A couple of quotes that I read this week have sent me over the edge again. These were both in public speeches made by the president and his sidekick, Joe Biden. I really wish I could say something nice about these two, but they won't allow me the chance. I want them to be successful in turning the economy around, but I would rather they fail if the policies are dangerous to the overall health of the country. I can't support what they do if I feel strongly that they are going down the wrong path. I don't know how someone could see that as unpatrioic.
First, Joe Biden. While both quotes are examples of how the Obama administration is ruining our country financially, Biden's is the scariest. It demonstrates how they will continue to "fool" the American people into believing that they are strengthening our nation, when in fact they are destroying it. And a majority of us still feel that's the case. Here's Biden:
"In the first 77 days of the two-year Recovery Act program, 150,000 jobs have been created or saved."
"Created or saved" is the Obama teams way of saying that we're stupid. Saved? There's no way to verify those numbers and they know it. Why 150,000? Why not 250,000? Why not a million? Remember, every time you hear the term "created or saved", they know it can't be denied by anyone. They can make up whatever number they want.
Obama's quote is startling. It is verbage that directly opposes his action. It would be great if he truly believed it, but he clearly doesn't. Be sitting down when you read this:
"We can't keep on just borrowing from China. We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children's future with more and more debt."
What about the estimated $11 trillion debt that you are racking up with your cradle-to-grave programs? Where do you think that money is coming from? China. Saudi Arabia. Wherever he can get it. It's all going to be borrowed money. He wants you to think it is coming from the rich, those who earn over $250,000 a year. He told us he would pay for everything on the backs of the rich by increasing taxes on those folks. But we know that if you took every cent that group earned, it wouldn't touch the level of paying for his programs.
Somebody want to came help me see what I'm missing here?
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Obama Takes America Down California Road
California's budget crisis has been in the news this week. It would be interesting to see Governor Schwartenegger on his knees begging for cash to bail his state out, but if it happens at all it will be behind closed doors. He's lucky he has a place to go for help. Barack Obama may well be doing the same kind of begging in the near future, but begging from whom? Who will he go to when the American people do what the residents of California did this week when they rejected five of the six ballot propositions that the governor supported? One would have exended a huge tax increase that was set to end. Another borrowed more money for education when the state already spends way more than any other state per student. The others had to do with borrowing money from childrens programs and programs for mental health, and borrowing from state lottery increases that have not happened yet. Obama seems determined to take us down the same kind of road. Borrow money that doesn't exist.
California is trying to blame everybody and everything for it's current budget deficit. The recession, the stock market, tax reciepts, you name it. But in reality, the state is addicted to spending. I know it seems cliche, but when a family spends more than it takes in, it has to find somewhere to cut spending or they find themselves in debt to the credit card company beyond what they are able to pay. It's very common, and most families find a way to cut back and get themselves under control. Not California.
It has always been a rule of thumb in state budgeting that increases should not exceed the rate of growth plus inflation. Republican governor Pete Wilson came closest to this, when the growth rate plus inflation was 3.72%, Wilson allowed the budget to grow 4.88%. But since Wilson, the trend has been to grow the budget considerably faster. In the past 18 years, the budget has grown 5.91% while population plus inflation has only grown 4.38%.
During the '90's, California was riding the "dot com" wave and brought in revenues that produced surpluses as far as he eye could see. But instead of saving for a rainy day, or paying down debt, they spent every cent of it. And then some. That seems to be the Obama Way. But he's spending money we don't have. And alot of it.
California already has high taxes. The sales tax there is an enormous 9.75% and they rank in the top 15 states in total taxes. That's only because voters put a lid on how much property tax the state could charge (remember Prop 15 in 1978?). Otherwise, I believe they would easily be number one. Lots of Democrats in the state Legislature want you to believe that's the reason for the deficit. They can't raise enough money to fund the states basic programs due to their inability to raise taxes. But the problem is not going away even if they do raise taxes. And it's not going away if the federal government bails them out, which is probably going to happen. the problem doesn't go away until the state realizes that it can't spend every dime they take in and then borrow to spend some more.
