Have no fear, the federal government is here! Wait… that isn’t right.

I’m no damsel in distress, and neither are you. The days of a masked hero helping those in need are, so it seems, nonexistent. But that is exactly what’s unfolding before our very eyes.

The government wants to tell “we the people” how to live. Citizens, if you think politics won’t directly affect you, think again.  New York City’s mayor decided to ban sugary drink sizes to 16 ounces, putting a limit on buying soda in order to thin out an obese New York populace.  Michelle “The Lunch Lady” Obama has implemented an Orwellian lunch program to regulate what American children can and cannot eat, and health (for the mother, not for the abortion-targeted baby) mandates are being shoved down citizens’ throats despite how deeply they offend citizens’ religious convictions.

And it doesn’t stop there.  As if forcing you to pay for abortions weren’t enough, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius blatantly ignored — and arrogantly violated — federal law by using her Cabinet position to tell Americans to vote for President Obama.

Where are the outraged media elites?  Where’s the lone, masked hero who fights against those who abuse their power?  As you’ve heard, time and time again, this election is one of the most important elections of our life time.  We cannot allow our government to keep implementing laws that go against “we the people.”

Americans, listen up!  If you want a government that will cater to your every need, you’re living in the wrong country.  This country — the one built on freedom and liberty, bought by the blood and sweat of our ancestors, and lusted after by the rest of the world — is not a country of equal handouts, but of equal opportunity to work hard to achieve our ambitions.  Yet, that is not what we are seeing.  Instead, we have an administration that has implemented more federal control over American citizens’ everyday lives, and what are Americans doing about it?  Nothing!

It’s the American citizens’ choice, but I urge you to take a good, hard look.  It’s time to bring our country back to its founding.  Ben Franklin once said, “It is a republic, if we can keep it.”  So, I ask, can we?

Concerned Women for America (CWA) is doing what it takes to keep our government accountable to the taxpayers.  CWA’s She Votes 2012 project is working to make sure Americans are registered to vote in this extremely important election.  Are you ready?  Are you registered?  With voter registration ending on October 8 in most states, now is not the time to idly wonder.  Click here now to see if you’re registered. … And if you aren’t, stay on the site and do something about it.

When I observe the increasingly secular political and cultural climate in America, I can easily assume that we’re doomed.  I watch the sad pattern of disobedience and decline playing out all over again.  When I look at history, I see that most empires eventually fall apart.  From Egypt to Rome to Israel, a tragic flaw does the kingdom in.

The common denominator? These empires rebelled against God’s commands.

Yet, a surprising section of Scripture offers me a glimmer of hope.  Reading in 2Chronicles, I witness how a Godly few — concerned men and women — can radically change a nation.  This somewhat obscure book of the Bible recounts the story of Judah’s rulers descended from King David.  The kings we hear about are a mixed lot.  Many are extremely evil — but not all of them.

What’s puzzled me as I’ve read is why good kings were inspired to follow the Lord after a generation or more of unrestrained immorality and disobedience.  Ungodly, immoral kings somehow managed to put sons on the throne who charismatically followed the Lord.

King Joash is one early example of just such Godly leadership.  Beginning in 2 Chronicles 22, the story unfolds of how Joash’s sinful grandmother, Athalia, killed the entire royal family except for him.  In hiding for seven years, he lived with the priests in the temple until Athalia was overthrown.  We learn that Jahoiada, the priest, and others faithful to the Lord protected Joash and raised him according to Biblical Truth.  The results? Throughout Jahoiada’s life, Joash remained a Godly king.

We see a similar story played out later on, when Josiah became king at age eight.  His father Amon and grandfather Manasseh were both among the most evil kings in either Israel or Judah. However, because of Godly people like the priest Hilkiah in his life, Josiah proved an exceptionally wise and Godly king.

In the lives of both Joash and Josiah, a small remnant faithful to the Lord helped point the entire nation in the right direction.  By working quietly behind the scenes for years, they ultimately made a huge difference in the running of their country.  Even though we don’t hear about them, I suspect similarly dedicated groups of people kept God’s law alive in hard times throughout Judah and Israel’s history.

