With the anniversary of America’s Independence just a few days away, we used Saturday’s show to ask our current representatives in Washington to take some lessons from our Founding Fathers.
Jason related the story of the death of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the two men most responsible for the Declaration of Independence. The eloquent author of the Declaration and it’s more vehement advocate in the Second Continental Congress forged a deep friendship as they worked together to free us from British rule. This friendship suffered as the two Founding Fathers forged opposing political directions for the new country. Often during each man’s time as President, they battled against each other with vigor, frequently angrily, but always motivated by a deep felt desire to do what was best, not for party or career, but for the country. In their later years, their abiding friendship re-surfaced and as they reached the final days of their lives, they strove to hold on until the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a goal they both achieved. Both giants passed away 5o years from the day of their greatest achievement.
Jason related this story in light of the current poisoned air in Washington as our leaders seem unwilling or unable to settle a basic staple of governance, paying the country’s bills. The debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling has sadly been transformed from one about meeting the country’s current obligations to an argument on government spending in general and instead of following the lead of our Founders, it appears our present elected officials are more concerned with political gain than what is best for America. We urged our leaders to set aside their political differences and raise the debt ceiling just to the level necessary to ensure that America keeps her promises financially. Eric suggested a compromise piece of legislation that would link raising the debt ceiling to cover our current obligations to then lowering it to below it’s current level which would force our leaders to find ways to ensure we reduce federal debt in our next year’s budget.
Larry from Spartanburg, John from Greenville and Sal from North Carolina continued our discussion on government spending and taxes with 3 insightful phone calls. We had some lively discussions with them, as each of them added valuable perspectives from different sides of the discussion.
Eric brought our celebration of Independence Day to a close by encouraging us to look at our Founders as great men, who in spite of their flaws, combined Judeo-Christian principals with tenants from the Enlightenment to create a country and a system that would be used throughout our history to solve the problems they were unwilling or unable to fix during their lifetime.
We concluded by pointing out the beauty of what our Founders create which is a core document which houses fundamental values which are timeless while being designed to be altered to face the changing world. Each successive generation is encouraged to interpret the Constitution by holding true to it’s core values and applying it to meet the needs of their day. Our task is to continue the work our Founders started in creating this fantastic country and work together to make America better and find ways to move her forward.
