The threat to our culture comes from within. In the 1960s, there were welfare programs that created a culture of poverty in our country. Now, some people think we won that battle when we reformed welfare. But the liberals haven't given up.
At every turn, they tried to substitute government largness for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever.
Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is culture killing. It's a drug. We've got to fight it like the poison it is.
The attack on our culture is not the only a challenge that we face. We face economic competition unlike anything we have known before. China, and Asia are emerging from centuries of poverty. Their people are plentiful, innovative and ambitious.
If we don't change course, Asia or China will pass us by as the economic superpower, just as we passed England and France during the last century.
The prosperity and security of our children and grandchildren depend on us. Our prosperity and security also depend on finally acting to become energy-secure. Oil-producing states like Russia and Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran are siphoning over $400 billion out of our economy. That's almost what we spent annually for our national defense. It is past time for us to invest in energy technology: nuclear power, clean coal, liquid coal, renewable resources, energy efficiency.
Simply put, America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, Chavez and Ahmadinejad.
And finally, let's consider the greatest challenge facing America, and for that matter facing the entire civilized world: the threat of radical, violent jihad.
As you know, in one wing of the world of Islam there's a conviction that all governments should be destroyed and replaced by a religious caliphate. These jihadists will battle any form of democracy because to them democracy is blasphemous, because it says that citizens, not God, shape the law.
They find the idea of human equality to be equally offensive. They hate everything we believe about freedom just as we hate everything they believe about radical jihad. To battle this threat, we've sent the most courageous and brave soldiers in the world.
But their numbers have been depleted by the Clinton years, when troops were reduced by 500,000, when almost 80 ships were retired from our Navy, and when our human intelligence was slashed by 25 percent. We were told we were getting a peace dividend. We got the dividend; we didn't get the peace.
intelligence was slashed by 25 percent. We were told we were getting a peace dividend. We got the dividend; we didn't get the peace.
In the face of evil and radical jihad, and given the inevitable military ambitions of China, we must act to rebuild our military might, raise military spending to 4 percent of our GDP, purchase the most modern armament, reshape our fighting forces for the asymmetric demands we now face, and give the veterans the care they deserve.
Soon the face of liberalism in America will have a new name. Whether it's Barack or Hillary, the result would be the same if they were to be able to...
... if they were to be able to win the presidency
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