This sounds like a deal that is too good to be true. And, when we look at it a little more closely, it really is too good to be true. This has been presented as a bi-partisan approach to the problem. This description brought to mind the late comedian George Carlin’s thoughts about such proposals, “Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.”

While all the benefits we are supposed to experience because of this bill are necessary and to be desired, we really have to consider what we will do to get them. One of the provisions is that the visas will not be work visas, so buyers will have to have an independent source of funds. We are told that this is the kind of people we want… they are the priority immigrants. They are to be desired if they will come into our country and spend their own money. It is certainly better than people sneaking across the borders and becoming wards of the state.

Yet, in most contexts, people coming in from other countries and buying half a million dollars worth of real estate is a substantial purchase, particularly for someone not permitted to work, yet living in the US for at least six months out of the year. It could be considered bad form to have independently wealthy foreigners move into a neighborhood while people in some surrounding homes are struggling to keep their own houses.

Worse yet, investors are snapping up foreclosures at record pace. Is it really beneficial to have many rental properties held in the name of absentee owners with no concern for fellow citizens? As an American who loves his country, I did not feel comfortable when the Japanese bought Rockefeller Center. Chinese are buying up American real estate. Americans are loosing their homes and businesses. This just seems to be adding insult, from our government even, to injury.

Perhaps there is nothing we can do about this while the current regime is in power, but our country is being bought up by foreigners one building at a time. This proposal idea will only aggravate the situation. Sure we need to do something. Selling our country just doesn’t seem to be the answer.

Perhaps it’s the answer we need, yet, giving our country away just doesn’t seem to be the way to go. Our government is mortgaging our childrens’ future. Overseas investors are already buying up our real estate. Private sector incomes are dropping while average government incomes are rising. It just seems that the average citizen is being left behind to serve the elites, foreign and domestic. Is this the path we really want to take?

As I write this, the vote on the Plan B effort has been delayed – an obvious sign of dissension in the ranks that would deny the Speaker the 216 votes needed to pass this compromise with the non-functioning opposition. Even if he can twist arms, call in favors, blackmail or whatever enough of his own team to gain this legislative victory, it will most likely be of little consequence.

Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the same Senate that has been unable to pass a budget for several years, arrogantly announced that this new proposal would be “dead on arrival” in his wing of the capitol. He, like most Democrats, is good at blocking and destroying the good our government can do for the people, instead of controlling too many aspects of their existence. Already, before Plan B is even passed, Dingy Harry has arranged for all 53 Senate Democrats to agree to scuttle the bill. It’s sort of the reverse of Nancy Plosive telling House members that they have to pass ObamaCare so they can see what is in it. This time though, they are rejection legislation before it is fully formed, let alone passed.

The fact that Reid has not been able to pass his own version and he is blocking a bill that moves toward the less intrusive government the people want is indicative of the total disregard the Nevada Senator has for the will and wisdom of the populace. As a dedicated progressive elitist, Reid is a political soul mate to the presidential pretender.

Before Barack Hussein Obama rose to power, we didn’t hear too much of Harry Reid. After listening to him speak for just a few minutes one understands why he never won the title of Mr. Charisma. This means he has ways, other than a dazzling personality, of enforcing party discipline. With some, I am sure, the true believers in the movement, he has no difficulty at all. With others… I’d rather not think about his methods.

This man, like his president, stands against the will of the people to stop the spending, just as he stood against the desires of the citizens as he shepherded the dreaded ObamaCare through the Senate. Obama, Pelosi and Reid, along with their legislative cohorts, have continuously thumbed their noses at the American people, yet not to the extent they have since in the past few years. It may be they just lacked the opportunity to exhibit these qualities. It may be that there was a time when they were really nice, reasonable people, but something happened to them. Or… it may be that Obama’s excessively confident and arrogant narcissism has infected much of the congress and federal bureaucracies, and oozed down to parts of the general population.

It seems that the atmosphere has changed, not only in Washington, but throughout the nation. It hits us on two fronts. Those who follow the Obamessiah have been energized and their attitude has poisoned many relationships. Then there are those of us who see the error of his ways. We have to put up with this obnoxious behavior of the people around us and those who govern us. Some of our relationships have been destroyed. Some of our relationships have been retained, but deformed in some way.

