What Would Our Founders Do?

Remember the good old days when all you cared about were things like: Who would be the next contestant voted off "Survivor" island? Or checking your 401(k) balance? Ah, yes — I thought I'd reminisce a little bit, because those days are long gone.

You can't sit on the couch anymore and eat your Doritos. Well, you can... it's your choice (at least, for now it is). But if you choose not to get involved, in this time where our "leaders" have set us on an unsustainable path, well, let's do something that no one seems to do anymore these days and look at what the Founders say; Founders like Sam Adams:

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

OK, basically what Adams is saying is: Do you want freedom and the freedom to fail or do you want government to take care of you? America for the last 100 years has been saying we want more government.

When people said "change" last election, I think they actually meant it. I think they wanted:

• Jobs

• Debt/spending: People actually care about our debt. The left and the right both have pushed for government to reduce the deficit and our debt. It keeps going up and was just raised to $14.3 trillion

• National security: Half said don't fight the wars. The other half said if you are going to fight, fight to win. We didn't do either. The border is still unsafe. Terrorists still hate and want to kill us

• Corruption: Politicians are in bed with special interests and we wanted that over

• Global warming/energy: Half the country believed in global warming and the Prius. Half the country believed in relying on the Middle East for oil. Credible scientists are becoming more rare than those cute, fuzzy polar bears. The debate is far from over, but debate is still not happening

And the question was: How do we solve it?

Well, the Republicans had a crack at fixing it. What'd we get?

• Jobs: George Bush in his last year lost 3 million jobs

• Debt/spending: When George W. Bush took office, the debt stood at $5.7 trillion. He ran up more debt faster than nearly all of his predecessors combined: Just under $4.9 trillion. And it wasn't all war spending. Discretionary spending went up in Bush's first term by 48.5 percent — more than twice as much as Bill Clinton. And who could forget the wonderful $550 billion prescription drug fiasco? Oh, and then there was that whole abandoning the free market system to save it $700 billion TARP slush fund

• National security: President Bush rightly went after the terrorists on their own turf, but then gave into political pressure and didn't fight it to win. He was even worse on the border. Bush didn't close the border, instead we got what essentially was an amnesty bill

• Corruption: Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, sentenced for fraud; Rep. Bob Ney is being investigated for bribery; former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham accepted at least $2.4 million in bribes; and of course we learned about the illicit mating habits and bathroom etiquette of Sens. Craig, Vitter, Ensign and Rep. Mark Foley

• Global warming: The biggest socialist scheme of all time was supported not just by Republicans, but leading Republicans: Lindsey Graham, VP contender Tim Pawlenty and even the presidential nominee of the party, John McCain, were all pro cap-and-trade

Get the picture? Nothing really got fixed.

So, along came the Democrats, claiming they had the solution. They promised more jobs, fiscal responsibility, an end to lobbyists and corruption and a new national security policy that would repair our image in the world. They promised real "change," because remember — we're still here! We want these things taken care of!

So the Democrats: What have they brought us so far?

• Debt/spending: Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid called Bush's budget "dangerous" and "unpatriotic" but they weren't phased when Obama quadrupled the deficit with the stimulus package. They weren't bothered that Obama's spending spree caused the CBO to suddenly increase spending projections by $5.3 trillion for the decade or that Obama will more than double the national debt that Bush nearly doubled himself

• National security: This administration botched the handling of the "underpants bomber"; they have handcuffed our troops by banning interrogation methods that get results; they want give terrorists lawyers and try them in American courts. Vice President Joe Biden apparently thinks the terrorists suddenly love us now:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Look, let me put it this way, the idea of there being a mass attack in the United States like 9/11 is unlikely, in my view"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

And then we have a president who is bowing to everyone, getting books from dictators and who wants to have a normal conversation with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is a 12er. And not just your run of the mill 12er; he's part of the radical 12ers who were banned by the ayatollah for being too crazy. They believe in order to hasten the return of the Mahdi you need to cause global chaos. They believe that by blowing stuff up and starting wars, it will bring the promised one back sooner. Yes, let's have tea.

• Corruption: Chris Dodd got sweetheart deals from Countrywide while he was on banking committees that helped create the housing collapse

Charlie Rangel skipped out on millions in taxes

How about the oh-so important trip to Copenhagen? Two nights and a hotel room cost $4,406 a person. Is this what you call "tightening the belt" during tough economic times?

Rep. William J. Jefferson — bribery.

Americans were told the stimulus bill was needed right away — we were in immediate danger. Remember that? Almost a year later, two thirds of the stimulus funds still remains. I told you weeks ago that this money was not meant to help anything other than Democrats get re-elected. It's a DNC slush fund. They are about to raid it for the upcoming elections. If it was really about saving jobs and the economy, wouldn't they have spent most of it by now?

• Jobs: Obama lost 4 million jobs in his first year; unemployment is still just under 10 percent

• Global warming: Global warming ranks dead last among issues Americans care about. The climate bill is one of the most expensive pieces of legislation in the history of planet Earth and the way to pay for it is with green jobs. Spain's trying the green job thing. They have 18 percent unemployment and for every green job created they lost two other jobs. It doesn't matter; we're still heading in that direction

So the Democrats have given us the same thing — only more of it. And now the GOP is coming out of the woodwork — remember us? We love smaller government! Well, which one's smaller?

Remember, you are in the middle. And these are the choices you've been given: big government vs. small government. The problem is, they are both the same.

See, the Founders actually addressed all of these issues for us. We don't have to re-invent the wheel. The system they set up, already works. The real problem is that we haven't been doing the system for about 100 years.

It's time to ask: What would the Founders do?

• Thomas Jefferson on debt and spending: "We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves"

• National security: Congress gave George Washington war powers. Let generals fight declared wars

• Corruption: We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men. If you get caught with bribe money in the freezer? Jail

• Jobs: Today, the average salary of the federal employee is $71,206, compared with $40,331 for the private sector. And the number of six-figure jobs in government is actually increasing. Not only did the Founders preach it, they lived it. People begged Washington to stay on as president. Instead, he stepped down

• Energy and global warming: That sounds like science. So let's let the actual numbers speak for themselves and use common sense

You know the solution: Point to the Founders. But that is not the direction the parties are going. When they see things aren't working, they say "we'll do it our way" and try to change the system entirely.

— Watch "Glenn Beck" weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel