In 2014, America bought $508 billion more in foreign goods than foreigners bought from us. The largest single destroyer of jobs in America (nearly 30 million jobs have been exported) has been our enormous trade deficit. But why is this subject never mentioned in presidential campaigns? For the simple reason that no one knows what to do about it. Most members of Congress are lawyers with no real business experience or economic background.

Originally created for the poor, social security was for those unable to support themselves in their old age - before it was forced on everyone as a savings account. Unfortunately, that money was stolen first to pay for the Vietnam War and then satisfy other "unfunded federal liabilities". Those are promises the federal government has made with no revenue to pay for them. Few people are aware that the missing money was replaced with IOUs, which Uncle Sam is now borrowing to repay.

While author Mark Bragg agrees it was necessary for an environmental movement to force the government to clean the air and water, he says extremists have now taken over the federal bureaucracy and are using various federal laws to attack our food supply. Even Al Gore believes spending $7 billion a year to subsidize corn production for ethanol is senseless. He should know. He established the stupidity that allows 41 percent of our corn supply to be made into a corrosive fuel that costs more energy to make than it actually produces.

Government jobs take money from private enterprises to spend on self-defeating welfare, a declining educational system, excessive military defense, and environmental extremism. Rather than generating any wealth, the government's expenditure are consuming it. Most politicians and virtually all bureaucrats don't know the difference between jobs that produce wealth and jobs that consume wealth and stop wealth production.

In Economic Conservative/Social Liberal, Bragg offers a plan for fixing the dire problems our country currently faces. Written to engage, educate, and inspire further discussion, the book is intended for any listener interested in gaining greater political and economic understanding for challenging the status quo. Although it is bound to boil the blood of the left and the right, it will make perfect sense to many of the independent voters who will decide the next election. You can visit the author's site at independentvoters.com.