Most of us are pretty nice people and we usually tolerate many insults and inconveniences. Most of us would rather put up with annoying people or minor intrusions than create a scene or stand up against something we know to be wrong… especially if there is some kind of cost or effort required on our part. However, the arrogance and injury we have experienced at the hands of these beltway bandits have awakened many of us.

Proverbs 19:11tells us “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.” (NIV) This is very true, yet when the damage is done to others – our duty to look out for our brothers and be there keeper kicks in. This is why we have to stand up for right and oppose what is wrong. For those who believe Christians need to stay clear of the dirty sport of politics, I would suggest remembering IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! And, it’s not about me.

It’s about being the salt and light in a dark and depraved world. It’s about exhibiting the values and behavior we know make life work it a world where nothing seems to work anymore. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of the self absorbed egocentricity. Those of us who are Christians see the world around us and need to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”.

One of the heroes of the faith, Deitrich Bonhoeffer summed it up when he said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” We are faced with an increasingly detached, brutal and uncaring government. We can tolerate some of this ourselves, but we cannot forget about those around us, and who should come after us, who are suffering.

Years ago, Wendy’s ran a commercial emphasizing the fact that they filled the hamburger bun while others gave more bread and less burger. The public loved it and picked up on the phrase “Where’s the beef” for the next few years. They understood that substance was more important than form. They understood that giving value was the important – that keeping the promise of a delicious product in a size that satisfied the consumer was the key to success.

The little man in the White House could learn a lesson from the nice old ladies looking for some substance in their food. Even those with impaired judgment who voted for him deserve to have a leader who will lead. Jon Stewart wondered if the President quit when he pre-empted the Bachelorette from his imperial hallway and all he could do was complain that no one – not the Republicans or the Democrats could come up with a plan that satisfied his lust for taxing the “rich” and borrowing money from anyone foolish enough buy our paper.

His solution to the impasse was not to lead and show us the way out of the mess that has his fingerprints all over it. Instead of showing us what we need to do, and convincing us that it will work, he complained that people just aren’t giving him his way, and he asked his Obamazombies to call their congressman. I guess it’s the only way he can communicate with capitol hill now that that leaders in both houses have decided to go work things out for themselves.

Those of us who have been calling and writing out congressmen and senators for years know how frustrating and ineffective that can be. We called and wrote and watched TARP pass after our initial success in shutting it down. We called and wrote and protested and ObamaCare still passed. The beltway bandits will do what they want to do is so many cases. They will use our calls like statistics… more for support than for illumination.

The Republicans have passed a plan in the House. It was not the best plan, but it was a plan. No one else has gotten anything through anywhere. Yet, the Republicans are being criticized for being inflexible by those who are ineffective. The regime tells us they want a “balanced approach” as the focus groups suggested.

To them, the “balanced approach” means means continued spending and raising taxes. Neither of these are acceptable in our era of imploding economy. We understand it. The question for us is how do we get those infected with beltway fever to understand it?

Even the Republican plan which is the best we have at the moment doesn’t meet the needs of our country. Speaker Boehner then watered down the plan more in an attempt to appease the Anointed One. All it earned was a scornful rebuff that it was proof that the Republicans were not serious about compromise.

The fact is that is all they have been doing is compromise. Fortunately we’ve seen the Speakers House members rejecting this new plan which is no plan all, but a capitulation… but not enough of one apparently, because the Democrats are still whining for more. In a town that runs on compromise, one wonders if they ever will learn that you can’t compromise with the devil. If they really want a compromise, they may want to look at the middle ground between cutting back on spending and spending more. The problem is that Democrats and the Republican leadership concede that the debt limit will be increased and Obama will get more money to spend. The only “cuts” being discussed are not cuts at all, but just reductions in the amount of increased spending that may or may not take place in years to come.

Wading through the dishonest lingo of the nation’s capitol makes it difficult for mere taxpayers to know what is going on and both side know this. Because of automatic increases built into the budgetary process, holding spending at the same level is regarded as a cut because it removed the anticipated increase. What this means is that Dems scream about the Republicans cutting programs while spending continues to grow.

What can we say? The President doesn’t have a plan. He drove up spending more than any before him and now, somehow, it’s the fault of a divided congress that they cannot figure out how to pay for it. Unless he demands some form of plan form the President, John Boehner and the Republicans he leads will just the regimes punching bag. I would grow weary of doing that, but then, I’m not that politically ambitious. Boehner has the people and much of his party behind him. It’s high time he makes the President take responsibility for the mess he has made… whether he want to or not.

Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read, “The Buck Stops Here”. I guess he took it back to Missouri with him when he left the peoples house.

By Marsha West

Pastor Rick Warren continues to work at “fulfilling people’s needs.” His latest endeavor is “The Daniel Plan,” a 52-week health and fitness program. Pastor Rick has decided it’s high time to lose 90 pounds. But there’s more to his health plan than meets the eye.

“The church says all of its more than 5,000 small groups will go through “The Daniel Plan,” which is part of Saddleback’s “Decade of Destiny,” a 10-year plan launching this month “to help individuals succeed and be who God designed them to be in every aspect in life.”" (Online source)

On January 15, over 6,000 people flocked to Saddleback’s main campus while thousands more watched online at the other Saddleback campuses.

It would appear that Pastor Warren has good intentions and that he genuinely wants his congregants to be the picture of health. He says that Christians should honor God with our bodies and he draws from Scripture to prove his point, 1 Cor. 6:19 and Rom. 12:1, for example. Who can possibly dispute that Warren’s plan to get the sheep shipshape is anything but admirable?

RECIPE FOR AWITCH’S BREW

Into a cauldron of green tea add in 1 eye of a knut, 4 lizard’s tails, 3 dragon incisors, 4 forked tongues, 7 pages from the Message Bible, 1 page from the KJV Bible, then stir the pot while chanting “I am God…I am God…I am God.” While the brew simmers get in a crossed-legged yoga position…meditate …go deep…deeper still…until you’re in a trance, then allow the kundalini energy coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine to run through your body…until an ecstatic experience erupts whereby you will shift between ecstasy and horror……viola, enlightenment!

In his new endeavor to help Saddleback congregants get healthy, Pastor Rick has enticed unsuspecting people, many of them professing Christians, into drinking his witch’s brew.

Many of you are thinking, “Rick Warren wouldn’t do that!” Oh really? Stay with me and you’ll discover what “America’s Pastor” is up to. Many of you will find what I’m about to reveal unbelievable. Don’t take my word for it. At the end of this article I have included a number of links that reveal the truth about this man. Do the research.

AMEN, HYMAN AND OZ

When Rick Warren decided to implement his health plan he enlisted the help of three doctors: Daniel Amen, Mark Hyman and Mehmet OZ. “I am honored to be partnering with these internationally distinguished health experts,” he boasted. Soon the fearsome foursome set out to develop a plan and what they came up with was “The Daniel Plan” (TDP). Amen, Hyman and Oz applied their medical expertise and Warren offered his expertise in spiritual matters. And herein lies the problem. As you will see, Amen, Hyman and Oz also have a great deal to offer in “spiritual” matters.

DR. MEHMET OZ

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” — 2 Tim. 4:3-4

Oprah Winfrey’s “favorite doctor” is a Muslim and has been influenced by the mysticism of Sufi Muslims. Moreover, he is keen on the ideas of cultist mystic Emanuel Swedenborg:

“As I came into contact with Swedenborg’s many writing I began to understand Swedenborg’s profound insights and how they applied directly to my life.”

Swedenborg believed he could pass between the life to come and the present. What is more he claimed he had conversations with spirits of the dearly departed as well as angelic beings:

“[T]he spirit world was comprised of a number of concentric spheres, each with its own density and inhabitants. There is no such thing as hell or eternal punishment. Those spirits who find themselves in a hellish place after death can evolve toward a higher spiritual plane.

“In spite of it being granted to him ‘to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels,’ Swedenborg did issue a caution in regard to receiving counsel from just any spirit that might manifest with an alleged personal message. “When spirits begin to speak,” he wrote in Miscellaneous Theological Works (1996), “care should be taken not to believe them, for nearly everything they say is made up by them….They love to feign. Whatever be the topic spoken of, they think they know it, and if man listens and believes, they insist, and in various ways deceive and seduce.” (Online source)

Dr. Oz is a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation:

“When I meditate, I go to that place where truth lives. I can see what reality really is, and it is so much easier to form good relationships then.”

