Mr. Obama, tear down this wall

Governments are obligated to serve their constituents, but setting the country on a course for bankruptcy is not exactly service.

For years, Washington politicians have felt noble when spending other people’s money, and — worst of all — Americans have endorsed this behavior by granting them reelection. Come November, we must stop enabling this plunder.

Balancing the budget and paying off the debt while meeting all contractual agreements will be about as easy as putting a camel through the eye of a needle. The good news is we can stop adding to our symbolic wall by rising up and demanding action from our politicians. The bad news is we cannot precipitously bulldoze entitlements.

Many Americans have been promised services from the government and planned their lives around receiving benefits like Social Security. Our entitlement programs must be reformed gently enough to not hurt our seniors but quickly enough to not tank our economy with national bankruptcy.

The key is to begin disassembling our wall brick by brick by endorsing plans like Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap for America.” This map, instead of leading to economic serfdom, leads to keeping America as that “shining city upon a hill” for generations to come.

Ron Meyer hosts We the People Internet Radio Show and writes a weekly column for Human Events. He is a student at Principia College and a former National Journalism Center intern who has also written political opinion for AOL News and the Santa Barbara News-Press.