Reformation
The 15 Trillion Dollar Time Bomb
I’m deeply concerned about the ticking time bomb of US debt. This week the “Super Committee” is tasked to enact important budget cuts–but the Democrats won’t budge on raising taxes and the Republicans are showing weakness.
The problem cannot not be solved by increasing taxes. Out-of-control SPENDING is our scourge. Raising taxes will discourage economic recovery and only grow the size of government. That’s a lethal combination. Our current politicians are like pimps that are perpetuating their power and the dependency habits of their citizen-prostitutes by refusing to do what’s right–dramatically cutting spending.
We need to throw out the cowards in 2012 and elect some courageous leaders who will save this Republic from a frightful financial suicide.
The following article by John Hayward of Human Events could not be more clear. Read it, weep, pray, and get involved. And don’t forget: “In God We Trust.” Happy Thanksgiving. RB
Fifteen Trillion And Counting
Signposts on the road to systemic collapse
by John Hayward – 11/18/2011
The United States government officially passed the $15 trillion debt milestone on Tuesday. The Republican National Committee produced a little video to commemorate the occasion, and remind us of the bygone days when Barack Obama stridently declared $9 trillion in debt was too much, and he’d cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term:
Many people have become concerned about the staggering amount of American debt purchased by China. Those people can relax, because China is no longer the largest holder of U.S. government debt. Who is? Why… none other than the U.S. Federal Reserve. That’s right. The largest share of Uncle Sam’s debt is held by Uncle Sam. We borrow the money from ourselves, so Barack Obama can buy votes with over a trillion dollars a year more than the government actually takes in.
In its latest monthly report, the Federal Reserve said that as of Sept. 28, it owned $1.665 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. That was more than double the $812 billion in U.S. Treasury securities the Fed said it owned as of Sept. 29, 2010.
Meanwhile, as of the end of this September, entities in mainland China owned $1.1483 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities, according to data published today by the U.S. Treasury Department. That was down slightly from the $1.1519 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities the Chinese owned as of the end of September 2010, according to the same Treasury Department report.
Thus, at the end of September 2010, the Chinese owned about $339.9 billion more in U.S. Treasury securities than the Fed owned at that time. By the end of September 2011, the Fed owned about $516.7 billion more in U.S. Treasury securities than the Chinese owned.
Okay, so we’ve got the feds chewing on its own tail, with a swollen belly full of madly churning printing presses, ready to explode in a shower of devalued dollars. But at least Obama’s madcap spending spree helped stimulate the economy, right?
Nope. Not only did we get nothing for the trillions in debt Obama has piled on, his “stimulus” ideas were worse than useless. It will have a net negative effect on GDP over the next ten years. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama wondered how that was possible in a budget hearing on Tuesday, and Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf laid out the dismal situation:
Bonus: things will get even worse in the next decade, as the enormous cost of financing Obama’s debt keeps rolling along.
We could pay off the national debt today… provided every single man, woman, and child on Earth sent $2,000 to the U.S. Treasury. Of course, a lot of them don’t have $2,000. That’s more than the per-capita income of 70 countries. Maybe we could ask everyone in the developed world to work one month out of the year to get good old Uncle Sam out of debt? Unfortunately, only 29 countries have a per-capita income above $2,000 per month. That includes Greece and Italy. They’re kind of busy with their own debt issues right now.
Greece and Italy, by the way, have a combined national debt of about $3.1 trillion, one-fifth of ours, and their economies are on life support. Of course, we’re a larger country with a much larger economy, so we can handle the debt load, can’t we? Look at it this way: the per-capita debt of Greece is about $56,000 per person, while in Italy it’s $45,000 a head… and we’re right in the middle, with just a hair under $49,000 in debt piled on every single American’s shoulders. We’re on schedule to hit Greek levels of per-capita debt within two years.
No level of taxation can ever erase that burden. Outright confiscation kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. High tax rates crush GDP growth even faster than high deficit spending. And if our GDP finally perks up, and brings us some decent job creation, interest rates will probably go up too… raising the cost of financing the debt. We’ll stumble out of the Obama woods and walk right into the debt-service bear trap he’s set for us.
The deficit-reducing Super Committee is locked in a death struggle over the right mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. That’s not the same thing as reducing the debt – it will continue to grow. They’re just arguing about reducing the rate of increase by 10% or so, at best. $1.2 trillion over 10 years is $120 billion per year. The United States of America borrows $120 billion roughly every three weeks.
The cost of financing all that debt will eat an increasing portion of the federal budget. Debt service gobbles up over 6% right now. That means either tax increases, or even higher deficits, will be necessary merely to maintain current spending levels – and that’s before the automatic “baseline” increases built into every government program are factored in. Today’s staunch opposition to tax hikes means ever-greater debt, which siphons away even more federal money into debt service, and builds the pressure for tomorrow’s even more massive tax increases.
