Imagine America now if this happened in 1968...

The following is a speech that was written in 1968 by then Secretary of Agriculture Ezra T Benson - can you imagine what the USA would be like today if they had actually implemented his advice?

"Obviously, not all welfare-state programs currently in force can be dropped simultaneously without causing tremendous economic and social upheaval. To try to do so would be like finding oneself at the controls of a hijacked airplane and attempting to return it by simply cutting off the engines in flight. It must be flown back, flown back, lowered in altitude, gradually reduced in speed and brought in for a smooth landing.

Translated into practical terms, this means that the:

• first step toward restoring the limited concept of government should be to freeze all welfare-state programs at their present level, making sure that no new ones are added.

• The next step would be to allow all present programs to run out their term with absolutely no renewal.

• The third step would involve the gradual phasing-out of those programs which are indefinite in their term.

In my opinion, the bulk of the transition could be accomplished within a ten-year period and virtually completed within twenty years. Congress would serve as the initiator of this phase-out program, and the President would act as the executive in accordance with traditional constitutional procedures."

by The Honorable Ezra Taft Benson

Former Secretary of Agriculture [The Eisenhower Administration - ed.] Published in 1968