WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

Friends of Liberty VOL 42
by Jim Clonts, 2010

02/21/2010

So what will the next Republican presidential candidate have to face? Whoever this individual is will have to face not only some very difficult policy decisions, but extraordinary campaign decisions: Do I play it straight with the American people? Can they handle the truth or will they shoot the messenger?

In 2012 our national debt is projected to be $18 trillion. Our debt will exceed our GDP. This assumes we continue on our present path and other countries will buy our debt. It also assumes Obama Care, Cap & Trade and new corporate and personal income taxes do not further destroy our GDP. It is entirely possible the debt will be higher than $18 trillion due to lack of tax revenues. After all, Congress hasn't yet developed a way to tax losses. We could be in a Great Depression, and, of course, the whole country could just fall apart by then anyway. (Don't think it can happen? Can you say Soviet Union?)

So when the next Republican Presidential candidate hits the campaign trail, what will she (Yes, I like Sarah.) or he preach? Obviously, she or he will push for tax cuts, for removing the Government interference in the economy. He or she will support less regulation and more free in free enterprise. These are traditional Conservative tactics that always work when tried. Unlike what Democrats would like you to believe, tax cuts always pay for themselves. It worked for JFK, Reagan and W. When you cut taxes, revenue to the Government increases because economic activity increases. It does not take a Harvard Business School education to understand this simple concept. Indeed, that Harvard education may hurt your understanding of it.

Unfortunately, these traditional Conservative ideals might win the election, but they won't fix the problem. Here's where the pain comes in, the DTs, the withdrawal. For decades we've allowed our Government to spend well beyond the ability of our economy to generate wealth.

During campaigns, Republicans always promise to cut taxes and reduce spending. The first they usually accomplish, the second has been a political fantasy. The cuts the new president will have to make must be Draconian in nature. I mean entire Government agencies, programs and bureaus will have to be de-funded. The Media will howl. The public sector unions will go ballistic. Unemployment will rise in the public sector even as it falls in the private sector. A great portion of the American public will lose some if not all of the subsidies they receive from the Federal Government. There will be tremendous pain, tremendous discontent. The public will look back at the Obama years with fondness, a time when we had chicken in every pot, even if it was a borrowed chicken.

There are only two possible outcomes from our current economic disaster. One, the new president and congress will have the guts to make the massive cuts and save the country, or Two, we continue on our present path and the cuts will make themselves when the economy collapses under its own weight. The pain is coming no matter what. The question for America is do we man up and do what's right---or do we wait until it becomes an emergency?

The real task for the new President is to convince the American people this pain is necessary, that cutting out the tumor is required for survival. He or she has to convince the people that Americans are strong enough, resilient enough, to overcome these hard times. He or she will have to convince the people that although the Government can't rescue them, they can count on their fellow Americans, churches, charities, even their next door neighbors. This new president will have to create an atmosphere of true charity, of true community, neighbors helping neighbors---not a check in the mail from a faceless Federal Government or even a non-profit from a thousand miles away. He or she will have to truly unify the American people to first survive, then later to thrive.

If the new president can accomplish this---he or she will be the greatest American since George Washington. At the same time he or she may also be the most hated American of all time. Good medicine usually tastes bad.

Post Script: It is encouraging Republicans have won the Gubnatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and when Massachusetts elects a Republican Senator, you know the Liberals have a problem. Putting Republicans back in control stops the Obama-Communist Express, however, we must also purge our party of "moderate", "handshake across the aisle", "you give me tax cuts and I'll vote for your spending increases" Republicans of the past. I think Scott Brown was a victory, but let's not celebrate just yet.

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