Friday, September 28, 2012

HOW MUCH LATER THAN WE THINK?


HOW MUCH LATER THAN WE THINK?


I responded to an article on an ad campaign (costing 4 million dollars) being run by SEIU, the Service Employees International Union targeting spanish speaking Americans. See : http://www.wdbo.com/news/news/local/hispanic-voters-targeted-new-ad-blitz-obama/nPQrq/  Here is my (wandering?) comment:

Service Employees International Union??? Unions in government? The day government employees were allowed to unionize was perhaps the worst day in America's history. Public servants should not starve, but they should expect to serve the public at wages and salaries the public can afford to pay. And we the people ought to be able to hire and fire them according to their performance, just as private non union shops do. Private union shops? Well that is a oxymoron. 

I don't have a problem with unions as long as they are not allowed to control those who will work along side them without membership.  Let them negotiate for whatever they want, but don't allow them to dictate terms to management and owners. Don't let them require all employees in a shop pay dues or to be members. And do not let them become violent against those they call scab hired when they strike. 

Unions have priced their labor so high over the past 50 years that owners have moved their shops out of the country. When an auto worker in Dearborn wants $50 per hour and a worker in China is happy with $4 per hour, where do you EXPECT business to open their shops?

But the government cannot ship their jobs overseas. So unionized government will plunge government into debt. And it has done it already. 

Really the only solution to this and many other problems our nation faces is a return to moral standards which worked well at our founding. They worked so well that they actually freed the slaves here, improving the moral standard of government. Because Jim Crow failed to follow the same standard open a way for socialists to ruin African Americans with welfare (and many whites too) and advance the foothold they gained in the New Deal. Jim Crow should be ashamed, for he was if I’m not mistaken a southern white “christian” DEMOCRAT.
Truly more than any other moral failure it is the moral failure of those who profess to be good christians that has hurt us all. We needed to see Jesus followed and imitated, but in the south and almost everywhere the church has not lived up to its calling.


Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 1 Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

We say : “I'm not perfect, just forgiven.” That is the cheapest estimation of what Jesus did on the cross that can be spoken. We say “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Again what a complete misunderstanding of the power of God to change our lives! But we just want to get by cheap, without the sacrifice of our appetites and lusts. James spoke accurately of so many of us believers (if we are believers):

James 4
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Our greatest need is for the Lord’s forgiveness and for Him to give us power over sin and over the demons which now devour our economy our minds and our best initiatives of faith. Can America return to God? I think it can, but it will take much prayer and repentance from dead works.

If our economy is to avoid a melt down we will have to fix it in the next four years, of that I am almost certain. Starting January 19th 2013, there will have to be a federal budget in place that will eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The possibility of eliminating the Department of Health and Human Services is tantalizing. It will surely be necessary to reduce benefits for all Americans to some extent immediately. I think a ten percent cut in all departments of medicare and medicaid to be a good start. Of course there is the option of shutting it down entirely, eliminating all Social Security taxes and allowing the states to administrate public assiatance (or not) as they wish.

You say this is not possible? What kind of fools are we to tax ourselves silly, send the money to these “Departments” in Wash. D.C. only to have them dole it back to us in the states it came from minus the salaries, rents, and other grossly unecessary overhead expenses these beaurocracies generate???  Nonetheless, much of the the federal dollars once spent on these departments will have to be applied directly to reducing the national debt to a manageable level before taxes can be reduced much if any for some time.

Here are the total budget spendings for those departments for the year 2010:


Department of Transportation 2010-          $90.944 billion
Department of Education 2010-               $106.944 billion
Department of Energy 2010-                      $38.278 billion
Department of HUD* 2010-                        $62.518 billion 
Environmental Protection Agency 2010-     $10.500 billion 
Department of HHS** 2010--                                                                                   
                   -- $868.762 billion x 10% =    $86.800 billion 
______________________________________________________________

Total Approximately                                 $396.15 billion       
---------------------------------------------------                                                         

** Health and Human Services          
* Housing and Urban Developement

The figures for 2013 will be higher to be sure, but the debts we have incurred by borrowing from others has gone up more too.

It is said that our federal Government is spending $41,000 dollars more than it collects in revenue every second of every day! That is $2,460,000 per minute; $147,600,000 per hour and 3,542,400,000 per day! According to the U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/) the national debt has continued to increase an average of $3.84 billion per day since September 28, 2007!

If this plan would save 396 billion dollars a year, that would reduce our yearly debt by 103 days (103 X 3.84 billion = 396 billion). The debt might decrease some what over the rest of the year. Even if it did decrease say to 3 billion per day for the remaining 261 days of the year that would be 3 billion X 261 = 783 billion dollars per year OF INCREASED NATIONAL DEBT!

We may be well past the possibility of anything but the bleakest of times. Our creditors hold so much debt they can conceivable own us.  Forcing US citizens to take a mark to buy and sell might be one way a creditor would seek to recover payment for loans!

I think we need to plan for much more than a depression. If the church is not raptured out before this mess boils over, I believe she should at the least prepare for the fulfillment of Revelation Ch.18 worldwide.

Matthew 25 14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

As Americans who once held a very strong financial position in the world, we might wonder about how God views our present financial condition! As a 63 year old, I am wondering why I did not view life more seriously that I now do, and why I did not take some personal responsibility for the political destruction grinding this nation down for the last 50 years.

Old to fast, smart to slow. And repentant to slow.  It is time not just to warm a pew, not just to praise the Lord; it is time to consider the sacrifices our sins and errors may force upon us in the coming months and years.

Mark 8
34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Dave aka lambsev aka the Lambs poet.