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Thursday, July 28, 2011

The unholy deficit

Unconstitutional? What-e-ver...
"For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow."
  – Deuteronomy 15:6
Two and a half years ago President-elect Obama was instrumental in the passage of the enormous Wall Street Bailout which was supposed to save Western Civilization from collapse.  As I say, he was President-elect at the time. He hadn't even stepped into the White House yet, but he used his influence with the Congressional Black Caucus and others to push hard for hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to be handed over so that Wall Street executives could continue their decadent lifestyles.

That was followed by the huge "stimulus" program which was supposed to once again save Western Civilization but was really just another tax payer funded bailout of the plutocracy. And here we are again  with the threat of the collapse of Western Civilization if the debt ceiling is not raised by another few trillion dollars.

As an economic savior, Obama has been neither Superman nor Messiah -- he has been a failure. Faced with a Republican dominated House of Representatives that is finally showing signs of having had enough, Obama and his colleagues are floating a proposal of having the President raise the debt ceiling on his own using some contrived presidential power purportedly found in the 14th amendment.

What does Michele Bachmann have to say about this? She has pledged not to vote for any increase in the debt ceiling. The only exception she has mentioned is if Obamacare is repealed as part of the legislation. Michele has come out in a ground-shaking interview with CNN calling it like it is. She firmly states her opposition to an executive branch increase in the debt ceiling and states that this would effectively turn the President into a dictator.



In her reaction, the CNN anchorwoman abandons all pretense of objectivity and makes a face worthy of a schoolgirl who has just been given detention for speaking during class. "What-e-ver..." Very mature.

For all the adults out there -- this is very serious business. It doesn't require deep analysis to come to the conclusion that we cannot just continue borrowing and raising the debt ceiling. We have already seen what has happened in Greece.

This is not a partisan issue. Republicans are just as responsible for this mess as Democrats. It would be absolutely unfair to place all the blame on Obama. President Bush acted in the same way while he was head of the executive branch of government.

Here is Senator Barack Obama's statement on the debt limit in 2006, when he voted against increasing the ceiling:
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here'. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
The only way to save Western Civilization is to adopt Christian principles within government. That means ending the corrupt practices that funnel taxpayer money to corporations and government bureaucracies.

In case you haven't noticed, our society seems to have abandoned basic Christian values. Lying, stealing and cheating are considered positive attributes in business and government. While virtues like honesty, respect and humility are looked down upon as undesirable.

At the core of this is the inevitable corruption that occurs in society as Christian morals are replaced with the utilitarianism of secular humanism. Christianity is what built up America and made it the greatest nation on earth. Once we began to abandon our Christian roots in the aftermath of WWII our nation began to decline. It did not happen immediately because there was still an upward inertia from our Christian heritage. But as that heritage declined over succeeding generations, the forces of nature caused our nation's trajectory to go from surging positive growth to sliding into decadence.

In 1835 the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville published his observations of American society in a book titled "Democracy in America". Here are his impressions on the influence of Christianity on American society.
"Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.

There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equaled by their ignorance and their debasement, while in America one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world fulfills all the outward duties of religion with fervor.

Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country."
What would Tocqueville say if he were to visit America today?

1 comment:

  1. UPDATE: I added a 2006 quote from then Senator Obama in opposition to raising the debt ceiling.

    ReplyDelete