AMERICA'S REAL HEROES

America's Real Heroes

April 27, 2012
By Ron Hart

As John Stossel points out in his great new book, "No They Can't, Why Government Fails -- but Individuals Succeed," we are convinced by liberal academia and the mainstream media that politicians are somehow heroic. In annual Harris Interactive polls, people were asked to name their heroes. In 2001, Jesus Christ won. In 2009, Obama won, followed closely by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

When former U.S. Senator Edwin Muskie died, newspapers and TV ran long and solemn tributes to the Democrat operative. For its maudlin tribute, The New York Times tapped Bill Clinton for his testimonial that "Generations to come will benefit" from Muskie's work. Stossel points out that David Packard, founder of Hewlett Packard, died on the same day; the papers ran much smaller obituaries.

"Laser printers, 60 million PCs, hundreds of useful products and thousands of jobs existed because of David Packard." He created thousands of millionaires and a $5 billion foundation that helps children. With his management style from the computer company he founded, Packard reordered corporate America. He got rid of executive suites so all workers could communicate better. He came up with the profit sharing plan, flex-time for workers, and many other innovations that made Americans' lives better. Today his company, founded in a garage, employs 340,000 people.

Yet Edwin Muskie was viewed by the media as amazing. David Packard was just a greedy, evil businessman.

Those who believe that government has magical "transformative powers" also seek to convince us that all of our ills can be blamed on someone else. That was the whole "hope and change" shell game Obama played on the country in 2008. "Just vote for me and all your problems will go away." If government could make you feel better about yourself, it would be a bar.

Obama believes that corporations are inherently evil and are out to destroy workers. Mr. President needs to put down the John Grisham novels and read the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

U.S. enterprises have done more to better the lives of Americans than any politician. The best we can hope for in our elected officials is that they will get out of the way, taking their regulations and graft with them, so American ingenuity and enterprise can lift the standard of living of all our citizens.

The real reason politicians fight so hard to get reelected, at all costs, is that they fear having to live under the laws and regulations they created.

Obama spent the past week giving teleprompter speeches about his vision of "fairness" and how, if only we passed his "Buffet Rule," all would be right with the world. Never mind that both liberal and conservative economists scored it as a political game of conjured-up envy. The bill raises only $5 billion. It's simple math: Obama has run up $5 trillion in deficit spending, so $5 billion divided by $5 trillion is one tenth of one percent (.001). It was another class envy ploy, not a real proposal.

He even lined up a few millionaire donors, mostly Democrat fundraisers, to stand behind him while he made his pitch to the nation for raising taxes. They had confessed to Obama, the high priest of taxation, that they did not pay their "fair share" and should be ashamed. It is an article of faith among the few still-rich liberals that being rich is OK as long as you feel guilty about it.

This Democrat Kabuki theater has all the substance of a WWF match between Obama, the Defender of the People, and the evil Darth Vader (a political rival to be named later). I trust the average voter sees this for what it is: unsubstantial political pandering and grandstanding.

Obama made $900,000 less last year than he did in the previous year. So even he is suffering under his own economic policies. This is a man whose entire wealth has come from writing two books about himself before he had actually done anything. Harvard now offers a class called "Understanding Obama" -- a class I doubt even Obama could teach.

Our country is great because of good people who pursue their own self-interests in business. Businesses power our country, and citizens power innovation. People like David Packard and their vision make us great, not opportunistic politicians who create nothing of economic or moral value.
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