The Great Big Fat Lie

Several months ago I attempted to explain what a ludicrous idea taxing the wealthy was to balance the budget and redistribute the wealth among the needy and worthy poor members of society. It's classic liberal drivel to pick an example of a poor person or family, then exploit their dire circumstances for political gain.

Last week, President Obama addressed the nation. He trashed the Paul Ryan 2012 budget on national television, putting forward instead a plan to tax the wealthy Americans, demanding that they ante up and pay their fair share to help us get out of debt and reduce the deficits.

I am appalled at the audacity, the boldness and the bald face lies this man tells. Either he has no one in his administration who can do the basic math, or he intentionally attempts to deceive. Whichever it is, the facts simply do not support his assumptions.

Take a few minutes and watch.



What do you think? Can we restore fiscal sanity to Washington by merely taxing the rich? If you need help with the answer, check out the opinion of this writer in The Wall Street Journal. The Cato Institute sets the facts straight in President Obama's attack against the wealthy.

We don't have a taxation problem in America, we have a spending problem. Better get it right, all you politicians, the clock is ticking with the S&P announcement this week that America is on a negative credit watch that could result in a downgrade of America's "AAA" rating two years from now.

Giddy up Donkey

A picture is worth how much?  A thousand words.



"No Other Gods"

This morning I stumbled over a thought-provoking article by a regular contributor to the Deseret News, Joseph Cramer, M.D.

Dr. Joseph Cramer

The author asks us to choose which of the two gods on earth, government or corporations, might be the god we choose to worship.  He begins this way:

"Monotheism is the singular feature of the occidental religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The adherents to these faiths are admonished to have no other gods before them. There is also the wisdom that with two masters one will love the one and hate the other or vice versa.

"It also seems to be the singular feature of secular living as well. One cannot have two masters. There are those who worship government and there are those who think corporations are divine. I use worship and divine because of the fervor both congregations attach to their points of view. Each side acts as if their chosen organizational messiah will save them, and provide all the answers to a happy and rich life. For those who resent the comparison of government and corporations to their personal god, look at the passions — anger, adoration, segregation of friends and family by their beliefs, self-righteousness, loyalty — and the commitment — time, money and self — used to describe advocates. All imitate the devotion of the most faithful zealot. We are cautioned not to speak about either religion or politics for good reason: they are the same thing."

This page has as its purpose the discussion (and the distinction between) those two seemingly unspeakable topics -- politics and religion -- with the intentional consequence of defining a path for earnest and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.  It is true, we cannot have it both ways.

Yesterday, while the debate raged on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. about extending unemployment benefits and tax cuts, one passionate Congressman on the floor of the House was heard to say (I caught the soundbite on the radio in the car but didn't get his name), "This is the season when we celebrate the birth of the poor baby Jesus Christ in the animal manger.  How can we turn our backs on the unemployed especially at this season of the year, Christmas, when it was He who taught charity.  We must do the right thing and provide this help right now.  We can't turn our backs on them at this season of the year when our Christian faith is so prominently on display or we would be hypocrites."  Isn't it interesting when a Congressman wants to evoke the image of Christ in the political debate, while erecting the government in the place of Christ as the solution? 

The "poor baby Jesus" can be such a useful device for a secular humanist, who simultaneously would dismiss Jesus as a myth.

The Congressman framed the argument perfectly.  Shall government continue to spend money it doesn't have, because it long ago exceeded in expenditures what it brings in from tax revenue and is now operating in the red with borrowed money, to provide entitlements (even if in the name of charity for the poor to improve their lives), or shall it cease and desist from further spending until it gets its own house in order?  Is the federal government so big it cannot possibly fail?  Can it continue to bail out corporations that are also by the government definition "too big to fail?"  Who bails out America? 

Is America too big to fail?  The answer is NO.

President Ezra Taft Benson

I was reminded this morning when I read Cramer's article about a pivotal General Conference address by President Ezra Taft Benson in April 1988, entitled "The Great Commandment -- Love the Lord."

Once again, he frames the opposite argument perfectly:

The great test of life is obedience to God. “We will prove them herewith,” said the Lord, “to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25). 

The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it. 

The great commandment of life is to love the Lord. 