If you think the “evil Rich” are being demonized now, just wait until debt service has eaten away another 5% of the budget – something that will happen within the next 10 years, and probably the next five, even if America’s credit rating doesn’t take another serious hit. It will happen even if Obama doesn’t get the next $450 billion “stimulus” he’s been demanding. Our government is quite large enough to die of a fiscal coronary even if it stops eating donuts.
The spending death spiral has long passed the point where it’s self-perpetuating. Citizens of Greece coping with austerity programs feel as if they have no good choices – they can’t afford reduced pensions or higher taxes, but their government will die if it doesn’t get its debt under control. The last “good choices” for Greece were a generation ago. The next generation of Americans will feel exactly the same way, if we don’t wise up and do something about it, right now.
Fifteen trillion in debt and counting. You won’t like what happens when we hit twenty. We’ll probably get there by the end of Barack Obama’s second term.
[Let’s work and pray so that there will not be another disastrous four years….RB]
How the GOP Presidential Race is Like the NFL
Many people seem perplexed or nervous about the GOP presidential contest. The field is fairly broad and there have already been nearly a dozen debates.
For a few weeks Hermain Cain was up and this week saw the rise of Newt Gingrich. Mitt Romney looks steady but is not pulling away. Michelle Bachmann won the Iowa Straw poll but is now in single digits. Rick Perry catapulted to the front at first, then made some debate mistakes and fell back.
And on and on.
Everywhere I go, people are asking me who I will vote for, and express dismay over the daily changing landscape. To those who are concerned, I have a simple response:
Relax and watch the game.
Politics is like the National Football League. The “regular season” is still going on and we really don’t know who will make the “playoffs.” We also don’t know who will get hot in their playoff run and then go on to the Big Dance.
So do not despair. The game is on, one “team” will rise to the top, and that “team” should go on to beat Team Obama in the “Super Bowl.”
My prediction: GOP 55 – Obama 45.
Here’s why the 2012 Republican presidential race is eerily similar to the NFL.
First of all, let’s examine the dynamics of America’s favorite sport–the NFL.
The beginning of the National Football League season always starts with much speculation and hype. Most fans believe their team is going to do well, and predictions about who will rise are all over the map. Then the regular season begins and the teams start playing. Some do better than expected and others tank. The regular season is there to confirm who teams that can become play-off contenders.
By the time the playoffs arrive, you have a much better idea of who the superior teams are. They’ve navigated the ups and downs of the long regular season, honed their strengths, worked on their weaknesses, and finished in a position to move on.
After a rugged playoff schedule, only two teams are left standing. They are, at that time, the cream of the crop in the league. In the biggest sporting event in the world, they face off in the Super Bowl–and only one takes home the crown as “World Champion.”
Now let’s transpose that process to the current GOP presidential race.
First of all, a caveat. I will probably disappoint or anger some of you by comparing your favorite team to a current GOP contender. Of course, the comparisons are never perfect, but I’ll try to imaginatively do my best.
Secondly, things change every week as the season progresses. So what is said today may be different at the end of the season. So give me some slack. I’m trying to make a point–and use a little humor to do it.
Mitt Romney is like the New England Patriots. He’s steady and a perennial contender, but he doesn’t appear to be a juggernaut this year. He’s got a good arm like Tom Brady, but he’s not one of the younger “quarterbacks” in the league. He’s got a great “coaching staff” (like Bill Belichick), but there’s questions about whether he can go all the way. No matter how good he is, some people just don’t like “the Patriots.”
Rick Perry is similar to the Houston Texans. They were a favorite to rise in the 2011-2012 season, but lost some games early on and appeared to be going nowhere. But the past few weeks they’ve been winning–and maybe over the long haul they can make it back to the top.
Newt Gingrich is the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has the heritage, the trophies, and probably “knows football” better than anybody else. Deep down many people want to see him win and “kick Obama’s butt” in the presidential debates. But later down the line, he may be on the “defensive” as some past personal mistakes are blown up by the media (Ben Rothlisberger–can you relate?) Of course, good defense wins Super Bowls. (Troy Polamalu-we need you!).
Herman Cain is like the Buffalo Bills. For a few weeks he looked almost unbeatable, but then he began to lose a few games with some “unsportsmanlike conduct” accusations. I believe these charges are all bogus, but the refs still threw the flags. Herman needs to get his act together and go back to the top of his game. Otherwise, it will be a long off-season.
