By Jeff Bollier

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson Wednesday urged members of a service organization to go beyond community involvement to help build a groundswell of support for change necessary to avert a financial and cultural disaster in the country.

Speaking to hundreds gathered for a joint meeting of the city's three Rotary Clubs, the Republican Senator from Oshkosh said political reform is the only way to avert "a cultural tipping point" that will spill over into the nation's finances.

"This has to be a grassroots effort. We have got to demand that we start making changes in this country, that we actually seriously address the problems facing this nation. And that is going to take a lot of political pressure," Johnson said during his speech at the Oshkosh Convention Center. "That's going to take people stepping up to run for office. Good people, not people … that want the title, but people who recognize America is something precious. … We've been given a gift here and we're blowing it."

Johnson, a political newcomer and Oshkosh manufacturing company owner who defeated three-term incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold in November, said people who value their local community need to get involved to help turn around what he called a "culture of entitlement" to benefits such as food stamps and other programs.

He said over-reliance on government can be measured in statistics such as an increase in the out-of-wedlock birth rate from 7.5 percent in the 1960s to more than 40 percent currently, even higher in black communities from more than 20 percent to more than 70 percent over the same period, and more than 46 million Americans relying on food stamps.

"In this nation, it's the cultural tipping point that drives the financial one," Johnson said. "I believe we have developed in this nation a culture of entitlement and dependency. I think it's undeniable."

Johnson said the debt-ceiling crisis was "man-made" and the compromise that resolved it cuts the rate federal spending will increase, not the size of the federal budget. He said he's more concerned about investors rejecting American bonds or charging high interest rates that would lead to a financial crisis.

He also took aim at President Barack Obama, saying that re-electing the president "would be a disaster" based on his response to the debt crisis, health care bill and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation. Johnson said the new financial laws do not address the concern some companies have become too big to fail.

"I realize, very sadly, he doesn't know what to do. He never did," Johnson said of Obama.

In response to an audience question, he said a Republican presidential challenger needs to step up to help lead the country in the right direction.

"We need to find someone on the Republican side who understands the problems and is willing to lead Americans down a very unpleasant path that can salvage entitlements," Johnson said.

Following his speech, Johnson said Republicans and Democrats will have to take their cases to the public and see which generates more support.

"There's a huge, ideological divide in this country," he said. "Both sides have to go to the American people and build public support. Whoever wins more support, that solution will prevail."

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