Bring Back James K. Polk

President Polk, You’re Needed

Of all our American leaders, James K. Polk is who we need to resurrect. Here is a man who came from nowhere, told American what he was going to accomplish and then left after four years. That type of attitude is the only way we will get out of our financial fix.

I have always wondered how “responsible” people can run up a deficit year after year and then make it a priority when it hits $16 trillion, a mind numbing number. All political parties are to blame. Spending needs to be slashed. Several proposals are out there, but the cuts disappear for special interest groups. Losing special interest groups means losing votes, and no elected official wants to be voted from office. Examples of these groups are numerous, but some of the ones in the news today are military spending, education and farm subsidies. Who wants to lose the military, teacher and farmer vote? There are times when deficit spending is necessary, such as a major recession, but we must pave the way now for future responsibility. James K. Polk would have a plan and the consequences of that plan would not matter, he was leaving after four years.

How do we solve our problem. We need to eliminate all loopholes in taxes. Many or, I will go out on a limb and say, most loopholes impact the haves, not the have nots. Yes, this raises taxes on those with money, but it does not increase their income tax. We can then use this money to pay down the debt. For many of us, it was our grandparents and parents who kept electing people who put us into this mess and now we are going to have to fight this war on debt, and it will not be easy. We cannot simply continue to pass it off onto someone else. We have spent the past 80 years creating our debt and need to put in place a savings plan to bring us back into fiscal stability. James K. Polk could do this, he promised us only four years.

Why Polk? He had a four year plan. He was done after his one term. Unfortunately people run for office as a job and no one wants to lose a job. To prevent a job loss, you need to make people happy and keep them happy in the short run. That means we taught lowering taxes and cutting spending. What about the long run? We need to increase taxes by eliminating loopholes and cutting spending. However, if we do this, look out. That elected official will lose their job. Also, I recently read one article last week that said this very proposal could shoot up our unemployment rate near 12%, I think it could go higher. No president would ever propose something with such dire consequences. Remember president Mondale? Oh right, he didn’t get elected. Mondale spoke of the need to increase taxes. Remember George H.W. Bush’s second term? Right, after his “read my lips” comment, he was called out for later raising taxes. James K. Polk would not care, he only planned for one term.

So do you vote for Obama or Romney (alphabetical order, not necessarily in order of preference)? Who is a one termer? We know Obama can only go four more years and Mitt, well, if he does reduce the deficit, he will be a one termer, but is he willing to sacrifice his political future? Maybe you should just elect me. I promise to serve for only one term and then pull a Polk and ride off into the sunset.