WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS ... 

In keeping with our theme of "government always knows best" ... I want you to take a look at these thoughts from David Axelrod.

The president doesn't believe that it is enough simply to cut the budget or reduce the debt or reduce the size of government. In the world in which we live, if we do that and don't educate our citizens and lead the world in that; if we don't innovate; if we don't have kind of basic infrastructure that we need to be competitive, then we're not going to prevail.

And so as we cut, we've got to do it in a responsible way and make sure that we're not cutting those very things that are going to allow us to continue to be a dominant economic force and create opportunity for our people.

Do you have any idea why this quote gets my boxers in a bunch? Here, I'll tell you. It is because David Axelrod is demonstrating the prevailing thought process of many on the left, and many lazy Americans who don't know any better. Axelrod believes that America's greatness comes from government. He believes that without government "investments," we will fail to continue our economic dominance in the world. Where does the free market fit into his picture? What about entrepreneurs? The private marketplace? Private education? None of these have even crossed the mind of a man who already has a solution to all of our problems: government!

While we are the subject of educating our citizens, David Axelrod seems to believe that more money will lead to better government education of our children. I have proven this to be false time and time again - throwing more money at the problem isn't going to solve it. Since the creation of our federal Education Department in 1979, our students have performed steadily worse compared to the rest of the world. You have two things to blame: teachers unions and parents. The teachers unions are to blame because their sole existence is to get more taxpayer benefits for the themselves at the expense of your child's education. The other fault is that of the parents. Parents willingly subject their children to this form of child abuse and brainwashing on a daily basis. Parents have become complacent, thinking it OK to leave their children in the hands of the government and unions and expecting their children to come out as scholars and productive members of society. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Now I will agree with Axelrod on one thing: education is vital to the future of our economy. Take a look at these figures ...

Another study suggests that a modest improvement (from a current average of around 500 to 525) over 20 years in an international student assessment of 15-year-olds in the OECD nations -- improvement in reading, math and science literacy -- would mean a $115 trillion increase in these nations' aggregate GDP. Of that, $41 trillion would accrue to America. McKinsey calculated that if U.S. students matched those in Finland, America's economy would have been 9 percent to 16 percent larger in 2008 -- between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion.

Read that again ... read about the economic loss we are suffering because of complacent parenting. More money in the world isn't going to change that. It is a cultural change. Now THAT'S a tougher discussion to tackle.