Michelle Bachmann is like the Detroit Lions. She’s a “young team” and started out with a bang. But now she has lost some games and gone back to the middle of the pack. She can win a “wild card” race with a primary triumph in Iowa, but it will not be easy. But don’t count her out yet. She has a “spine made with steel” (maybe she’s really a Steeler).
I think you get the idea, but here are a few more analogies.
- Jon Huntsman is the Cleveland Browns. His campaign is too “dreary”. He’s not going to win this year.
- Ron Paul is the Dallas Cowboys. There’s a loyal following, but he always trips up on the big stage due to foreign policy “interceptions” (think Tony Romo’s playoff record.)
- Rick Santorum is the Oakland Raiders. They’re young and good looking, but even Carson Palmer can’t save them.
- Tim Pawlenty–oh he’s gone already–just like the Indianapolis Colts. He was 0-8 before things got going.
And unfortunately, there is no “Green Bay Packers” in this year’s GOP race. It might have been Chris Christie, but you never know until they play the game.
So back to the actual race.
It is completely normal that the the GOP contenders are fighting it out now and positions and polling are going back and forth. That’s normal in the regular season. The NFL teams are doing the same. The regular season is necessary to see who has the better package to rise to the top of the heap.
Then the playoffs will begin. The first “game” will be the Iowa caucuses, followed by the new Hampshire and South Carolina primaries. Just like the polls aren’t extremely important now, neither is the regular season except to put certain teams in a position to move on.
The playoffs are the primaries. That’s when people will cast their real votes and we will see who the Grand Old Party believes is their best team. At that point, the better candidates will get on a roll, and as the playoffs end, only one team–one Republican presidential candidate–will win.
That candidate will play Barack Obama in the Super Bowl of Politics.
The eventual GOP nominee will have greatly elevated their game by the end. They will have a clear set of principles that are superior to that of Team Obama. Not matter who they are, they will be a believer in smaller government, lower deficits, no new taxes, sound social policy, and in a word: freedom.
In the “Super Bowl,” Obama will bring his “offense” of Obamacare, bigger government, hostility toward the family and Christianity, and will be on “defense” for a lousy economy that he has failed to improve. His game plan is also very clear. History calls it tyranny.
In that all important final contest, the GOP will win because even though we were blinded by the charisma of Team Obama in 2008, in November of 2012 a majority of the American people will take note that Barack Obama was not really the champion of hope and change that he purported to be.
We thought he was Vince Lombardi and the Pack.
But really, he is more like the Toledo Mud Hens.
Team GOP will win the 2012 Super Bowl Election. The refs for the game will be the mainstream media and they will keep it close by throwing some bogus penalty flags (think Seattle Seahawks versus Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006).
The game will not not be easy, and unlike football, we are not just spectators. We will need to pray desperately, repent of our past wrong choices, and get into the game to help all the best candidates win on a local, state and national level–not just the Super Bowl.
But we will win.
America can’t afford another lock-out.
To read a good article on the Republican candidates by political strategist Dick Morris, please click here.
Sobering Lessons from the Firing of Joe Paterno
I must admit that Coach Joe Paterno–a football coaching legend at Penn State for the past forty-six years–has been a hero of mine for decades. When he became PSU’s coach in 1965, I was just entering my junior high school years when sports was very important to me.
Coach Paterno made a deep impression. He seemed to be fair, disciplined, a man of integrity and faith, and he produced a great football program. In 2011 he became the winningest coach in all of Division I football history. In an age of slick and arrogant coaches, Joe Pa seemed to be the “Gold Standard” of steadiness and grace.
So when I heard he’d been fired because of some child abuse charges being leveled at a former assistant coach, I inwardly reacted like many Penn State students did. I thought to myself, “Discipline the offender but spare Coach Joe Pa!”
But I was wrong. Joe Paterno needed to go.
Here’s why–and many other things we can learn from the Penn State fiasco.
There was one primary reason I was wrong about Coach Paterno’s firing. I didn’t have the facts. You will never have good judgment about a person or event if you don’t know the truth.
For a few days I sympathized with Coach Paterno and felt that he should stay. Why should a legendary coach be punished for the sins of an assistant? We’d been told in the beginning that Coach Paterno had done his legal obligation. We were also told that he was not under investigation.
So I thought “Just let him finish out the year and then he can step down gracefully.”
One day later the Penn State board of trustees fired him.
How could that be? Was it fair, or just a knee-jerk reaction to an unpleasant situation?
Then I read the state grand jury report–in its entirety. I found it on-line and it came with a disclaimer that the contents of the report were graphic and needed to be looked at with caution.
They were right to warn us. The report turned my stomach.
But the truth set me straight: Joe Paterno needed to be fired.
If you have any doubts, here is the link to the damning realities that took place at Penn State from 1994 to 2009. Before you go there, let me lay out the basic scenario for you.
