America’s Fiscal Crisis Looming Larger

We hear every day how our government is spending more money than it has coming in; but the situation is getting ridiculous! The Federal government’s spending is far out-distancing its income; and there is no end in sight. This cannot go on! The government’s tax and spend tactics are not helping the unemployment situation; and there is no increase in productivity in sight—increasing productivity is the only thing that will pull the economy out of the doldrums. Only government employment seems to be increasing.
Now, to make matters worse, we are planning a new entitlement program in the form of a health care bill that will supposedly provide health insurance for 46 million people. President Obama says the spending on this new entitlement will not increase deficit spending! He must be talking of some new kind of magic where he can buy something for nothing. The fact is that if you provide free or low cost health insurance for 46 million people, 46 million people will begin using health care services at a faster rate. Who can say that that will not cost anything?
The only way to control this dangerous rush to suicidal cost over-runs is to reform the tax code by getting rid of corporate long term gains taxes and decrease pay-roll deduction taxes. That will actually stimulate growth by increasing employment and improving productivity. http://tinyurl.com/yfh96l7

Liberals and the Politics of Envy and Division

“How can limited government and fiscal restraint be equated with lack of compassion for the poor? How can a tax break that puts a little more money in the weekly paychecks of working people be seen as an attack on the needy? Since when do we in America believe that our society is made up of two diametrically opposed classes—one rich, one poor—both in a permanent state of conflict and neither able to get ahead except at the expense of the other? Since when do we in America accept this alien and discredited theory of social and class warfare? Since when do we in America endorse the politics of envy and division?” Ronald Reagan, February 1982

Liberals Should Not Speak if They Do Not Know What They Are Talking About

I have been listening to Wisconsin Public Radio lately—a program called To The Best Of Our Knowledge. It is produced by WPR in conjunction with Public Radio International. On 11/14/09, WPR aired a program titled Money, Debt, & Unbridled Capitalism. A speaker on that program was Margaret Atwood; she was discussing her recent book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.
Ms. Atwood discussed the idea of redemption and mentioned that it is, by definition, the pay back for debt. She agreed that redemption is a basic idea in the Christian faith, i.e., that Christ redeemed guilty sinners on the cross of Calvary, paying the debt they owe for violating the nature of God. Speaking of theologians down through the ages since Christ’s crucifixion, she made the remark: redemption,…“the idea they developed in the course of time, but it certainly was not there in the Scriptures.” It seems that Ms. Atwood believes that redemption was not mentioned in the Scriptures and very probably had nothing to do with the Christian saga.
It is a shame that someone with a speaking opportunity like hers is so pitifully bereft of a basic knowledge of the Bible. She should just not comment on it if she knows so little about it. The fact is that the Bible is the great story of God’s redemption of His people. After the creation account in the first two chapters of Genesis and the account of the fall of man in the third chapter, the whole Bible is about God’s redemptive work. This aspect of the Bible is most clear in the New Testament where there are numerous references to Christ’s redemption of fallen man.
1 Peter 1:18,19 says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” I counted 15 other direct references to Christ’s redemption in the New Testament, e.g., Matt 20:28, Luke 2:38, Acts 20:28, Romans 3:24, 1 Cor 1:30, and 6:20, etc., etc.
Should we, Christians, listen to false voices like Wisconsin Public Radio? I think we should. Learning to refute this kind of false accusation, if it is answered properly, will only sharpen and strengthen our faith.

Tort Reform: The Most Needed Feature of a New Health Care Bill

One of the largest expenses patients pay when they go to a doctor is the added on fee to pay the doctor’s malpractice insurance. The direct costs of medical malpractice insurance is $30 billion yearly; and that does not include the $240 billion yearly that doctors and hospitals spend ordering useless laboratory tests “just to rule out” highly unlikely possible diagnoses so they will be free of litigation liability. This wasteful type of practice takes place to a very large extent in emergency rooms where the doctor is unlikely to ever see the patient again. So…rather than planning to see the patient, again, to check on how the problem is resolving or progressing, as a primary care physician can, he just orders more and more lab tests.
For an example of how much malpractice insurance money is passed on to the patient, consider this: It is estimated that for every baby delivered by an obstetrician, the patient is charged $1000 to pay for the doctor’s malpractice insurance.
Buried in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 1,990-page bill is a provision that provides "incentive payments" to each state that develops an "alternative medical liability law" that encourages "fair resolution" of disputes and "maintains access to affordable liability insurance." Sounds encouraging. Read on, however, and you come to this nugget: The state only qualifies if its new law "does not limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages."
Believe me, those “alternative medical liability laws” will only work if caps are imposed on attorneys’ fees.
To read more about the traps that exist in the new health care reform laws, I refer you to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441193211542788.html.