Some examples of the problem in California are, first, their state employee pension fund. Did you know that the state continues to pay employees 70% of their final pay after they retire? Nice perk! But totally unaffordable, as they are now finding out. Public employee unions across the country held this up as the model for all states, but they were wisely ignored. Another example is one that is glowingly obvious to most, but not all, Californians. It is the fact that they spend around $5 billion a year on illegal aliens, the education of their children and healthcare taking the bulk of that. Interestingly, in this time of budget crisis, the democrats in the legislature just recently decided to oppose a law that would require welfare recipients who fail to complete drug treatment program to be drug tested randomly. You'd think it would be sensible to pare down the rolls when your law states that you have to be clean to receive benefits.
So, President Obama, will you learn from the California experience? As we know, taxing citizens at higher and higher rates doesn't work unless there are spending cuts to go along with them. And BIG cuts are what we are talking about here. Yes, there will be some pain involved, and there isn't much you can do about that. But you and your liberals in congress have decided that we can spend our way out of this mess. You've watched that approach fail time and time again, but you seem determined to make it work now. No detail, of course. Just somehow.
Congress has decided to follow the Obama Way. More spending. More taxing. More takeovers of private enterprise. During the campaign, Obama railed against this very type of governing. He called for fiscal policies that made sense, and would balance the budget. Now, as president, he has decided that it was all wrong to talk like that. Silly him. The truth is, that Obama doesn't want to tell the American people the truth. He doesn't want us to know that he is spending us into a hole that we will never be able to climb out of. He continues to deficit spend throughout the eight years he assumes we will give him by borrowing huge sums from the Chinese and Saudi Arabia. This is destructive to our country. He has set the clock ticking on a time bomb.
California, here we come.
California is trying to blame everybody and everything for it's current budget deficit. The recession, the stock market, tax reciepts, you name it. But in reality, the state is addicted to spending. I know it seems cliche, but when a family spends more than it takes in, it has to find somewhere to cut spending or they find themselves in debt to the credit card company beyond what they are able to pay. It's very common, and most families find a way to cut back and get themselves under control. Not California.
It has always been a rule of thumb in state budgeting that increases should not exceed the rate of growth plus inflation. Republican governor Pete Wilson came closest to this, when the growth rate plus inflation was 3.72%, Wilson allowed the budget to grow 4.88%. But since Wilson, the trend has been to grow the budget considerably faster. In the past 18 years, the budget has grown 5.91% while population plus inflation has only grown 4.38%.
During the '90's, California was riding the "dot com" wave and brought in revenues that produced surpluses as far as he eye could see. But instead of saving for a rainy day, or paying down debt, they spent every cent of it. And then some. That seems to be the Obama Way. But he's spending money we don't have. And alot of it.
California already has high taxes. The sales tax there is an enormous 9.75% and they rank in the top 15 states in total taxes. That's only because voters put a lid on how much property tax the state could charge (remember Prop 15 in 1978?). Otherwise, I believe they would easily be number one. Lots of Democrats in the state Legislature want you to believe that's the reason for the deficit. They can't raise enough money to fund the states basic programs due to their inability to raise taxes. But the problem is not going away even if they do raise taxes. And it's not going away if the federal government bails them out, which is probably going to happen. the problem doesn't go away until the state realizes that it can't spend every dime they take in and then borrow to spend some more.
Some examples of the problem in California are, first, their state employee pension fund. Did you know that the state continues to pay employees 70% of their final pay after they retire? Nice perk! But totally unaffordable, as they are now finding out. Public employee unions across the country held this up as the model for all states, but they were wisely ignored. Another example is one that is glowingly obvious to most, but not all, Californians. It is the fact that they spend around $5 billion a year on illegal aliens, the education of their children and healthcare taking the bulk of that. Interestingly, in this time of budget crisis, the democrats in the legislature just recently decided to oppose a law that would require welfare recipients who fail to complete drug treatment program to be drug tested randomly. You'd think it would be sensible to pare down the rolls when your law states that you have to be clean to receive benefits.
So, President Obama, will you learn from the California experience? As we know, taxing citizens at higher and higher rates doesn't work unless there are spending cuts to go along with them. And BIG cuts are what we are talking about here. Yes, there will be some pain involved, and there isn't much you can do about that. But you and your liberals in congress have decided that we can spend our way out of this mess. You've watched that approach fail time and time again, but you seem determined to make it work now. No detail, of course. Just somehow.