Although the moral unwinding of America seems inevitable to me somtimes, the narratives in 2 Chronicles uncover a positive reality.  Even when people who believe in the Truth aren’t in power or don’t make up the majority of voters, we can still have a constructive influence on history.

By reaching the Joashes and Josiahs in our lives through prayer, persistence, and patience, we too can work behind the scenes to point our nation toward renewal.  It’s not glamorous, but I know my perspective has changed based on this truth.  I see that my individual contribution — and those of others like me — can make a lasting difference.

Bionics? Nope. Just good common sense and a calculator.

Washington and the nation are abuzz over Congressman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisconsin) plan addressing the fiscal crisis and promising to cut $4.4 trillion in a decade.  The Democrats and President Obama have talked and talked about the crisis, offered to cut “millions of dollars” (a miniscule amount compared to the debt and deficit) and their “solutions” have only made the situation worse.  Now a crisis of Armageddon proportions looms just around the corner.  The nation needs someone to take the risk of providing leadership, and Congressman Ryan is stepping up to the challenge. 

For years, politicians have paid lip service to the fact that something needs to be done — that something has to be done to preempt the crisis.  The President and Congress bloviated about cutting spending, but the most it ever translated to was just slightly trimming the proposed increases being touted as absolutely essential; nobody was ever willing to actually cut the level of out-of-control spending and certainly not come close to touching entitlements.

Congressman Ryan’s plan wondrously changes the debate in profound ways.  The most obvious new aspect of the debate is that the amount of proposed cuts has jumped from a head-fake of mere millions in cuts to an amount in the trillions with the heft to make a real difference.  Ryan’s formal proposal — a budget resolution for 2012 — reduces the deficit by $4.4 trillion in a decade and cuts spending by more than $6 trillion.  The Ryan plan would cut federal spending to 20 percent of the GDP by 2015.  Even with such drastic budget reductions, the federal budget would not be balanced until 2030.

While his critics wail about draconian cuts — they are large, but only because they return us to the level of spending before Obama took office (hardly a conservative level) and drove spending through the roof — Concerned Women for America (CWA) believes that the crisis can be averted only by reigning in the bloated federal government.  We think that the American people are ready to trust politicians who will be honest with them and talk about the situation in realistic terms about what it is going to take for us to avoid complete financial ruin.  We also believe that our elected officials should be willing to do something, rather than burden our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt and destroy the financial future of the nation. 

CWA applauds Congressman Ryan’s efforts as a firm step in the right direction.  As the Congressman noted, “This is not a budget, this is a cause.”  That cause is to get America to confront the fiscal threat facing the nation before it is too late and motivate Congress to act on ways to get the nation back on a secure financial foundation.

March is Women’s History Month, and pro-life congresswomen took to the floor of the House to echo the warnings of the early feminists — that abortion damages women.  How right they were.  These quick clips of the congresswomen’s speeches highlight why many women today reject abortion:

Rep. Jean Schmidt Excerpt

Rep. Renee Ellmers Excerpt

Rep. Virginia Foxx Excerpt

The latest Rasmussen poll indicates it is not 1995 all over again and that this time around a solid majority, 58 percent of the American public, prefers a government shutdown over continued business as usual.  Voters are demanding that Congress to do something about the fiscal crisis by cutting the budget, ending out-of-control spending, and reducing the nation’s mountain of debt — even if it means shutting down the government to force the President and Congressional Democrats to “get it” and get on with the business of scaling back government.

• How is it that the average American understands that record spending is unsustainable, but the Democrats do not understand?
• How can business leaders and economists warn against government overspending and speak out vehemently about the current threats and inevitable crisis without the President and the Democrats in Congress hearing their message?
• How can the experts point out that the fiscal crisis is hurting private sector job growth without the President and Democrats facing up to the fact that the stimulus didn’t work and unemployment must be addressed?
• How can millions of Americans lose their jobs and millions lose their homes without the President and the Democrats understanding that they are destroying middle-class America?
• How can the voters in 2010 have sent such a loud and clear message that they will no longer put up with reckless spending without that message being heard on Capitol Hill and in the White House?

