thousands more EMTs, physicians assistants, and nurse practitioners.  We need to empower local communities to form cooperatives to buy vacant houses, and hire first-line care providers to staff neighborhood health centers under the direction of licensed physicians.  Our ambulance crews do this now, and they do a great job.  Let's put people back to work caring for their neighbors.  I know we can do it!

I have never been a politician, but I have been a leader all my adult life.  Help me take our country back, one precinct, one county, one state at a time.  Rangers lead the way!

Maybe it's old news now that the Commander-In-Chief, announced his long awaited decision on how we will prosecute the war in Afghanistan, the "central front in the war on terror." Has it really been since July that we have waited? Time sure flies when you are in a war, especially a "war of necessity." I listened, took notes, and came away chilled by what I heard. President Obama declared it is in our "vital national interest" to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to the "epicenter of terror" at the "fastest possible pace." Then there was the not so secret part of the plan. Don't tell the Taliban, or Bin Laden, but we will begin pulling out of Afghanistan in July, 2011.

Mr. President, I beg to differ. Our vital national interest is to win this war, to defeat an enemy who has sworn to destroy us. That vital national interest is not served by deploying more troops, and in the next breath, telling our enemy when we will leave the field of battle. Whatever else he is, Bin Laden is no dummy. Knowing now that more troops are coming, and that just about the time they all arrive, they will begin leaving, Bin Laden will (a) rush his troops into battle knowing they will be slaughtered, or (b) follow the Prophet Mohammed's advice that when you are weaker than your enemy, pull back, regroup, and wait to strike from a position of strength. Perhaps he will follow Mao's advice that the guerilla, in order to succeed in war, must be like the fish in the sea, hiding until his enemy is weak, and then striking.

Mr. President, this is not a recipe for victory, it is a timetable for retreat. This is lots of young men and women from Western Colorado, and all over America in body bags. This is lots more people in Afghanistan and Pakistan even more determined to hide their hero, and celebrate his victory over the "Great Satan." Bin Laden wins just by living.

What is just as tragic is the way this "strategy" will be viewed by the young men and women now, and soon to be, in harm's way. President Obama told us last night this isn't another Viet Nam. I beg to differ. President Nixon ran for office in 1968 telling us he had a plan to end the war in Viet Nam. Once that was announced, no American soldier wanted to be the last one to die. Yet almost half the names on The Wall were added after President Nixon told us, and told our enemy, the war was all but over. President Obama has just delivered a crushing blow to the morale of our military.

Let me propose another way to win this war. Declare a cease fire. Stop the killing. Every time we kill an Afghani, we create twenty-five more terrorists. The way to beat a bully like Bin Laden is to humiliate him. We don't need or even want an American to kill him, or capture him. We want the sea of sympathetic people where he is hiding to dry up. We want a young woman of his own religion to get so disgusted, she turns Bin Laden over to his own people, and they kill him. We need to drink three cups of tea.

Greg Mortenson, a humble man from Montana, is the most highly respected American in the Hindu Kush. Last March, the President of Pakistan hung the Star of Pakistan, their highest civilian award, around his neck. He is only the third foreigner to receive the award in Pakistan's history. Greg was nominated for the same Nobel Peace Prize just awarded to President Obama. In my mind, Greg would have been a much better choice. Greg raises pennies for peace, and then builds schools for young women in one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Tribal Zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has built more than a hundred of these schools. Read Greg's book, Three Cups of Tea, check out his website www.ikat.org.  We need to empower the young women of the Hindu Kush, help them create a better life for themselves, and their children. Show them what it means to be free. Then they will bring Bin Laden to us.

We have a far better chance of winning this war by doing what Greg has done, winning the trust and respect of the people, than by telling Bin Laden we are coming to destroy him, but we will be leaving in July, 2011, whether we find him or not.

It is time to take our country back. We need to restore trust in our elected officials, and bring fiscal sanity back to Washington.  We want a government that is elected by the people, not by special interest groups.  We want to be left alone to raise our children, to work, to take care of each other, to live our lives. I have a vision of how, as your representative in Congress, I will make that happen.   There are no “sound-bite” solutions to the problems we face. We need to restructure our government.  I pledge to each of you that when I am elected, I will immediately draft legislation to take back, for us, the powers that have led to so much abuse in the hands of the federal government. I will find like-minded Representatives and Senators and we will begin the process of amending the Constitution as follows.

1.       No person may serve more than four years as President. We need our president to be a leader, not a politician running for another term in office.

2.      Executive orders issued by the President shall be null and void, and have no legal effect after forty-five days, unless given the advice and consent of the Senate.

3.      Every executive order issued by the President shall be subject to judicial review.

4.      The Armed Forces of the United States shall not engage in war, police action, or any other hostilities for more than sixty days without a declaration of war by the Congress.

5.      Repeal the 17^th Amendment, so that Senators are, once again, appointed by the legislatures of the various states.

6.      No person may serve more than four years out of any six year period in the U.S. House of Representatives.

7.      No person may serve as chief justice, justice, judge, magistrate, or referee in any federal court for more than ten years.

8.      The Congress may not spend more money in any fiscal year than was raised in the preceeding fiscal year, except in time of war declared by Congress.

9.      Every law passed by Congress shall apply to every citizen of the United States.

10. Congress shall pass no law regulating the private workplaces in, or the employees of any State.

11. No employee of the federal government shall have the right to strike, or engage in work stoppages of any kind.

12. The 16^th Amendment shall be repealed and replaced with a flat tax on consumption.

13. Every existing federal law that is inconsistent with the above shall be repealed and of no force or effect.

14. Every federal entitlement program shall be abolished, and responsibility returned to the States. Caring for those in need should be done in our neighborhoods. We know who needs help, and how best to help them. End the downward cycle of dependency and replace it with self-respect.

15. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services will be abolished. Education and health are issues for the States, or the people to control.

16. The Department of Defense will be reorganized to eliminate the individual Service Secretaries and their staffs. We will end duplication and save money by consolidating  similar functions such as training,  purchasing, JAG, medical, military police, criminal investigation, and chaplains all under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

This is the pledge I make to you. Some will say, as some already have, this is an impossible task. We can’t take our country back. It is too late. Politicians are all liars and can’t be trusted. I say it isn’t too late, and we can take it back. I say set our sights high. For far too long, the Republican party has nibbled around the edges of issues. It is time to be clearly different from the political machine now in power, and give the people a real choice.  Some will ask, as some already have, what this has to do with Western Colorado. I say this is how we regain our unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, our right to be left alone, and live our own lives. I am not a liar. I am not a politician.  I am a leader. I am an Army Ranger, and

 Rangers lead the way!