The pain of a swinging pendulum

"What is President Trump trying to do? Keep the 'salad' only the 'salad', and any dressing can be added by the states. That is what decentralization is all about. Keeping the main thing the main thing. It is time for the federal government to back off, and for the states to step up."

America is suffering right now. Well, not really. But some stalwarts on the left are. Why? All of a sudden, we have a president who is not a politician. A president who will do what he promised to do while on the campaign trail. A president who told us that our overindulgence at the troth of government spending will lead to our demise. A president who promised to cut federal spending - and is now doing it. Time to take some medicine America - our gluttony stage, our dependence stage on federal dollars is now going to get a much-needed haircut.

Whereas Joe Biden treated our federal tax money like it was play money, Donald Trump is acting more like a "Daddy" to the reckless spenders. What does that mean? It simply means the days of faux wine and roses are over. The days of responsibility are upon us. Or to really break this down to the rawest of terms - the pendulum is swinging back, and it is painful to some.

Back when education was truly learning, many of us learned what the basic and most important function of the federal government is. The common defense of the states. Bingo. That is the "salad", and everything else is just dressing on the "salad". But why is spending on the common defense so important these days? Isn't the Cold War over? Here are some points to ponder:

• Our electric grid is a mess. It is outdated and vulnerable. Part of our common defense is to invest in making our grid robust, dependable and immune from EMP events. Why? A serious EMP event, natural or unnatural, could kill off most of our population.
• Even though the Cold War is over, bad guys still exist. If one of these rogue nations decided to launch a nuke at one of our cities, we probably would not have the time nor the technology to stop it. After seeing what some wildfires did to LA, could you imagine what a nuke could do to a large city? Investing in an Iron Dome and a more robust Ground Based Interceptor program is a VERY important part of our common defense.
• Having more AEGIS type ships off the coast of our country is vital in the age of hypersonic missiles. Why? They are fast and hard to defend against. A hypersonic missile hitting one of our cities could be disastrous. This is also vital to our common defense to have the right kind of technology to defeat them.
• The bad guys of the world would love to get inside our infrastructure to cause mayhem and failures. Winning without firing a shot. Having a well trained and equipped cyber security force within our armed forces to guard against cyber attack, is a vital and important part of our common defense. 

What is listed above is just a partial list of what our federal government should be responsible for. Period. States, which in the past have deferred to the federal government the job of financially taking care of them - need to step up. The best way to have better stewards of our tax money is decentralization. Why? The dollars become much more real the closer they get to the kitchen table. Fact. Full stop.

What is President Trump trying to do? Keeping the "salad" only the "salad", and any dressing can be added by the states. That is what decentralization is all about. Keeping the main thing the main thing. It is time for the federal government to back off, and for the states to step up. I know - getting the needle out of the arm is not easy - but necessary.

Buck up America - what you are seeing right now is what we voted for. We are starting the twelve-step program to financial sobriety.