“Come unto Christ,” exhorts Moroni in his closing testimony, “… and love God with all your might, mind and strength” (Moroni 10:32). 

This, then, is the first and great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30; see also Matthew 22:37; Deuteronomy 6:5; Luke 10:27; Moroni 10:32; D&C 59:5). . .

President Benson asserts, as he continues:

We must put God in the forefront of everything else in our lives. He must come first, just as He declares in the first of His Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities. 

We should put God ahead of everyone else in our lives.

* * *

I said this talk was "pivotal."  I don't know where you were in your life in 1987, but I was a bishop and faced with a dilemma of choice.  I had made a decision, at the time it seemed a monumental decision, to choose God above all other considerations.  However, it meant certain displacement, uncertainty, inconvenience, and discomfort, but I knew it was the right thing to do because I could not choose both paths and be one traveller.  (See Robert Frost, "The Road not Taken"). 

We fasted and prayed as a family to know what we should do.  The decision was made, and then months later the Prophet of God arose in the keynote address of General Conference and confirmed the decision we had made together.  It proved later to be the pivotal choice in our family's lives.  Looking back, that one choice to put God ahead of all other people, regardless of the love and deep affection I had for those people, has made all the difference in what has evolved afterward. 

Loving God above all other considerations is a rather glib and almost trite profession, but I can assure you it is much, much more than that when action follows the mere profession of belief.  I long ago concluded the power to act is much more meaningful than the words we profess with our lips.  Once acted upon, the belief engenders power and certainty the likes of which mere mortals can only glimpse from afar who lack the resolve to change their circumstances.  We are designed by God to act and not to be acted upon.  (2 Nephi 2:26). 
 
To attempt to shift the blame to others for the natural consequences of our choices is antithetical to all God has revealed to us in the scriptures about our lives in mortality.

Mickey Mantle

I have mentioned before my admiration for Mickey Mantle as a baseball player.  I was remembering this morning why I admired him even more as a man.  He admitted to years of various forms of substance abuse.  His achievements on the field are even more astounding when factored against the performance "unenhancing" drugs like alcohol that coursed through his veins.  Upon receiving a liver transplant in an effort to save his life, he made an amazing statement I've never forgotten.  He said, “Don’t use me for a role model.”  He also said that he was committing the rest of his life to being a better example.  He finally acted upon his inbred ability as a son of God to act and not to be acted upon.  Mickey Mantle finally accepted the responsibility for his mistakes.  Unfortunately he died shortly thereafter.
 
I mention this only because the governments and corporations on this earth will never have the power to change human hearts aflame with faith, hope and charity.  Only God can do that.  Governments and corporations tend to enslave.  Only God can liberate and inspire fallen mortal man to greater heights.  Loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength is the only way human progress is achieved with any lasting benefits.  Everything else temporizes and fades in time. 
 
We do the best we can at whatever task comes to our hands with an eye single to His glory, remembering that which we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands will fade away because it tends toward entropy.  Only the unseen world is the real world and has eternal staying power. 
 
We build eternal families here on earth among those who are fallen, but once born again, we will live in eternal glory.  There isn't a government or a corporation here on earth to offer anyone that outcome.  So why would we ever give governments or corporations our allegiance, our worship or our obeisance?
 
President Benson summarized with these lines of poetry:
 
Who does God’s work will get God’s pay,
However long may seem the day,
However weary be the way.
No mortal hand, God’s hand can stay,
He may not pay as others pay,
In gold, or lands, or raiments gay,
In goods that perish and decay;
But God’s high wisdom knows a way,
And this is sure, let come what may —
Who does God’s work will get God’s pay.

(Anonymous) 

Joseph Smith

I conclude with the words of Joseph Smith:

Our only confidence can be in God; our only wisdom obtained from Him; and He alone must be our protector and safeguard, spiritually and temporally, or we fall.

We have been chastened by the hand of God heretofore for not obeying His commands, although we never violated any human law, or transgressed any human precept; yet we have treated lightly His commands, and departed from His ordinances, and the Lord has chastened us sore, and we have felt His arm and kissed the rod; let us be wise in time to come and ever remember that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (TPJS, 253).

In the days that lie ahead choosing God first is really our only choice, earthly governments and corporations built with men's hands notwithstanding.

The President Who Cried "Wolf!"

