President Obama will deliver his final State of the Union Address tonight. As he and his administration begin to cobble together a legacy worthy of the history books, he will attempt to sell the American people on a star-spangled list of Washington's accomplishments over the past seven years.
But you and I know better, and we're not buying it.
So, what exactly have this president and the professional political class done for America?
They have successfully eroded the constitutional checks and balances that protect us from illegal executive action; and ceded our liberties and privacy to the bureaucrats of the IRS and the NSA.
Their runaway spending has led to a budget deficit of almost $19 trillion, a national debt in excess of $65 trillion and politicians on both sides of the isle keep spending money we don’t have.
They’ve given us seven years of absolute failure to reform what is broken: a crumbling infrastructure; an education system that is letting our children down; a Social Security system that is nearing bankruptcy; an over complicated tax system that is holding back our economy; and irrational and stifling regulation from the EPA, NLRB, FCC, CPA and FINRA.
We face increased threats overseas at a time when this president and politicians in Washington have failed to protect our borders to the south, and have welcomed a flood of Syrian refugees we admittedly don’t have the resources to properly screen. We face increasingly dangerous national security challenges: ISIS; a nuclear arms race between Saudi Arabia and Iran; instability in the Middle East; and growing threats from Russia, China and North Korea.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of the past seven years? We are now a nation more divided today than we've seen in decades. The professional politicians have set such a patronizing example in Washington that we are now expected to be a nation of politically correct, Stepford citizens who must concede our First Amendment rights to the ruling class.
And while these may not be the accomplishments President Obama wants to take victory laps on tonight, they certainly represent what we get when the professional political class runs rough shot in Washington.
I don't believe this is the fate our great republic is doomed to meet. Like you, I know we can do better.
I know that with a return to citizen government, we can restore fiscal sanity in Washington by passing a balanced budget amendment, cutting the size of government, fixing our broken tax code and addressing entitlement reform. I know that when people like you and me stand up to the Washington machine, our children can receive the education they deserve without bureaucratic interference.
I believe that when we send people with real world experience to Washington, we can expect results-oriented leadership capable of rebuilding our nation: from our bridges and roads to common sense regulation and tax reform.
And I know, first-hand, that we can restore America’s prominence on the world stage and regain the respect for our military strength that this president selfishly traded for check-marks on his to-do list. We can and we must return to a time when the commander-in-chief stood up for the men and women in uniform and took a stand against those who seek to do us harm. We must demand leaders with the intestinal fortitude to halt all relocation of Syrian refugees into the U.S. immediately and re-evaluate the screening process in light of ongoing threats to the safety and security of our American families.
It is not too late to change course. 2016 can be the year that ‘We the People’ decide to return our nation to a citizen government. Together, we can send a clear message to the professional political class in Washington: get your resumes ready!
I know we can turn this around, for our children and for the future of this great republic. I’m ready to take my 27 years of real-world experience to Washington, but I need your help to get there. Together we will restore America’s prominence!
Businessman and combat veteran Todd Wilcox is running for Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. Senate race.