This needs to be the year when the federal budget is smaller, not just frozen at last year’s bloated level.  This needs to be the year when last year’s outrageous level of spending gets deflated.  This needs to be year when we stop making larger and larger additions to the national debt and roll back the tide of red ink that gushes and sloshes through the budget projections.  This MUST be the year when we soundly reject the foolish notion that it is okay to spend more money than we have.

As Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said, “When you add it all up, the [national debt] numbers are staggering.”

As House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “We’re broke!”

And just as Maggie Thatcher warned about socialism: We’ve reached the point where we’ve “run out of other people’s money.”

One of them is Reagan. The other one would like to be.

After the “shellacking,” what will President Obama have to say about the State of our Union?  He gives his annual report tonight.

President Reagan made Americans feel proud of our country.  President Obama makes Americans feel obliged to defend our country (from him).  In his inauguration speech, his stated vision was to “remake America.”  Since then, we’ve gotten a glimpse of what he wants to make us into — and Americans rejected his view of America this last election.

While his messaging since then gives the appearance that he gets what Americans want, his policies and agenda have yet to change.  People are more savvy now and won’t be fooled by a cloak of rhetoric that covers the old agenda of big-government-by-regulation, disrespecting American Exceptionalism, promoting sexual identity politics, or empty words about “reducing abortion.”

President Obama will face a new Congress and public, both who are extremely sensitive to Constitutional limits and fearful of government spending.  Americans are unified, and ready for politicians to cut spending, reduce government, and quit vilifying political opponents — three items, by the way, of which the opposite mark President Obama’s career and his last State of the Union, when he pushed ObamaCare and unfairly criticized the Supreme Court justices sitting in front of him.

President Obama has an advantage this year in that it is no secret what Americans want and what the majority in Congress recognize is their mandate.  But like Reagan, his audience will not trust without verifying.

President Obama will have to prove through his actions that he will reduce government spending, promote and defend America to the outside world, stop funding abortion, and respect the Constitution and our religious heritage.

I attended a large reception for new pro-life members of Congress and their spouses on Monday night.  It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm for their new positions and their desire to change the world for the better.  As CEO of the largest public policy women’s group in the nation that helped to support these candidates, I cannot wait to work with them to pass life-affirming legislation.

They remind me of another group of freshman coming into Congress ready to shrink government at any cost and to fight for morality and American values.  I worry about these men and women, many of whom have young families.  Although I don’t always get to say this, I have to admit that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was 100 percent right in Politico on November 16.  I met Joe years ago when he came to Washington as a member of the House in the 1994 Republican revolution.  He experienced first-hand many of the same challenges this folks will face.  Joe’s admonition to them to “Protect Your Family” is spot on!

It is so cliché — but true! — that families are often broken under the strain of the demands of Congress.  It may be tempting for the members to bow to political pressure to leave their families back in the state so they can “stay in touch with the district,” but it is downright foolish.  The impact of living a life as a new congressman without his family in Washington, D.C., can be devastating.  It is crucial to have the support of one’s spouse and family while attempting to change the nation for the better and dealing with all of the political pressure that comes with the position. 

There is no better watchdog group than wives and children.  Wives expect to know where their husbands have been and who they are with most of the time.  Children don’t read their parent’s press releases.  They just want their dad to pitch them a ball or their mom to  help with homework.  Wives don’t care how brilliant their husband’s salient points were in today’s floor debate.  They are going to say, “Pick up your socks, and grab a gallon of milk on the way home.”  Now that’s staying in touch with real America!

Newly elected congressmen and senators should leave all the political posturing behind and make sure to keep their families together during this important transitional time.  Joe is right.  To paraphrase a Biblical teaching, what does it prosper a man to gain the whole world but lose his family?  My prayer is for both the new members, their spouses, and their children to remain close and remember why they came to Washington.

