Back to the American Values

Barack Obama’s election as the president of the United States four years ago raised enthusiasm and fostered high hopes. Today, with $5 trillion of national debt added to the $10 trillion from his predecessor, a 7.6 percent GDP deficit compared to 1.2 percent in 2007 and an unemployment rate that skyrocketed from 4.5 percent in 2007 to 8.3 percent now, Obama’s dream is over.

The long-term outlook is not much better: the financial statements of Medicaid (health program for low-income and low-resource people) and Medicare (health program for the elderly) are appalling. While Medicare alone stands for 14 percent of the federal budget to cover 45 million people (there will be 80 million people in 2030!), no reform has been implemented so far. Social Security is also plagued due to the aging the population. The Congressional Budget Office announced that the pension funds might be in deficit as soon as 2018. Even “Obamacare,” the new health program that compels every American to get health insurance, implies a questionable over-regulation of medical practice, which eventually will raise medical costs and will become financially unsustainable for the country. Even worse, the Keynesian revival that started during G.W. Bush’s term, which consists of massive public spending and high income taxation, has proved to be a failure.

Some people see it as a Europeanization of the United States with its trail of social ills and weak growth. That’s the case of the Republican Party, who gathered last week to nominate Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate. Seen from France, we were led to believe that the Republican National Convention is only a political show for the caricatured opposition eager to have their crushing defeat of 2008 forgotten. But that’s not the case. The Republican Party that introduced itself to the Americans has been completely remodeled.

The new “stars” of the National Convention are 40-something-year-old state governors or members of the Congress who are keen to come back to the values that made their country successful. Paul Ryan, 42 years old, Mitt Romney’s running mate and U.S. representative for Wisconsin’s first district, is a deficit and debt hawk and wants to reform completely Medicare and Medicaid. Marco Rubio, 41 years old, Florida senator and son of a Cuban immigrant, claims that Barack Obama did everything he could to crush the American dream and that it is high time to restore the values that got his parents out of poverty. Rand Paul, senator from Kentucky, reiterates the importance of free market, work, individual responsibility and the family unit (opposed to state intervention) as the bond of the American society.

Many of them have proven that that is the winning strategy: Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, Governor of New Mexico Susana Martinez and Rick Perry, who has been governing Texas for more than 10 years, show that tax and budget prudence bring results. Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, rescued an almost moribund state and balanced the budget, while Bobby Jindal, young governor of Louisiana has lowered the taxes to favor business, growth and employment. At the same time, Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, struck out at the powerful unions that were deliberately slowing down urgent reforms.

With the old conservative guard gone, a new generation of Republicans is now leading the party. This new generation seems more realistic and more courageous than their senior counterparts and they seem to be even more open regarding social issues. They have already been reaping the benefits because after lagging a little behind, Mitt Romney is now neck and neck with Barack Obama. However, before changing politics, it is important to change speech. That’s exactly what the Republican Party did. But we need to know whether these words will result in actions if the GOP attains presidential and congressional victory. Let’s hope for the best for this great country and for the precedent it would make for the right wing in France. The French right-wing party should come back to fundamentals such as the notion of freedom, trusting more the individual than the state, responsibility, flexibility and rewarding innovation and effort, if one day they have the intention to come back to power and truly lead us to the roads of prosperity and social progress.