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!