As a boy, I first heard the tale of the little boy who cried "Wolf!" one too many times.  It's a familiar story, but it bears repeating in the current political climate in which we find ourselves.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 Aesop anthology

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf," is also known as "The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf."  It's a fable, of course, and it is usually attributed to Aesop.  It's a little story about a bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf was attacking his flock of sheep. 

When they came running instantly to his rescue, they found the alarms were false and they had wasted their time.  Finally, the day came when the little boy was actually confronted by a wolf, and the villagers did not believe his cries for help.  The wolf ate the flock (and in some versions the boy too). 

The moral is stated at the end of the fable as:  Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed.  The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.

To "cry wolf" has long been a common idiom in English.  The phrase "boy who cried wolf" has also become somewhat of a figure of speech, meaning that one is calling for help when he or she does not really need it. Also in common English there goes the saying: "Never cry wolf" to say that one never should lie, as in the above phrases.

So how alike is this old fable to today's headlines over the last nineteen months?  No analogy is perfect, but this one seems to me to strike close to the mark.

The White House Talker in Chief

Again and again we have heard the desperate cry from this President, "If we don't (fill in the blank with yet another big spending bill), the world as we know it will come to an end."  So with all the votes tucked neatly in his tailored suit pocket, this President has passed a prodigious package of legislative verbage the experts are still trying to unravel.  Nobody yet knows what it all means.  The uncertainty is palpable.  The economy is frozen in its tracks.

We have all observed what a good talker our President is.  The man is a gifted talker, maybe in the top tier of all-time talkers.  He once told Harry Reid, "Harry, I have a gift." 

Let's review the "Wolf!" cries we've heard, and see if you don't agree.

1.  We got a near-trillion dollar "stimulus" bill that was passed over the objections of a majority of the American public.  When polled, they said, "We don't believe it will help, and we don't want it."  But the President talked and talked and convinced his Democrat majority it was the only way to hold unemployment at 8 percent.  Now his economic team, one by one, is leaving, their credibility in shambles.  And it isn't just the economic team -- even his chief advisor and his chief of staff are heading for the exit doors.  Everyone knows the economy is still suffering despite all the passionate talking, and funny thing -- President Obama, in perma-campaign mode keeps talking and talking and talking about his failed policies to convince us we're on the right path.  He's all alone in a bad echo chamber right now.

2.  We got a health care bill with another trillion dollar price tag, and President Obama talked and talked and talked about how it would revolutionize health care, cut medical costs, bend the cost curve into the future without damaging Medicare by saving waste in the program and wouldn't add "one dime" to the federal deficit.  Remember that line from his State of the Union address?  Since the Congressional Budget Office has now had a chance to actually analyze it, not one of those statements has proven correct.  The American public, once again, when polled rebelled against getting something they didn't want, and the Tea Party (however you define it) was born.  By the way, here's a story from today's Wall Street Journal that defines the Tea Party very well.  But what does the President do?  He ignores those stupid common folk who don't really know what's best for them.  He talks and talks and talks about how marvelous it's going to be for all of us -- no pre-existing conditions will be denied, children will be insured on their parents' plan until age 26, and the talk, talk, talk continues.  None of it's true, but he loves to hear the sound of his own voice saying it, apparently.

3.  Under this President the Congress, when faced with extending the Bush-era tax cuts, has failed to act.  We're in a staggering economy that's stalled and stagnant.  Raising taxes in this environment is wrong-headed and idiodic, but what does this President and Congress do?  They adjourn to fan out across the country in over 400 campaign fund raisers to get re-elected without taking action on behalf of the American people, and the President continues to talk, talk, talk about the class warfare issues that are so passe they defy reason.  "We're going to tax the wealthy, rebuild the middle class and eradicate racial discrimination."  Blah, blah, blah.  It's all part of what Obama really believes -- that hiring decisions should and must be in the hands of the government, not private businesses and the high-income people who own them and actually create jobs.  Ask any American, "Do you want higher taxes right now?"  I'm no political genius -- I only play one on this page -- but even I can hear them screaming in my ears.  Their answer is a resounding "NO," but what does this President do?  He continues to talk, talk, talk about how wonderful his economic policies are.  He should have checked in with his crack economic team, who are dropping out of his administration one by one, apparently embarrassed by the havoc that has been wrought on the American free enterprise system.