Do a Google search on Dr. Oz and you’ll find posts from people complaining that he’s irresponsible because he promotes things which have no scientific evidence to support them. Until something is proven, doctors should not promote it as it could endanger lives. One example of an unscientific practice he promotes is Reiki, which New Agers believe to be a “guided Universal Life Force Energy.” Dr. Oz’s wife is a Reiki Master. “Reiki,” he said, “is my favorite treatment that could change the future of medicine forever.” He also pontificated:

“I think [Reiki] may be ultimately the most important alternative medicine treatment of all. And we are embarking on this whole new vista of opportunities, it broadens dramatically the spectrum of where we might be able to go in our bodies, and this is the area of energy medicine.”(Online source)

It is rather curious that Rick Warren would team up with a man whose fame he owes in part to New Age High Priestess Oprah Winfrey. Dr. Oz’s worldview more closely aligns to New Age Spirituality than to historic orthodox Christianity.

DR. DANIEL AMEN

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. — Col. 2:8

Dr. Amen is a child and adult psychiatrist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine. In addition he is a brain imaging specialist.

Dr. Amen teaches “techniques that will improve ‘brain health,’ claiming that poor brain health is associated with a host of problems from overeating to depression. … He includes meditation (and in fact this is his primary tool) as a way to have a healthy brain.”

Dr. Amen recommends a meditation called Kriya Kirtan which is from the Kundalini tradition:

“I teamed with Drs. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Nisha Money to study the impact of meditation on the brain. We chose a simple 12 minute form of meditation, Kriya Kirtan, that is easy for busy people to practice. It is based on the five primal sounds: Saa, Taa, Naa, Maa (aa being the fifth sound). Meditators [sic]say each sound as they consecutively touch their thumb to fingers two, three, four and five. The sounds and fingering are repeated for two minutes out loud, two minutes whispering, four minutes silently, two minutes whispering and two minutes out loud.” (Online source)

Dr. Amen is also a practitioner of Tantric or tantric sex which is the use of Hinduistic-type mysticism during sexual intercourse. Lighthouse Trails Research (LTR) reports:

“In a 6-CD set called Create a More Passionate Night, Dr. Amen has teamed up with advanced certified Tantra educator, T. J. Bartel. … Tantra is the name of the ancient Hindu sacred texts that contain certain rituals and secrets. Some deal with taking the energies brought forth in meditation through the chakras and combining them with love-making to enhance sexual experiences.”

“Make no mistake about it” says LTR, “Reiki, meditation, tantric sex — these are very powerful mystical experiences that have the capability to delude and deceive those who are involved with it.”

For Christians who have read to this point, I hope you’re becoming alarmed.

[Tomorrow we will conclude this article that has some even more stunning and disappointing revelations.]

He is acting like there is no changing the commitments, when in reality there is. We are told that there are some discretionary expenses, and entitlements which cannot be touched. Here is where he is wrong! Giveaways were passed and they can be repealed… and they can be adjusted. Progressives act as if one of their foolish expenses, once passed, can never be changed. He and his socialist advisors cannot conceive of putting a stop to such foolish spending as giving our dollars, our borrowed dollars, to countries that hate us. They cannot comprehend cutting off funds for such foolishness as gay film festivals in foreign venues, or hair brained research by the academic community. Once again we are back to the “We spent the money already suckers… now you pay for it!”

He was talking about the so-called August 2 deadline when we will have supposedly reached the point where we cannot pay our bills as a nation. He cannot comprehend, he says, cutting back on any of the commitments of taxpayer dollars that he and his cronies have made. He would rather drive us deeper into debt than take the actions necessary to extract us from the pit of indebtedness.

He still is talking about the need for more “investment” in infrastructure, education (read indoctrination) and other miscellaneous pork. It’s like listening to a broken record – for those old enough to remember such things. These are the same solutions he proposed at the beginning of his term… and they still have not worked – and will not work.

He continued by telling us that if congress does not give him the additional credit authorization, we will have to begin deciding which bills we will pay and which ones we will not. He does not want to do this. Families who have suffered under his lack of leadership have been doing this for years, yet the President is unwilling to make the tough choices himself. It may be that he actually believes that the way out of this man-made disaster is to keep doing what we have been doing, and expecting different results. Sounds something like one definition of insanity, doesn’t it?

He calls the people selfish when they cry out against increasing the debt ceiling and piling more and more of a financial burden on their offspring who are innocently watching Barney and Nina while being indoctrinated by the latest iteration of Cars. He calls the people selfish when they denounce his plans to spend even more money that we just don’t have. He tells us we are selfish when we want to keep what we have worked for because we think we can use our resources more efficiently and effectively than some overpaid bureaucrat can. He says we are selfish when we want to leave something to our children and grandchildren rather than have his progressive cohorts redistribute it to those who have not done anything to deserve it.

