Call Their Bluff

In order to get our government's out-of-control deficit under control, we can do one of the following: we can cut spending; we can raise taxes; or we can do a little of both.
President Obama wanted to raise taxes. That would have slowed down the economy but would have reduced the national debt.
The Republican majority wanted to cut spending. That would have hurt every government program and expenditure, including unemployment benefits and the war, but it would reduce the debt.
Cutting some taxes and reducing some spending would slow down the economy some and hurt government programs a bit, but it would probably have gone farthest in reducing the debt.
But the President and the Republicans have come up with an option which does nothing to reduce the deficit. The compromise that they have agreed upon will extend tax breaks for two years AND continue unemployment benefits. It neither raises taxes NOR reduces spending. It is the worst option imaginable. It is the status quo. The deficit will only get worse under this plan.
Why did Obama strike this deal? Because the Republicans, from what I've heard, were going to block any tax cut if they did not get a tax cut for the top earners in this country. Well, let them. That would mean that we would reduce the deficit, and if there was any backlash, they would take the blame. They were voted in to reduce taxes and ended up raising them? That would be political suicide. They are bluffing, and the President should have called their bluff.
Congress, however, still has a chance to call their bluff by voting it down.

Infomercial for Gold

I tuned into Glenn Beck today. He outlined for his audience a 16-day scenario for the devaluing of the dollar. This being supposedly the result of a leftist conspiracy to destroy our economy and establish a new world order. At one point, the dollar loses 10% of its value. It is pointed out at the same time that gold increases in value by 200%.
Even before the analysis is complete the show goes immediately to a commercial for Goldline International, telling people to buy gold. Other commercials for gold follow, of course, including one hosted by G. Gordon Liddy, the most trustworthy felon in the U.S., who did 4 1/2 years for masterminding the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972.
Glenn Beck's program is an informercial for gold. His website does a fair job of selling it too. If you are reading this, please don't buy into it. His whole pitch is geared toward making a profit off of you. If this is obvious to you, congratulations. If it is not, wake up, someone is making a fool out of you.

From Mere Christianity

Just read this tonight and it makes sense. I'm taking this from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, Book II: What Christians Believe, Chapter 4: The Perfect Penitent. Keep in mind that Lewis wrote this at a time when it was common to refer to humanity as "Man" and "Mankind." Here he asks "what was the sort of 'hole' that man had gotten himself into?" He answers (Lewis, not Mankind):

"He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor - this movement full speed astern - is what Christianity calls repentence. Now repentence is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person - and he would not need to."

Christians believe that Jesus was that perfect person.

Three days late, I fear, for those of us Catholics who voted this Tuesday, to consider. But, I just discovered this article, and decided to post it for the next election cycle:
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12531

No taxes? Not according to Stockman.

For those who say that we need to keep taxes low, let me ask you: how are we going to pay for the war? Both of them? How are we going to keep our children (and yes, every single child in this country is our child) educated, healthy and housed? How are we going to ensure that the Social Security that you and I have paid into all of our lives will be there for us?

We are going to have to not only cut spending, but raise taxes in order to balance the budget. Some say that will slow down the economy and is no was to go. But that just strikes me as a pitch for big business to hold on to as much money as possible. David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, said recently that "If we cut spending and raise taxes, it may slow down the economy even more, but that's, unfortunately, the choice that we face."

Stockman, in a recent NPR interview, said some enlightening things about the current economic crisis, and how both the Democratic and Republican parties are not facing up to the hard choices that we are going to have to make. He criticized the Republican Party's Contract with America, calling it "half right on some things, and...half baked on a lot of others." Specifically, the Contract calls for cuts in non-defense spending of up to 100 billion dollars, and Stockton points out that the deficit is 1.5 trillion and growing. In his estimation, "it's pretty obvious you can't get the job done." He also thinks that Obama is being disingenuous by saying that he will propose no new taxes on the middle class, or anyone who earns under $250,000.00. When asked if we are going to need to raise taxes on the middle class, this former budget director for one of the most conservative administrations in the 20th century answered: "Sure, absolutely. He should tell them, we're going to raise all your taxes because that's the only way we can support all these programs that I want to keep."

Stockman gives credence to the practical wisdom of reducing spending and raising taxes in order to get the government back in balance. We're going to have to bite the bullet. Stop talking about reducing taxes or making the Bush era tax cuts permanent. And by the way, all of you who consider yourselves patriotic Americans, raising taxes is a patriotic act. If you aren't willing to have your taxes raised in order to pay for the war, that is unpatriotic.

Petronella.mov

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.mov