There are many challenges facing the 112^th Congress and our great nation.  One such challenge, however, lies in their ability to understand the message of the last election.  The Republican majority in the House must not be mistaken as an endorsement of the Republican Party, but instead of a move to right a car (to use the President’s analogy) that is careening out of control and headed for a nose dive off a steep cliff.  One way Congress can show their understanding of why they were handed the keys is in their selection of members for leadership posts.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) will no doubt become the next Speaker of the House, and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) the Majority Leader, but what about some of the other available posts?  Shouldn’t they go to competent leaders of the Tea Party movement, which tremendously helped to usher in the Republican takeover of Congress?

Concerned Women for America thinks so.  There are plenty of competent and fearless leaders at the ready who deserve a seat at the table.  Rep. Michele Bachmann from Minnesota comes to mind.  She has been an outspoken conservative leader of the Tea Party movement from the beginning, and we think she deserves serious consideration for a leadership position.

Conservative women won big this election cycle, and the Tea Party helped to propel them to victory.  In fact, women in general swung 14 points for Republicans.  It seems time to add a stiletto to the clubby, well-heeled leadership team.

Liberals are the self-proclaimed champions of social justice and redistribution of wealth in the name of fairness and equality.  But is their ideology consistent with their lifestyle?

Last September, Roll Call released a list of the 50 richest members of Congress.  Lo and behold, the top ten members on the list were all liberals!  In fact, Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) tops the list.  How could this be?  The advocates of the working class?  I don’t think so.

Conservatives are lambasted as being the rich and entitled and are guilted into describing themselves as “compassionate” conservatives just to emphasize the fact that they are not out of touch with the middle and lower classes.

There is obviously a mischaracterization of conservatives and what motivates the policies they promote.  For instance, conservatives don’t advocate free health care for all.  However, the reasoning behind that doesn’t come from a desire to withhold care from those who need it, but from a desire to avoid low quality of care and rationing of care for all.  And these things are inevitable with “free” health care — in fact, they’re a couple of the “hidden costs.”  We’ve already seen evidence of this in the health care systems of Canada and Great Britain.

True conservatives also oppose the welfare system, but not out of a lack of compassion for the underprivileged.  Rather, they are driven to compel people to work hard and reap the financial benefits of that work.  This is the philosophy on which our capitalist society was built.  To promote a society that encourages dependence on the government for income undermines capitalism and demeans the individual.

Liberals consistently paint an image of their congressional opponents as elitist, wealthy, upper-class citizens who are unable to relate to the common American.  It’s sadly ironic to find out that the very members who point fingers at the right wing and characterize them as “entitled” and “out of touch with the American people” are actually the wealthiest and most elite legislators in town.  You will not find a true conservative complaining about anyone’s wealth or saying that someone does not deserve to be as wealthy as they are — or that they’ve probably earned enough.  

Seems to me the liberals paint a false image of themselves while promoting a big government agenda under the guise of helping the average American.  But are they really in touch with the American people?  I think it’s entirely unfair that they would lie in order to hijack issues like social justice and health care, because it looks to me as if they have a lot less in common with the average American than they’d like you to think.

Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America (CWA), the nation’s largest public policy women’s group, said the following about Rep. Mark Souder’s (R-Indiana) resignation:

“I am deeply saddened by the news of Congressman Mark Souder’s fall into the temptation of an affair. Those of us who have worked with Mark over the years know him to be a kind and thoughtful legislator. If Mark Souder is capable of sexual misconduct, it could happen to anyone. The frat house environment on Capitol Hill does nothing to encourage accountability. Most Members do not live with their families while they are working in D.C. during the week and have even ditched common rules of etiquette that even major corporations follow such as office doors with windows or careful examination of employee/boss interaction.

“There are many Americans running for office this year who want to bring integrity and family values back to Washington. I challenge any incumbents who manage to escape the wrath of the American people to guard their hearts and reputations and to live by higher standards that reflect the traditional moral values our country holds so dear.”

“In addition, as a Christian I believe that we are all fallen and in need of redemption. I join the countless others now and throughout ages past who cling diligently to the hope of grace and redemption.”