On November 5, 2011 former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, a one time heir apparent to Coach Paterno, was arrested and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on forty criminal charges. The grand jury report states that he raped and abused young boys between the age of ten and fourteen from at least 1994 to 2009.
Some of the serial sex abuse of minors took place on the Penn State campus and in its training rooms. At this point there are eight victims that have come forward. There may be many more.
All of Sandusky’s victims were recruited through a charity he had established called The Second Mile for children from foster or dysfunctional homes. Instead of helping these kids, Sandusky abused and used them for his own sexual pleasures.
In 1999, Sandusky retired from his Penn State duties but still held emeritus status at the college and had access to the athletic facilities. In the fall of 2000, a janitor walked in on Sandusky having sexual contact with a young boy called Victim 8. The janitor reported it to other janitors but a police report was never filed.
On March 1, 2002, a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary (who was on the Penn State coaching staff until forced to take a “leave of absence” just a week ago) saw a naked boy of about ten years old called Victim 2 being sexually assaulted by Sandusky in the Penn State shower room. McQueary was distraught and reported the news to Coach Paterno the next day.
On March 3, Joe Paterno called Tim Curley, Penn State’s athletics director to his home and reported a version of what his grad assistant had told him. Later in the month, McQueary was invited to a meeting with Curley and Gary Schultz, senior vice president for finances and business. The grad assistant reported what he had seen and Curley and Shultz said they would look into it.
On March 27, 2002 McQueary was informed that Sandusky’s locker room keys had been taken away and that the incident had been reported to The Second Mile (Sandusky’s charity). McQueary was never questioned by campus police and heard nothing about any follow-up until he was called to testify before the state grand jury in December, 2010.
Sandusky continued to seduce and rape young boys in his College Township home from 2002-2009. Finally, a boy named in the report as Victim 1, who was eleven or twelve when he met Sandusky, told authorities through a counselor that Sandusky inappropriately touched him several times in a four year period.
In September 2010 Sandusky retired from day to day involvement in The Second Mile charity.
Last week he was arrested, Curley, Schultz and Paterno were fired, McQueary was put on administrative leave, and the Penn State nightmare exploded on the national stage.
All because of one pedophile monster–who has ruined the lives of maybe dozens of young children–and because no one was willing to step forward and do what was right.
There are many sobering things we can learn from the Penn State debacle and actions that must be taken for the university to move forward:
1. We all must be willing to speak out and go to the police when we see a crime being committed. Child rape is a crime–one that can devastate a child for life. There were many people in the Penn State orbit who miserably failed to do their duty–including Coach Paterno. They may have reported what they saw to superiors above them, but that wasn’t good enough. They may have been legally right, but failed the moral test. We need to speak up against sin so that others cannot be hurt.
2. In our sex-crazed society, we must realize that pedophilia and many other sexual sins are not okay–they are brutal and traumatic to individuals and our nation as a whole. Especially the sexual exploitation of children–which takes many forms today including child trafficking and prostitution. We must repent of our sexual debauchery and especially work hard to protect the children.
3. We must admit that power and profits and not more important than individual lives. Each year the Penn State football program nets over 50 million dollars for the university. The athletic director and the vice president for finance did not want to get involved because they were afraid of losing money and prestige. Now they will lose scores of millions of dollars in future civil lawsuits. Your greed will find you out.
4. It takes a lifetime to build a good name, but it can be destroyed through one lapse of judgment. Joe Paterno is a great coach. But his legacy has now been tarnished forever. No matter how many games he won or the character he exhibited during a half century of coaching, it is all scarred now by one colossal act of mis-judgment. He should have followed up with his superiors. Kids were being raped! He should have gone to the police. Rather, he did his nominal part and walked away. It will cost him his legacy.
5. Penn State should release its entire football coaching staff and start over with a new group. It also might be a good idea to voluntarily restrict themselves from post-season play for a year or two to re-establish credibility in the eyes of the public. Some are calling for the shutting down of the football program for a period of time. That wouldn’t be fair to the current players. They shouldn’t suffer for the sins of Jerry Sandusky. However, there must be a house-cleaning to restore the PSU name and brand. That will take some wisdom, integrity and time.
I am really saddened by this story of sexual abuse and cover-up in the sports world. However, it does give us all a good opportunity to look in the mirror.
Most of us think we are pretty good people, or that we’ve been redeemed by God’s grace. But maybe some are harboring secret sins and moral miscalculations that God’s “grand jury report” will one day make plain to the world (it’s called Judgement Day).
When the facts are seen–the truth will be clear about our lives as well.
Only through Christ can our “good name” (and future) be restored.
(Click here to read the grand jury report on the case against Penn State.)