Today, Barack Hussein Obama declared that he has found all the spending cuts that can be found and if we are going to have the America he envisions, no more can be made. It is clear that any form of fiscal sanity will have to be imposed on this would be benefactor from the outside. This is where we need to depend on the courage and responsibility of our elected representatives. This can be a frightening thought, but will result in less damage to our country than other alternatives.

Whatever path is chosen, it must bring a halt to the destructive debt being loaded on the American people. If we don’t get the job done, we may be looking to countries like Greece and Spain to bail US out.

Many of us see other flaws in other designs all the time. Unfortunately, so many of them are not recognized by the designers until they are revealed by some unexpected tragedy. One design flaw currently working its way through our economy is the Federal Reserves monetary policy.

Our country was founded on the principles of thrift, economy and independence. Our central bank, along with other associated financial institutions, has been laying the groundwork for years to draw our country into a web of debt and dependence our forefathers would have rejected at first bloom. Ostensibly, to keep inflation under control they have kept their borrow window rate at sub one percent levels.

This is designed to facilitate and encourage borrowing. However this has notalways been the result. Many banks, instead of lending for expanding businesses and employment, are using these funds to purchase government securities. They are, up to this point, safe and guaranteed. They don’t have the risk of personal and commercial loans.

This is not completely bad, but it short circuits the entire banking arrangement. These unrealistically low interest rates have all but destroyed the incentive to save. For those readers with doubts and who can endure an insult from a well dressed banker, just check out the interest rate on savings accounts at your local bank. It’s likely to be in the neighborhood of half a percent. CDs are not that much better. But, Ben Bernanke’s strategy to keep “core inflation” under control appears to be working as planned.

But it is not. Anyone living in the real world understands that the “core inflation” numbers they want us to accept have little relation to reality. Prices are rising, interest is almost non-existent, we are tempted to borrow at, sometimes unattainable rates and businesses that create jobs cannot get the funds they need to expand. The exception to this is consumer credit which we shall look at shortly.

There is a design flaw in the system. It has created borrowers struggling pay their loans back. It has removed the incentive to save. People have been pushed into other investments where they are whipsawed by unstable prices and market manipulators. Many have lost substantial portions of their retirement. Yet the banks continue to prosper.

In spite of the uncertain environment, people are still encouraged to acquire and use credit cards. They are enticed by one percent cash back when the interest rates are many multiples of this amount. There is a serious design flaw in the system… or is it working as designed?

Proverbs 22:7 tells us, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” And we are still looking to restore the lending operations and the Fed is still keeping interest rates at levels that discourage saving and encourage debt accumulation… and the wealthy are still wealthy.

Yet the the supposed goal of keeping a lid on inflation, does not quite seem to be in the offing as the Fed is continuing to “print” money and adding it both to the US and world economies. Even a rudimentary understanding of economics understands that more dollars with no increase in the supply of goods will, most certainly, push prices upward in a process we call “inflation”. It kind of makes one wonder… doesn’t it?

This inflation, is seen by some as the only way out of the national debt our national government has been piling on itself and the taxpayers. It has the “virtue” of paying back our creditors with cheaper dollars. It is also seen as the only way to restore housing values decimated by the government induced mortgage crisis. While saving some homeowners, inflation acts as another hammer to beat down saving as down saving as the dollars withdrawn will have less purchasing power than those saved.

So… what can happen with design flaws? How bad can they be? Particularly for the younger folks who have not seen this before, check out the what really happened to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Let’s hope our economy fares better.

Less than that, we are told would be “irresponsible”. It is somewhat understandable that expecting those, including government employees, to deal with a cut off of the flow of taxpayer funds is a little too much to expect. Psychologically it would appear difficult to pull the plug on programs that came about with “bi-partisan” support. Even Republicans have their pet programs they want to see continue in spite of the economic difficulties.

Speaker Boehner’s position that increased taxes are off the table is a welcome start. We can hope that he and the rest of the GOP contingent will hang tough on this. The proposal that any increase in the debt ceiling be accompanied by an equal reduction in spending is a good idea and represents symbolism that will put the progressive socialists in a terrible bind. To get the funds they need to carry out their schemes, they have to give up part of them.

