The Race Is On

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. The race is on with Mitt Romney's bold selection of the 42 year-old Ohio congressman, Paul Ryan as his running mate. This election now affords us an opportunity for a serious debate about how to end America's spending splurge, in a manageable outcome or in a spectacular European-style crisis.

Up until now, Mr. Romney has been seen as timid in his response to the Obama attacks on Bain Capital and his wealth. (For the most part, I typically shy away from using sports metaphors but here I go)... Mitt Romney has now hit the ball out of the park, thrown a long bomb into the end zone - instead of playing a prevent defense, he's decided to blitz. Rather than sit back and state the obvious, i.e.; that the economy sucks and therefore you should vote for me, Mr. Romney has now elevated the race to an adult discussion about substantive issues such as entitlement reform (in contrast to Mr. Obama's focus on ugly and personal character attacks).

Mr. Obama has claimed that Republicans wants to raise taxes on the middle class so that they can give that money to their "fat-cat" friends, the 1%. Predictably, the President and his party have also stated that the Romney-Ryan ticket will throw granny off the cliff and give her Medicare dollars to their rich friends.

By picking Paul Ryan, Mitt is acknowledging that he needs a mandate to be elected, which means putting entitlement reform before the American public for a clear endorsement. The choice of Paul Ryan also suggests that Mr. Romney is going to treat us like adults; he understands that to defeat the President, he'll have to do more than just highlight Mr. Obama's economic failures.

Democrats will claim that the "extreme" and "radical" Mr. Ryan will "end Medicare as we know it". To counter this, Mr. Romney must show America that he has a specific reform agenda that will produce growth and raise revenue. This debate has been a long time coming; we've put it off for the past 30 years and failed to address it. Do we want big centralized government running our lives or do we want a government that is limited in its size, scope and reach? Indeed, as none other than Ronald Regan famously said, "Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty" and "Man is not free unless government is limited".

I believe voters are willing to have this debate. In a 2011 Gallup Poll, 67% of Americans agreed that Social Security and Medicare would create a financial crisis within a decade. Voters for the first time have an honest entitlement choice: It's Hard Truth vs. Fakery. Do nothing and Medicare will be bankrupt in 12 years OR we the voters can choose to fix it.

Big government tends not to solve problems, only rearrange them. The question is, come November, will the American people make the right choice? The GOP better hope so.