Congress has decided to follow the Obama Way. More spending. More taxing. More takeovers of private enterprise. During the campaign, Obama railed against this very type of governing. He called for fiscal policies that made sense, and would balance the budget. Now, as president, he has decided that it was all wrong to talk like that. Silly him. The truth is, that Obama doesn't want to tell the American people the truth. He doesn't want us to know that he is spending us into a hole that we will never be able to climb out of. He continues to deficit spend throughout the eight years he assumes we will give him by borrowing huge sums from the Chinese and Saudi Arabia. This is destructive to our country. He has set the clock ticking on a time bomb.
California, here we come.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Politics Aside--A Personal Note.
There is a part of all of us that is always seeking to know the answer to everything. I want to know why I'm here. I want to know where I'm going after I breathe my last breath. I want to know why there is suffering in the world, and why infants starve to death and children die of cancer. I don't know the answers, and I may never find them. But I've gone looking.
I'm leaving behind all the warnings of my parents and Sunday school teachers who said that I would find nothing but lies if I searched beyond what they taught me from the Bible. They taught me not to question, just to believe. If I asked too many questions about God or the reality of Jesus, Satan himself would fill my head with all sorts of dangerous heresies and I would lose my salvation and go to hell.
I don't believe that anymore. And right now I don't know what I do believe. So I'm going on a spiritual quest to see what I can find out about the historical Jesus, and learn about other religions as well. I'm going to examine the scriptures (as instructed in them), find what other faiths believe, look for truth where I can find it. I don't know how this will come out, and I don't know how long it will take.
Since my wife died in 2003, I have been pretty much directionless. My faith took a beating during the 8 months that she battled cancer. Prayers went unanswered, pain increased, questions begged an answer, and a wonderful woman was taken. I walked away from that an angry man. The silence that I experienced at the time has continued. I have prayed for direction and peace hundreds of times since then, asking for help in numerous situations that I couldn't seem to get out of. There has never been an answer. No "still, small voice," no miracle phone call with the answer, no sermon, no Bible passage, no friend who "had been thinking of me." It's like the window is closed and I'm not being heard or considered. I have beat myself up trying to figure out what I have done wrong, what I've done to anger God so badly that he will not hear me. Maybe I had already "lost" my salvation. I continued praying, but it grew hard to keep a facade that I expected to hear from God. Prayers became infrequent, and church attendance stopped completely.
One day recently, I was flipping through the channels and came across TBN, The Trinity Broadcasting Network. I have always been leary of the station, especially since seeing the founders wife, Jan Crouch, telling the faithful that Jesus Christ had stopped by her bedroom one night to encourage her during a particularly difficult time in the networks early days. Jesus. In the flesh. On this particular day, a "minister" named Benny Hinn was on. Dressed in black and wearing a priests collar, Hinn was broadcasting from Jerusalem. His message seemed rather urgent, as he was flailing his arms about like he was expecting to be raptured and wanted to help with liftoff. Benny is usually pretty laid back, so I listened to see what was of such importance.
At the top of his voice, Benny was letting us all know that there was a way to get out of debt with God's new "miracle of debt cancellation." It seems that there is some obscure Old Testament scripture where God wiped out the nation of Israel's debt to other nations. Benny and the Lord had seemingly managed to come up with a way to finance Benny's ministry and wipe out all Christian's debt! It just requires you to send Benny a check for at least $100, wrapped in his special "miracle debt cancelling hankerchief". Next thing you know, God will either send you the money to pay off your debts, or your going to get a really nice letter from your lender that says you don't have to pay your bills after all! Either way, God will cancel your debts!!
I spent an hour pondering the fact that thousands of people were, at that very moment, writing a check to Benny and wrapping it in the miracle handkerchief. But I wondered what would happen when no miracle occured. What would these folks do when they found out that they still had overwheming debt and no windfall from above to pay for it. No happy phone call from VISA, no Publisher's Clearinghouse knock on the door, no forgiveness from the IRS. What then? Do these people just wait for the next TBN hoax? Do they wait for Benny to tell them they didn't have enough faith to move the hand of God? Sorry? How many people will be devestated today?
