By ALAN COX
(Editor’s Note: District 5 County Commissioner Alan Cox delivered this speech at the Tea Party rally held in Jasper County recently. He said he has had many requests for copies of his speech, and submitted for all readers of The Monticello News.)
I would like to welcome everyone this afternoon and a special welcome for those of you from other areas.
Jasper County is proud to host this gathering and I want extend a big thank you to those who worked so hard to organize this event.
I really appreciate the honor of being asked to speak this afternoon.
I think we are all here for the same reason, we know something is not right in our country’s leadership and we have seen that we can not rely on any of the major political parties to fix it.
I know how hard it is just to survive and pay the bills. I see our jobs leaving the country, I see the unemployment reports, I see the vacant houses, and each one tells a story. A story of another family who lost the battle and had to walk away.
We all know the American Dream, to have your own house and raise your family, and hopefully help your children to do even better in their lives.
My mother and my father saved and did without to come up with the down payment on a home for us. It was not easy but I was taught “The most important things are not always easy,” but they are worth the struggle.
Along the way, people decided that our society had to be fair. Making people wait and save and put effort into having a home was not fair. They decided that the American Dream was not a dream…or a goal to work for it was a right, an entitlement.
People were convinced they could take short cuts; there was an easier path to owning a home. As always, there are people ready to make it happen, don’t worry everything will be fine…only pay the interest, by the time your interest rate changes, and your payments double, you can sell the house for a big profit…you’ll get tax credits and interest deductions….
What they didn’t tell us was…what goes up, usually comes back down. People found they owed twice what their house was worth and could not sell it. They also didn’t tell us that when you don’t have a job interest deductions mean nothing.
Again, I am very proud to be here. You are the people who are doing more than complaining. When enough people get together and make enough noise…you are hard to ignore.
We are telling our leaders you had better change things or we will change leaders. We ask them, where were you 20 years ago when the Federal Savings and Loans took our money? Where were you 5 years ago when Wall Street took our savings and retirement money? Where were you 3 years ago when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took our money?
Their only answer we got was, don’t worry we will print more money.
What they gave us was a country that spends almost twice the amount that it takes in every year.
What they gave us was a county that uses UNFUNDED COMMITMENTS. What that means is we have committed to the spending but we have no idea where the money is going to come from. In 2010 alone we obligated the country to 5.4 trillion dollars in unfunded commitments. Right now our unfunded commitments total 61.1 trillion dollars. To put that is simpler terms every household in the country is obligated to pay $534,000.00.
Even on the county level, there is an unwillingness to stop spending, spending is power and they do not want to give up the power. If your friend says, let’s go out to eat and I will pay…you will not argue about what time or where to eat…the one with the money calls the shots.
Just this week the Social Security Administration admitted that in 2009 they made a mistake and paid out 6 billion dollars in error…first, how do you make a 6 billion dollar error? It was on the news one time and hardly mentioned. Are we that used to being abused?
We all know we have a long way to go, and it will be a very hard task.
Many people who agree with you now, will fall by the wayside.
Talk is easy and when it comes time to put some skin in the fight some will back away.
They will say, I didn’t know I would have to do without that! I don’t think I can do without that! I’ll let someone else do that!
I know we can’t give up…I have grandchildren and I want them to know the same America that I grew up in.
There was a song written by Aerosmith; Living on the Edge, some of the lyrics were;
There is something wrong with the World today
The light is getting dim
Something wrong with our eyes
We’re seeing things in a different way
And God knows, it ain’t his
Thank you, God bless you all.
God please re-bless America.
