What’s in a Legacy?

To the Editor:
Many of my fellow 70-something colleagues have much in common. We’re grateful for having lived during a period of high American achievement and growth. We wonder if our nation has seen its best days. From humble beginnings, our individual initiative, perseverance and hard work yielded successful careers. We raised families and are now enjoying retirement, mostly on a modest pension supplemented by Social Security, but that popular program and Medicare need serious reforms to remain solvent.
WWII was a springboard as returning veterans, “The Greatest Generation,” launched the nation toward unprecedented prosperity. The G.I. Bill helped thousands get a college education. Surging innovation, entrepreneurship and standard of living followed. VA-backed mortgages sparked home ownership. The country was together. Government was more enabler than nanny.
I entered college (late 1950s) financed by summer, holiday and campus jobs. How things have changed! Paying your own way is unlikely today, even if one could find a decent summer job. The fed’s student-loan program has contributed to soaring tuition costs. Loans outstanding now total over $1 trillion.
The 1960s saw the beginning of the Great Society and war on poverty. The government has since spent billions to little avail, judging by today’s poverty numbers. But it also saw the beginning of great strides in civil rights. I’m not pining for the “good old days.” They weren’t all good. Advances in medicine and technology have lengthened and enhanced our lives. However, endless growth in government is having a troublesome affect on the nation. There’s less freedom of choice, more federal intrusion into our daily lives plus staggering national debt!
Example: Obamacare. This complex law requires many of us to buy a product, health insurance, dictates what kind of coverage features must be purchased, whether or not they are relevant or beneficial and fines us if we don’t! We have a regulatory binge ongoing; in health care, and finance.
The EPA’s zealous regulating foolishly attacks our best chance at energy independence, fossil fuels. Our president loves executive orders. No waiting for Congress to exercise its constitutional role. Bitter partisanship is at toxic levels, compromise is an endangered concept and presidential leadership’s scarce. Government’s activist role today is not out of humane interest in the welfare of the nation or its people, in my opinion, rather a desire for greater political power through income redistribution, growth of entitlements and “free stuff.” This could bankrupt the nation with our $17 trillion-and-counting debt.
President Obama’s policies are killing incentive and private-sector growth. Expanding government leads to arrogance, stonewalling and other evasions of accountability; as it has with fast and furious guns to Mexico, the IRS mess, Benghazi and most recently, the Obamacare rollout quagmire.
Obama’s legacy, will reflect his goal of transforming the nation. Say goodbye to a robust, vibrant country and hello to a government-focused one; wherein a stagnant economy, fewer jobs, runaway inflation, eventual economic collapse, and a dangerous loss of respect in the world become hallmarks. Mainstream media is complicit. What a terrible legacy to dump on our children and grandkids. Too much of the American electorate is uninformed, misinformed or apathetic. Misinformation is growing with so many sources of “news,” including cyberspace.
Transformational changes are sweeping our nation. Current young and future generations need to pay attention, casting a critical eye on information, challenging this “new order” of exploding government control. Those generations can and should shape America’s future, or, power-seeking politicians will.