Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

QUICK TAKES

     - Wintery Knight - What marriage-minded women need to learn about men from the movie "High Noon"  - Great post!  WK offers video segments from the movie, a partial transcript, and excellent commentary.  

     - Wintery Knight - "Is Trump a Christian?  Is Donald Trump a moral person?

     - David Harsanyi - Why aren't we having a conversation about Leftist violence?  Good question!!   

     - Steve Forbes, Stephen Moore and Art Laffer (all experts on tax policy) support Ted Cruz's flat tax proposal.  It will simplify the tax code and create jobs!

    - On Foreign Policy, Donald Trump sounds a lot like Obama.  Jim Talent offers valuable analysis.  

DOES LARCENY IN THE HEART MOTIVATE TAXING THE RICH?

Doug Wilson thinks so.  He makes a good and generally unrecognized point:

[...]  We have thieves in Congress and in the White House because we have thievery in our hearts. Because we have larceny in our hearts, wanting to pay off 2012 debts with 2022 money, we put up with Bernake's monkeyshines at the Fed. Because we have larceny in our hearts, we hear a politician say that the rich should pay their "fair share" and we reflexively say yeah! -- in the name of justice. Thus we call rank injustice justice (Is. 5:20), and we do it because there is larceny in our little piggy hearts. Because we have larceny in our hearts, we call it greed when someone wants to keep the money he made, and we don't call it greed when we want to take it away from him. But we are the ones with sticky fingers -- and we have sticky fingers because of our sticky hearts. . . .

By the way, and I simply make this point in passing, it will do no good to get off this charge by appealing to our cultural memories of Robin Hood. He was not robbing the rich to give to the poor. He was robbing the tax collectors in order to get the money back to the people who had earned it in the first place. The Sherwood Forest hideout had a Gadsden flag flying over it.  [more . . .]

PRESIDENT OBAMA INVOKES THE BIBLE WHEN IT SUITS HIM

And he uses his own narrow ideological lens in doing so.  The Family Research Council nails the issue (and President Obama) in writing the following:  [my bolding]

Cause God Blessed Taxes with His Own Hand...

President Obama isn't selling the bracelets, but he is asking the question: WWJT? What Would Jesus Tax? Speaking at yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast, the President invoked everyone from Jesus to Mohammed to push his universal welfare state. "It's hard for me to ask [people]... who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I'm willing to give something up as somebody who's been extraordinarily blessed and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that's going to make some economic sense... For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that to whom much is given, much shall be required. It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who've been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration of others. It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who've been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others."

How ironic. Liberals accuse us of trying to create a theocracy, when they're the ones trying to attach biblical significance to big government! The Left engages God when it's convenient, and draws a line between church and state when it isn't. Unfortunately, that's the reality of an a la carte belief system. God can easily conform to public opinion. And this isn't the first time the White House has recruited Jesus to support its policies. Back in November, President Obama said God "wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work." "Isn't it a bit much to bring God into the jobs debate?" a reporter asked? Press Secretary Jay Carney fired back, "I believe that the phrase from the Bible is, 'The Lord helps those who help themselves.'" Only that phrase wasn't from the Bible. It's usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin (and I doubt he'd support the legislation either!)

The problem here is not that the President references Scripture. The problem is that he's interpreting it through a narrow ideological lens that isn't aligned with the Truth. Sure, Jesus hung out with the tax collectors, but no serious student of the Bible would construe Luke 12:48 as a call for big government. The Bible is clear that we should care for the less fortunate, but not once does it imply that it's government's job to do so. When Jesus wanted to help the orphaned or widowed, he didn't hire bureaucrats. He called on His followers, the Church. We can ask ourselves What Would Jesus Tax? but without taking Scripture wildly out of context, we may never know. What we do know is that the same God who supposedly "supports" Obama's tax hikes is the One who condemns abortion, sexual immorality, and religious persecution.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER - "THE VAT COMETH"

Krauthammer writes:

Obama set out to be a consequential president, one on the order of Ronald Reagan. With the VAT, Obama’s triumph will be complete. He will have succeeded in reversing Reaganism. Liberals have long complained that Reagan’s strategy was to starve the (governmental) beast in order to shrink it: First, cut taxes; then, ultimately, you have to reduce government spending.

Obama’s strategy is exactly the opposite: Expand the beast, and then feed it. Spend first — which then forces taxation. Now that, with the institution of universal health care, we are becoming the full entitlement state, the beast will have to be fed.

U.S. DEBT CLOCK - INCLUDING DEBT PER PERSON AND PER TAXYER

You'll be amazed.  Click here.  The government is in the hands of ....  ?  (the irresponsible?  crazies?  or?)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Earlier today I was going through an old computer file and came across the following quote.  I don't know where I picked it up.  If anyone knows the source, I will be glad to give proper credit. [Update: A reader informs me that this was spoken by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN.]

Here's the quote:

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,

 that my dear friend,

 is about the end of any nation.

Wanna Know the Pork in the Democratic House Bill Passed Today to End the War?

Update 3/25/07: Investors Business Daily editorializes: 

In passing a bill that will force a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq, Democrats have again shown why they can't be trusted with our nation's security — or with spending money responsibly.

How sad that Congress' new majority didn't have the guts to take a straight-up vote on withdrawing troops without linking it to all sorts of pork-barrel spending.

This shows Democrats don't have the courage of their convictions — unless bribed.

Click here.   

$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;

$400 million for rural schools;

$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;

$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;

$100 million for citrus assistance;

$74 million for peanut storage costs;

$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;

$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;

$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;

$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;

$25 million for spinach growers;

$25 million for livestock;

$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;

$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;

$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;

$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;

$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;

$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and
A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.  (more)   

Rep. Mike Pence quips:

"Here are some examples of what the Democrats consider 'urgent' needs that require  'prompt action: '

--         $25 million for payments to spinach producers
--         $120 million to the shrimp industry
--         $74 million for peanut storage
--         $5 million for shellfish, oyster and clam producers

"Spinach, shrimp, peanuts and shellfish?   That's not a war funding bill, that's the salad bar at Denny's."

Green Eyeshade Blog: Valuable Watchdog on the Way Gov't Taxes and Spends

I just added Green Eyeshade Blog to my list of "notable blogs." This blog is a product of John Campbell, Congressman from the 48th District in California and a Certified Public Accountant.  Campbell says his blog is "for anyone who thinks that federal taxes and spending are too high, the federal government is too big and the deficit needs to go away."  Campbell is the chairman of the budget and spending task force for the Republican Study Committee. The Republican Study Committee is a caucus of about 100 of the most fiscal responsible members of the House of Representatives.  "We are tired," he says, "of watching both parties spend away our money and our future."

Check out his list of egregious add-ons and special handouts to the upcoming FY07 War Supplemental.  Check out also this beginning discussion of a "Taxpayer's Bill of Rights":

• Taxpayers have a right to have a federal government that does not grow beyond their ability to pay for it.
• Taxpayers have a right to receive back each dollar they entrust to the government for their retirement.
• Taxpayers have a right to expect the government to balance the budget without having their taxes raised.
• Taxpayers have a right to a simple, fair tax code that they can understand.

In thirty-four of the last thirty-eight years, the federal government has spent more money than it has taken in. This has happened with every combination of Republicans or Democrats controlling Congress and the White House. This kind of irresponsible behavior can no longer be sustained by raising taxes or simply passing our debts on to future generations.

This is definitely a blog to bookmark.   (HT: Hugh Hewitt)