What Caused the Ft. Hood Tragedy? The Obvious!

How long will our opinion gurus in the media and in the government continue to brain wash us about the innocence of Islam in the causation of national and international terror. The murderer at Ft. Hood is a Muslim; and as he shot down 13 American soldiers and wounded 29 others, he shouted the Muslim war cry, “God is good!” Could it be that his Islamic religion had something to do with his actions??!! Our government and other politically correct leaders continue to seek some esoteric reason for his homicidal mania, e.g., worries about his imminent transfer to Iraq. If that were true, it seems strange to me that more soldiers do not go about killing their fellows when they get the news that they are about to deploy.
The Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey, Jr. had this to say when he was interviewed ABC’s George Stephanopolous. “This terrible event would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty.” Evidently, General Casey values diversity even more than the lives of his soldiers!! I suppose that General Casey has a point: We apparently need diverse attitudes and behaviors in the U.S. military, such things as murderous attitudes and terroristic events aimed at killing and maiming our military personnel.
How crazy can we get?! This thing was caused by Major Hasan’s Islamic religion. To read more about this I refer you to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574525831785724114.html

On National Defense? Not Obama!

Our President does not seem to be oriented on defending our country and/or its allies. His lack of conviction and action are very reminiscent of Jimmy Carter’s administration.
President Obama has continued to try to get a sociable settlement with the Iranians on nuclear disarmament despite the fact that they openly pour out anti-American rhetoric and blatantly continue marching toward the production of atomic bombs. All this is in the face of repeated warnings of pending disaster from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. One of Iran’s stated goals is to obliterate Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East.
Obama has continued to rile up the Israelis in an attempt to get them to quit settling the west bank of the Jordan River while he apparently ignores the fact that Hamas has test fired an intermediate range rocket capable of delivering an Iranian nuclear weapon to Tel Aviv.
Despite active agitation of the Iranian people for a democratic government which would probably be friendly to the United States, President Obama continues to send friendly messages and solicitations to President Ahmadinijad, who obviously hates us. All the while he ignores the democrats in Iran and allows them to be pillaged by their own government. No objection, here, from Obama!
In North Korea, people are literally starving to death at the hands of their government and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, while Obama refuses to make an effective objection to the horrible civil crimes being perpetrated there. Of course, the North Korean government can’t do anything about it because they are too busy making atomic bombs and rockets to threaten their neighbors and Hawaii.
In Afghanistan, American troops are wondering what the policy makers in Washington are doing while they are pursuing a course of “Who knows where we are going and what we are doing?” Leadership is needed in that war; and I doubt that a Democrat in the White House can provide it.
I wonder if the Obama administration has given any thought to the possibility of the establishment of Iranian intermediate range ballistic missiles in our near neighbor, Venezuela? Hugo Chavez, the leader in Venezuela is hardly a friend of the United States; and this possibility could create a situation very similar to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. An Iranian atomic weapon placed in Miami, New Orleans, Houston, or Phoenix would make Hurricane Katrina look like a summer rain shower.
I seriously doubt the effectiveness of leadership in Washington to protect our country.

Homeschoolers Excell!!

Surveying 11,739 homeschooling students and their families from all 50 states through 15 independent testing services, Homeschool Progress Report 2009: Academic Achievement and Demographics is the most comprehensive study of homeschool academic achievement to date. The results support the large existing body of research on homeschool academic achievement and show homeschoolers, on average, scoring 37 percentile points above public school students on standardized achievement tests. The results were uniformly indicative of superior achievement in the areas of reading, language, math, science, and social studies. The study also found that the achievement gaps common to public schools were practically insignificant in the homeschool community. Conducted by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute. www.hslda.org