Most likely they will agree… temporarily. Giving up this sort of thing is just postponing what they believe is the inevitable. It’s the same tactic the communists used during the cold war – occasionally taking one step back so they could later take two steps forward. This is the situation the Republicans face, no victory is ever permanent. They just keep coming back for more. The progressives take a long term view, never accepting defeat, just seeing temporary setbacks to their plans.

To the conservative mind, preserving the status quo is a more difficult proposition. There is no goal to pursue other than preventing the other side from winning. This leaves absolutely no room for compromise, yet compromise they do. The rules of the game preclude a good outcome for the conservatives, the only thing they are playing for is to delay the ultimate outcome.

To keep our country, we have to, once again, get the vision of freedom and aggressively pursue it – recognizing the obstacles we face and working with the determination of Patrick Henry. It’s not enough to hold on to what we have, we need to push back with every thing we have to regain everything we have lost to the statists, and expect the same from our leaders.

We need to demand more of those who can get the job and not accept the same old excuses about political realities and the need to be “responsible”. There really is a need to be responsible, but spending money our children and grandchildren don’t have is not the way it is done. Whatever the outcome of the debt ceiling debate, it will never be over as long as there are progressives in Washington… and they are in both parties.

We have all sorts of politicians of both parties weeping and wailing about our dire financial problems. They act as if this terrible thing has come upon their poor, innocent selves out of the blue and these hard working public servants are innocent victims of this unforeseen recession/depression. As with cutting our fingers with a knife, running out of money is the result of our government’s own actions… not by uncontrollable circumstances.

The people of this administration, and, to a lesser extent, the one before it, have no concept of the old saying, “If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.” Kids understand this basic economic concept, but somehow it escapes the grasp of our members of congress, even most state legislators. What is so difficult to understand about this… it’s not even higher math?

Our dire economic situation is not a problem, but simply the result of mismanagement – perhaps the proper term is malfeasance – of our elected and appointed officials. As the sign in my college bursar’s office read, “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” While we have to take care of this mess, it will not be cured unless we begin adopting this attitude.

We cannot continue to hop every time our politicians come to us wringing their hands in a tizzy about lack of funding for their pet projects… and these are usually important projects that need to be addressed.

Isn’t it amazing they don’t come to us, hat in hand, for more money to put a new baggage handling carousel at the rarely used John Murtha Memorial Airport. No, it’s for defense or education or highways… yet Murtha’s carousel, along with the Robert C Byrd Memorial Bridge and so many more foolish and wasteful projects are funded without question. They come to us for the things we most of us agree that we need.

This is a result of the practice used by both parties of funding the lowest priorities first. Then, when the money is gone and the actual legitimate functions of government remain, our pockets are picked once again in the guise of the impending emergency.

There is much blame to be absorbed by the profligate governments, but so many of us are happy with freebies from such governments at various levels. As we expect these agencies to cut back and live within their revenue, we also have to cut back on our expectations of what they can provide. We can live without much of what they provide… in fact, we can usually live better without things they want to provide as every time they give us something, they attach some strings to nudge our behavior one way or another to their benefit… and it costs several times as much.

Not giving them our tax money sounds good, however, the withholding system has pretty much precluded this in most cases and is an excellent example of a practice that is supposedly for our convenience that is really insuring we cannot resist. This approach has permeated our country’s existence. I recently took my mother to a doctors office where it was requested that she sign the demographic form which had her name, address phone number, shoe sized, favorite NASCAR driver, etc. However, along the bottom, was the real reason for signing the form… it was the financial responsibility form. These are standard, but no one wants to tell us what they are doing.

So we can continue down this path of accepting financial panic and euphemistic terms for everything they are doing to us, we can say “no” and take care of the situation, or we can save ourselves the aggravation and sign everything over to these people who will not stop until this happens anyway. The answer to this question will determine if we have the right to call ourselves “Americans” and walk in the footsteps of the likes of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.

by Thomas Brewton

While flooding the banking system with excessive amounts of fiat dollars, Fed Chairman Bernanke has talked endlessly about the need to avert deflation. Unspoken was the real reason: promoting inflation – robbing retirees and working people who are saving to support their retirements – in order to fund mounting federal debt.

It’s now clear that government stimulus spending, under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and unending expansion of the money supply by the Fed, have prolonged our agonizingly slow economic revival. That is hardly surprising, since no previous resort to Keynesian macroeconomics has worked as advertised. At most they have promoted stock market bubbles, and all such essays, beginning in the 1930s Depression, have led to continual and ruinous inflation.

