12 small steps for man... One giant leap for America

Normally humor holds some truth. However, this is not funny.

Recently I stated our country has a problem. This is my intervention with the United States of America. It’s a 12-step program that should sound familiar to some of our senators. (Cough, Kennedy) But this is to recover from “Out-of-control-government-spending.”

If we could get all legislators to adopt this program, I think life would be different in the good old U.S. of A.

• We admitted we were powerless over wasteful spending, that the government had become unmanageable.

This was the first step to realizing there was a problem.

• We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

With any problem we need spiritual growth. By finding God, as we understand him, we accepted things, which seemed out of reach.

• Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand God.

Through trust in God’s Power, we are relieved of bondage of self-interest and will not vote for laws or bills without consultation with God, as we understand him.

• Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

We now realize responsibility starts at home. Our daily household expenses will not be extreme, and this practice will carry over to the government.

• Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human beings the exact nature of our wrongs.

We apologize to the American people for wasteful spending. We trampled on your freedom by over regulating small businesses and giving out corporate welfare to those who needed it least.
We’ve lacked in protecting our borders for the sake of being politically correct. (There’s more to apologize for, but Ron is running out of space.)

• We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  

If we feel ourselves holding on to some big spending bill; we ask God to help us be willing.

• Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

To my Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. We pray that you remove us from every single defect of character, which stands in the way of our usefulness to the American people.

• Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to all.

To the citizens of the United States of America, we’re sorry for the embarrassments we’ve become. Our foolish spending will stop. Please accept our struggle in good faith.

• Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

We will bring back and pass the bill to do away with earmarks.

• Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

We now know we are not perfect. We will constantly review our decisions, keeping in mind the American people.

• Sought through prayers and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

Each day, before we walk into the chamber, we’ll set aside some quiet time, a time to reflect on the great honor of serving this country. We will be ever thankful to be chosen by her people to conduct business in a responsible manner. Always thinking of our forefathers, and understanding their wishes when it comes to the Constitution. Being sympathetic to the burdens on the American people, for without them, we have no one to serve. We pray for the wisdom to make tough calls and the courage to see them through.

• Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and practice these principles in all of our affairs.

We will carry this message forward to newly elected senators and congressmen. Holding their hands if necessary to keep them on a path self-control.

There it is a 12-step program for government spending. You may think I did this to be cute. I assure you, I did not.

Addiction is not funny and I’m not making light of alcoholics, gamblers or drug users. I actually got the 12-step program from “Recoveries Anonymous,” which included spending addiction.

12-steps have helped countless people over the years and it’s a wonderful program. What I found amazing is that it can apply to all of us. They are excellent principles to live by even without an addiction.

You may say, so are the 10 Commandments. Yes that’s true, but we live in an age where political correctness is run-a-muck. This program leaves God to ones own interpretation, which should satisfy all beliefs and religions.

Imagine if our leaders followed this12-step program, how could they not be better people.

That’s the way Ron sees it.