And what does President Obama do?  He keeps talking and talking and talking, as though anyone is left who is listening to what he's saying.  He's lost all credibility in my view.  His policies are NOT working.  The American electorate is aroused as I've never seen it in my lifetime, and the Chief Talker in the White House has managed to turn an overwhelming approval rating nineteen months ago into dust. 

The Democrats are now disavowing any and all knowledge of how all those bills got passed, almost as if some phantoms did the deeds of which they are accused.  They, too, have lost all credibility in the eyes of their constitutents.  The political pendulum has swung wildly back to the right.  Generic Republicans are leading in virtually every poll in every Congressional contest.

Whenever Obama opens his mouth now, it seems, the American public is hearing, "I believe in deficit spending, I want bigger government, I want to spend money we borrow from the Chinese to stimulate our small businesses in America, and I want the government to make all the decisions."  It doesn't really matter anymore what he actually says when he talks and talks and talks, because that's all the American people are hearing at this point.

He's cried "Wolf!" one too many times.  Our ears are stopped up with political "weary wax."  Words, simple words like "Wolf!" have lost all meaning.  Up is down, down is up, white is black, black is white, right is wrong, wrong is right.

Believe me, when Russ Feingold (D-WI) skips out on the chance to appear with President Obama for fear of losing votes, you know Feingold is in full retreat and battling against all odds to retain his Senate seat.

In the latest Rasmussen Reports poll, 41% of respondents strongly disapprove of the job Obama is doing. Only 29% strongly approve.

Races all over America are tightening -- governorships, Senate races, and Congressional seats.  Despite the polling data, I hear people openly asking if Americans will care enough to even show up to the polls.  Historically, mid-term elections are ho-hum yawners.  This year, however, I predict a record turnout on November 2nd for a mid-term election. 

People are demanding "CHANGE" -- and not what they asked for and hoped for in 2008.  This time around they've got plenty of fire in the belly to get what they want -- repeal Obamacare for openers.

I actually heard a news report in which he said in Wisconsin, seeking to re-energize the demoralized Democrat faithful, "We can't let this country fall backwards because the rest of us didn't care enough to fight."

Uh, excuse me?  Fall backwards?  That's exactly what we've done for the last nineteen months, Mr. President.  The political atmosphere in which we now live is toxic beyond imagination.  He's adopted policies in direct opposition to the will of the majority of Americans, as I pointed out above.  His policies have not worked, we are not on the right course, and we have fallen backwards from where we were before he took office, hard as that is to admit.  The financial pit is deeper, wider and now more unfathomable than ever before. 

When we once recoiled at the mention of Billions in deficit spending we have now become numbed to Trillions. 

Okay, enough's enough, rant over.  Now I feel better for having unloaded.  Time to go to work and elect Mike Lee, Morgan Philpot and Gary Herbert, my top three 2010 picks for great first-time candidates in the great state of Utah!

Political Quote of the Day

President Obama's former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2010, Peter Orszag, offered an op-ed piece that caught my eye today in the New York Times.  Presumably free to speak his mind now, this is what he said:

"The nation faces a nasty dual deficit problem: a painful jobs deficit in the near term and an unsustainable budget deficit over the medium and long term. This month, the Senate will be debating an issue with significant implications for both — what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

"In the face of the dueling deficits, the best approach is a compromise: extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether. Ideally only the middle-class tax cuts would be continued for now. Getting a deal in Congress, though, may require keeping the high-income tax cuts, too. And that would still be worth it.

"Why does this combination make sense? The answer is that over the medium term, the tax cuts are simply not affordable. Yet no one wants to make an already stagnating jobs market worse over the next year or two, which is exactly what would happen if the cuts expire as planned."

 Cutting taxes right now on people who create jobs?  Gee, now there's a thought. 

After throwing a TRILLION DOLLARS at the economy in "stimulus spending" that hasn't stimulated much yet, with another $50 Billion announced today, and watching unemployment rise to 9.6 percent in August. . .

. . . cutting taxes sounds like something right out of the Ronald Reagan playbook.

But we didn't have to wait long for Obama's response.  We won't adopt, he adamantly proclaims, "the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place."