The New York Times, the nation’s premier voice of socialist propaganda, admits in a front page, lead article that Stimulus by Fed Is Disappointing, Economists Say.

Quote:

The Federal Reserve’s experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt has pumped up the stock market, reduced the cost of American exports and allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.

But most Americans are not feeling the difference, in part because those benefits have been surprisingly small. The latest estimates from economists, in fact, suggest that the pace of recovery from the global financial crisis has flagged since November, when the Fed started buying $600 billion in Treasury securities to push private dollars into investments that create jobs.

The Times may be correct that “most Americans are not feeling the difference,” but we will suffer the consequences increasingly over the next year or so. The price of gasoline is a prominent harbinger.

As noted in The Price We Must Pay and The Weak Dollar Problem, the biggest factor in the oil price jump to around $110 per barrel is the Fed-induced devaluation of the dollar. That, by any other name, is inflation.

A subtext to deliberate inflation, which President Obama obviously doesn’t wish to publicize, is that it destroys incentives to save. In Keynesian dogma, saving is a social sin, on the false assumption that saving for future needs and future growth subtracts from consumer spending. Keynesians, of course, neglect to note that savings are placed in financial institutions that then lend and invest those funds to power economic growth.

The real aim of deliberate inflation is debilitating private business and individual consumers to such an extent that they are forced into becoming wards of the collectivized, socialist political state. New Deal economists, led by Harvard’s Alvin Hansen, propounded the Keynesian doctrine that capitalism had failed, and government would henceforth be required to take over employment and economic investment.

President Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made it abundantly clear that they aimed to create a New New Deal to finish FDR’s start at destruction of private enterprise and individual initiative. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, a worshipper of the secular religion of socialism and its Keynesian economic dogma, has happily supported their efforts.

This article was originally published in The View From 1776 blog.

He has been hailed as the answer to the party’s financial woes. Woes that stem from the $23 million dollar debt left by the man who held the job before him. Somehow Steele is blamed for this financial fiasco as if his lack of fund raising skills was solely responsible for this debacle. Let’s think about this for a bit.

The Republican Party is the one that trumpets its dedication to fiscal responsibility. The thrust of the party line is that our national government running up unconcionable debt is the result of two factors – the amount of revenue and the amount spent. Yet, the party finds itself struggling under a load of debt… debt not all incurred by the former chairman. Like a less than successful football team, they seek to change their fortunes by changing the coach. The new guy seems to be doing fairly well as his efforts during his short tenure has reduced that debt by 2 million dollars.

Priebus talks about restoring the confidence of the donors which is necessary to keep the money flowing to feed the coffers of the Republican National Committee. We are often told that “money is the mothers milk of politics”. In many ways, this is true. It is true in the world of high priced media of all sorts and the consultants that guide huge piles of dollars in their direction, and the RNC is looking at combating Barack Obama’s billion dollar war chest.

What, then, will it take for the party to find it’s way back into the good graces of the moneyed benefactors? Will it take skewing the presidential selection process in favor of such tepid defenders of freedom as Mitt Romney or one of many more non-descript politicians who want to be something rather than do something. Many of those who can supply the financing needed to make the party apparatus function tend to look askance at such elements of tea party orthodoxy as cutting corporate welfare, auditing the fed and making the government more responsive to the average voter.

One of the few times I’ve agreed, at least partially, with Arianna Huffington was when she declared that America has two parties, the anti-abortion corporate party and the pro-abortion corporate party. Even among the “good guys” we have some at the upper levels putting their interests above those of the country.

On one hand, Priebus recognition that “The Republican Party is just part of the Conservative movement.” shows a rare presence of humility in the political sphere. It is recognition that the party itself is not the sole repository conservative wisdom, and expresses the need for the party to fit in with the rest of the freedom lovers in our country.

On the other hand, he sees the tea party types looking for real restoration of freedom in our country as just one of the groups he has to work with to form a winning coalition. This is the situation. This new chairman is not a bad guy, yet he is part of a system that, by its very nature, cannot be relied upon to bring about the changes we need to save our nation.

Does this mean that the Republican Party is thoroughly corrupt and utterly useless in the battle to push back the advances of our oppressors? No, but we need to “be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16b NIV) We need to work with them when it is appropriate, yet not be drawn off in other directions just be good worker bees. We need to get over believing that just because the party designation is right, the politics are.