Posted by
peripheral on Tuesday, August 04, 2009 11:40:20 AM
From My Perspective - - -
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.