I am drowning. My county is drowning.

My country is drowning with these damn lies that this administration is telling the country and its working population. We are falling and we are failing. I see it every day here in Richmond County.

My view is not that of a man with a defeatist attitude. It is the view of a man who watches and talks to our local businessmen and women. It’s the view of a man who watches the business that our local restaurants are not getting. When their parking lots are almost empty at 6 p.m., things are not good.

People might not have the money to go out and buy a new car, but when they do not have the money to go out and eat, then it does not look good. This administration is keeping the truth from the people. It’s bad, real bad. I see it every day in our businesses. It is coming apart at the seams.

This administration will tell all who will listen that it’s great. Open your damn eyes up — it’s all of the businesses here in the county that are suffering. A few might be doing well, but the majority are not. We are doing just enough business to keep our doors open and that is it.

We’re paying the bills, but we are not paying ourselves. If you want to be critical of these words, that’s fine. I just hope you own a business, because if you do not, then you have no true idea of what is taking palace in the business community of this county.

This administration will tell you that the recession ended in 2009. Right, the check is in the mail. I am pissed, I’m fed up with Obama’s lies. Our business world is falling apart, that’s the short and the sweet of it. I would not want to be 21 years old under this administration for nothing or no reason.

I have seen our business drop off more and more under Obama. You will hear people say Obama was the best thing that could have ever happened to the gun business. You keep on believing that. In some areas of the country, this statement might be true. It is not true here in Richmond County.

I will admit that Obama did not catch up me and my business until about 2012. At that point, it dropped off to less than half of what it had been in previous years. It has not come back and never will under this administration. There is no disposable income left for the working man or woman in this county.

Their disposable income goes into their babies’ bellies or into the belly of their car. Nothing is left over for the luxuries of life. The only difference between me and anybody else is the fact that I am just in debt at a higher degree than the average citizen, and it sucks. But that is the nature of small business.

You have an administration that brags that the unemployment rate is just 5.1 percent. This is just another lie, more propaganda to make it look like Obama has helped the economy grow. He has not. They brag that in the last quarter that we grew jobs at the rate of roughly 200,000 per month. I don’t believe it, but for the sake of argument, let us just say that these numbers are correct.

Here is my problem with the numbers — these are not full-time jobs. These jobs are mostly part-time. These jobs are 30 hours per week or fewer. Part of the reason for short work weeks: the government and the Affordable Care Act.

The other part of the reason is corporate America is too damn cheap to give the men and women they employe, the 40-hour work week that they need to live on. Bottom line, and that is what it is, the bottom line for the companies. Save corporate money at the expense of the employee.

Because we all know that the top of this corporate heap just needs more money than the worker bees. But I’ll be damned if they deserve 40 to 50 times the wages just to sit there and look pretty.

All these lies about the unemployment numbers can be explained. It starts with the American workers who have just given up on finding a job, it takes place every day. They fall off the roles of the working man or woman and fall on to the roles of the welfare recipient. It’s not much, but in some cases, it’s better than working a 20- to 30-hour work week. It almost appears we are fighting corporate America and the federal government just to make ends meet.

There is another reason that these unemployment numbers are a lie — it’s called the labor participation rate. This number tells the whole story, and the truth. This LPR is the number of people between the ages of 16 and 65 who are able and willing to work. At this moment, that rate is at about 62 percent, give or take a tenth or so.

OK, read that number. That means for every 100 people eligible to work, 38 are not on the work roles. That is your true unemployment rate — 38 percent of our work force is not working.

Add back to that number the elderly and the children. Now you have between three and four people out of 10 working. Those people are providing their overtaxed dollar to keep up six to seven other people.

This is not sustainable. We, the workers, cannot carry and support 60 percent of the population and a government that cannot rein in the spending of our tax dollars. While all of you bleeding-heart liberal progressives watch the sun set, you also are watching America sinking into the pit of no return.

Are you happy? It will not only be our children, but it will also be your children who will pay with a lost future. A future of payments to foreign governments that wish for our fall from power.

These payments will cause future generations to see little to no growth in their personal income. Why? Because of this administration. Obama has owned the economy for almost seven years and still blames the Bush administration. Obama has done little to nothing to help our economy grow. His legacy star on his royal crown, the Affordable Care Act, helped tear our economy apart.

Obama’s first stimulus package of what amounted to be $1 trillion was a total failure. He talked about shovel-ready jobs that did not exist. He also had the arrogant nerve to laugh during an interview when he was asked about the “shovel-ready jobs.” While laughing, he said, “I guess I was wrong.”

On average the jobs that were created cost the working population $275,000 per job in taxed dollars. The wages averaged around $40,000 per worker. Waste, nothing but waste, but it did not matter to Obama. We see it every day, Obama has had seven years to turn it around. He can’t; he does not know how. There is noone with in his administration who has the background to do so.

I know I only run a small business, but I do run a business that has existed for more than 10 years. I’ve done something right. I have my own plan. Would it work? I think it would. I know it would have worked better than Obama’s.

It’s simple — you take the 1 trillion and split it up among all 50 states. That works out to $20 billion per state. You now split that up among the 40 counties here in North Carolina that have the worst economies.

Richmond County would get $500 million. Do you understand this number? Do you know what that would mean to all of us? My plan for us would have been to buy the old Clark building. It could have been bought for around $2 million at one point, when UCO Fabrics still owned it. Even if it had taken $25 million to refit and repair, it could have been done.

Now, I would have gone into some type of manufacturing. I don’t care what type. I don’t care if it was making paperclips or clothespins. We would be manufacturing something that America and Americans could use. If those same products came in from China, I would tax them at a rate that would make the better-built American product a much better value.

How hard would this be? We pass laws every day. Let us pass laws to revive American jobs that were sent to other countries. It’s just a thought.

We need a president who wants to help — not hinder — America. We need a man or woman who has pride in America and Americans. Not a man who would tell us all that America and Americans are not exceptional. We damn well are exceptional — black, white and brown-skinned Americans.

We do not need a man who would tell Christians to come off our high horse. That statement makes me feel Obama has a great distaste toward Christians.

Robert Lee is a concerned citizen and former U.S. Marine who owns and operates Rockingham Guns and Ammo. His column appears here each Saturday.

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Robert Lee

Contributing Columnist