All this led me to question why intellegent people would fall for such a story. Is it because they, like me, were told to never question? Just believe. Then I began to wonder if we aren't all following a story, the story of God and his son Jesus. Is it mythological, or is it just like I've been taught? Is the Bible God's word, or are we taking to heart the innocent stories of those seeking their own answers to how we got here? I need to know. Like Ulysses, my goal is "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." I want to find the truth. I'm not going to get into all of the things I've learned so far, this journey is only a few days old as I write this. But I will say that I hope those of you who know me will be patient, and be supportive and not judgemental toward me as I go. This can only make me stronger.
Peace.
I'm leaving behind all the warnings of my parents and Sunday school teachers who said that I would find nothing but lies if I searched beyond what they taught me from the Bible. They taught me not to question, just to believe. If I asked too many questions about God or the reality of Jesus, Satan himself would fill my head with all sorts of dangerous heresies and I would lose my salvation and go to hell.
I don't believe that anymore. And right now I don't know what I do believe. So I'm going on a spiritual quest to see what I can find out about the historical Jesus, and learn about other religions as well. I'm going to examine the scriptures (as instructed in them), find what other faiths believe, look for truth where I can find it. I don't know how this will come out, and I don't know how long it will take.
Since my wife died in 2003, I have been pretty much directionless. My faith took a beating during the 8 months that she battled cancer. Prayers went unanswered, pain increased, questions begged an answer, and a wonderful woman was taken. I walked away from that an angry man. The silence that I experienced at the time has continued. I have prayed for direction and peace hundreds of times since then, asking for help in numerous situations that I couldn't seem to get out of. There has never been an answer. No "still, small voice," no miracle phone call with the answer, no sermon, no Bible passage, no friend who "had been thinking of me." It's like the window is closed and I'm not being heard or considered. I have beat myself up trying to figure out what I have done wrong, what I've done to anger God so badly that he will not hear me. Maybe I had already "lost" my salvation. I continued praying, but it grew hard to keep a facade that I expected to hear from God. Prayers became infrequent, and church attendance stopped completely.
One day recently, I was flipping through the channels and came across TBN, The Trinity Broadcasting Network. I have always been leary of the station, especially since seeing the founders wife, Jan Crouch, telling the faithful that Jesus Christ had stopped by her bedroom one night to encourage her during a particularly difficult time in the networks early days. Jesus. In the flesh. On this particular day, a "minister" named Benny Hinn was on. Dressed in black and wearing a priests collar, Hinn was broadcasting from Jerusalem. His message seemed rather urgent, as he was flailing his arms about like he was expecting to be raptured and wanted to help with liftoff. Benny is usually pretty laid back, so I listened to see what was of such importance.
At the top of his voice, Benny was letting us all know that there was a way to get out of debt with God's new "miracle of debt cancellation." It seems that there is some obscure Old Testament scripture where God wiped out the nation of Israel's debt to other nations. Benny and the Lord had seemingly managed to come up with a way to finance Benny's ministry and wipe out all Christian's debt! It just requires you to send Benny a check for at least $100, wrapped in his special "miracle debt cancelling hankerchief". Next thing you know, God will either send you the money to pay off your debts, or your going to get a really nice letter from your lender that says you don't have to pay your bills after all! Either way, God will cancel your debts!!
I spent an hour pondering the fact that thousands of people were, at that very moment, writing a check to Benny and wrapping it in the miracle handkerchief. But I wondered what would happen when no miracle occured. What would these folks do when they found out that they still had overwheming debt and no windfall from above to pay for it. No happy phone call from VISA, no Publisher's Clearinghouse knock on the door, no forgiveness from the IRS. What then? Do these people just wait for the next TBN hoax? Do they wait for Benny to tell them they didn't have enough faith to move the hand of God? Sorry? How many people will be devestated today?
All this led me to question why intellegent people would fall for such a story. Is it because they, like me, were told to never question? Just believe. Then I began to wonder if we aren't all following a story, the story of God and his son Jesus. Is it mythological, or is it just like I've been taught? Is the Bible God's word, or are we taking to heart the innocent stories of those seeking their own answers to how we got here? I need to know. Like Ulysses, my goal is "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." I want to find the truth. I'm not going to get into all of the things I've learned so far, this journey is only a few days old as I write this. But I will say that I hope those of you who know me will be patient, and be supportive and not judgemental toward me as I go. This can only make me stronger.
Peace.
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