One would easily get the impression that our nation is currently insane, stupid, drunk, or controlled by the greatest number of miscreants (depraved, villainous, or base) ever assembled to form the Congress of the U.S. Perhaps – it is all of the above. The lead story this morning on Yahoo News is an AP Item entitled simply: “Federal Tax Revenues”! The article states how bleak the financial horizon is currently and the blindness of the big spenders who keep promoting large programs, entitlements and stimulus spending. “The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab. The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion. Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever. The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression. Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made…”
The article continues: “While much of Washington is focused on how to pay for new programs such as overhauling health care — at a cost of $1 trillion over the next decade — existing programs are feeling the pinch, too. Social Security is in danger of running out of money earlier than the government projected just a few month ago. Highway, mass transit and airport projects are at risk because fuel and industry taxes are declining. The national debt already exceeds $11 trillion. And bills just completed by the House would boost domestic agencies' spending by 11 percent in 2010 and military spending by 4 percent…” An important question is asked: “Is there a way out of the financial mess?” An answer that could and should be given is – “Yes!” Stop the grandiose programs and spending! It is the road and path to Bankruptcy! The article’s rationale is: “A key factor is the economy's health. The future of current programs…will depend largely on how fast the economy recovers from the recession…” The numbers for 2009 are striking, head-snapping. But what really matters is what happens next…If it's just one year, then it's a remarkable thing, but it's totally manageable. If the economy doesn't recover soon, it doesn't matter what your social, economic and political agenda is. There's not going to be any revenue to pay for it…The sheer magnitude of the tax decline, however, points to the deep recession that is reducing incomes, wiping out corporate profits and straining government programs…"
From an article in The Christian Century: “Christian realism had become all too rare among those entrusted with the common good—as should have been evident when Alan Greenspan, commenting last fall on the collapse of major financial institutions, confessed with uncharacteristic clarity, ‘Wow! I didn't see that coming!’ How could he not have seen it coming? Where did we ever get the idea that financial institutions were best left to regulate themselves, as if the all-too-human tendencies toward greed, wishful thinking and incompetence somehow diminished as the size of bonuses for investment bankers increased? …The rich are as capable of egregious levels of self-deception, recklessness and indifference to the common good as any of us, under similar circumstances, might prove to be. Why then would anyone have fallen for the idea that leaving them to pursue their collective self-interest would result in anything other that the wholesale pillaging of our hard-earned savings and investments?
An apt warning and instruction from the Word of God in Deuteronomy 8:17-21 – “You may say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” Consider these things with me.
The article continues: “While much of Washington is focused on how to pay for new programs such as overhauling health care — at a cost of $1 trillion over the next decade — existing programs are feeling the pinch, too. Social Security is in danger of running out of money earlier than the government projected just a few month ago. Highway, mass transit and airport projects are at risk because fuel and industry taxes are declining. The national debt already exceeds $11 trillion. And bills just completed by the House would boost domestic agencies' spending by 11 percent in 2010 and military spending by 4 percent…” An important question is asked: “Is there a way out of the financial mess?” An answer that could and should be given is – “Yes!” Stop the grandiose programs and spending! It is the road and path to Bankruptcy! The article’s rationale is: “A key factor is the economy's health. The future of current programs…will depend largely on how fast the economy recovers from the recession…” The numbers for 2009 are striking, head-snapping. But what really matters is what happens next…If it's just one year, then it's a remarkable thing, but it's totally manageable. If the economy doesn't recover soon, it doesn't matter what your social, economic and political agenda is. There's not going to be any revenue to pay for it…The sheer magnitude of the tax decline, however, points to the deep recession that is reducing incomes, wiping out corporate profits and straining government programs…"
From an article in The Christian Century: “Christian realism had become all too rare among those entrusted with the common good—as should have been evident when Alan Greenspan, commenting last fall on the collapse of major financial institutions, confessed with uncharacteristic clarity, ‘Wow! I didn't see that coming!’ How could he not have seen it coming? Where did we ever get the idea that financial institutions were best left to regulate themselves, as if the all-too-human tendencies toward greed, wishful thinking and incompetence somehow diminished as the size of bonuses for investment bankers increased? …The rich are as capable of egregious levels of self-deception, recklessness and indifference to the common good as any of us, under similar circumstances, might prove to be. Why then would anyone have fallen for the idea that leaving them to pursue their collective self-interest would result in anything other that the wholesale pillaging of our hard-earned savings and investments?
An apt warning and instruction from the Word of God in Deuteronomy 8:17-21 – “You may say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” Consider these things with me.
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