Don't Sacrifice Leadership (9/13/04)
by Dean Hartwell
In my book, Truth Matters: How the Voters Can Take Back Their Nation, I opine that presidential candidates who fail to ask us to sacrifice make poor leaders. They are constrained to pleasing voters, which usually makes them unable to pursue policies that will make our nation better.
Presidential campaigns have in recent history been won by candidates who make the nicest-sounding promises, especially on economic matters. Then-candidate George W. Bush, for instance, promised “tax cuts, so help me God” in 2000. His father, George H. W. Bush, told voters, “read my lips, no new taxes” in 1988. In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to cut taxes, raise defense spending and balance the budget.
These promises pleased the voters enough to help them win elections but each of these presidents had trouble showing leadership on the economy. All of them presided over record-setting budget deficits. All of them stubbornly refused to raise taxes to generate revenue to offset their deficits.
We need leadership unafraid to make the hard choices. One issue crying out for sacrifice is Social Security.
According to the 2004 annual report on Social Security, the program will fail to meet its outlay in 2018. It will be able to pay only three-quarters of its benefits from that time until 2042, when it will go insolvent.
Lou Dobbs, in his recent article, U.S. News & World Report - Time to touch the third rail, suggests three ways to resolve this problem: increase payroll taxes by 15 percent, reduce benefits by 13 percent, or a combination of the two.
Whatever the choice of the presidential candidates, the solution will involve sacrifice. Yet, so far, neither President Bush nor Senator Kerry has told us what we don’t want to hear.
President Bush wants to privatize Social Security. However, he hasn’t explained where the money to pay for the $1 trillion in transition costs will come from.
Senator Kerry has given no suggestions on how to save Social Security. He has said instead that he will not raise taxes or raise the retirement age or cut benefits for people who rely upon the program. He has also said he will not privatize it.
It is up to the voters to push our candidate for answers to problems that make sense. We must be willing to sacrifice for a greater good, in this case to make sure a promise the government has made to retirees that they will be taken care of. The trade off for our sacrifice will be stronger leadership.