BUDGET DEBATE FOR THE LARGEST DEBTOR NATION IN HISTORY

[Joe Story]

The ultimate measure of our nation is not where we stand in moments of comfort and convenience but where we stand and how we respond in times of challenge and controversy. God has humbled the greatest nation on earth like never before. Is that enough or must he destroy us?

 

Personnel and National Integrity is the rock on which the nation was built.

 

We must put accountability and trust back into the financial markets. Loosing wealth is one thing; loosing trust in the financial system and its regulators is another. Each of us is responsible for our own well being. The federal Government nor Insurance can pay for what we should be doing to take care of ourselves.

 

Our success as a nation in business, our quality products and our relations with others begins and ends with our commitment to ethical conduct based on the Ten Commandments.

 

The leaders we have selected are no better than the population as a whole.

 

• Congress should not have any special programs for its members either medical or retirement! They should have to live with whatever program they design for the rest of the nation. All special programs for current members of congress should be eliminated. All government workers should be under the same programs as private individuals. No government pensions should be allowed.

 

The world is a harsh place.

 

•  Companies must learn that they are responsible for their actions and those actions have direct consequences. Failure should result in the management, the employees and the owners (stock holders) loosing everything. Chapter 11 reorganization should not be available to any company. Absolute liquidation is the only option. Chapter 11 bankruptcies provides an escape hatch for greedy incompetent management of a failing company, to unload debt, and damage the efficiency of the economy as a whole as they gain positions of advantage over their competition while operating under court supervision without servicing their debt. Gambling on stock should carry a high price any profits earned by trading stock held for less than one year should be taxed at 50% and profits made from trading non direct company stock instruments such as CDO's, shorts and derivatives should be taxed at 75%. Financial markets are based on a fictitious entity known as the corporation which issues and sells stock for capital funding. Under capitalism there once was a clear line between the stock, stock holders and the corporation. Stock was an instrument that signified an ownership position (called equity) in a corporation, and represented a claim on its proportional share in the corporation’s assets and profits. Ownership in the company was determined by the number of shares a person owned divided by the total number of shares outstanding. For example, if a company has 1000 shares of stock outstanding and a person owns 100 of them, then he/she owns 10% of the company.  This direct link to stock needs to be re-established as owning stock today is pure gambling, a roll of the dice. Companies are no longer being run for the benefit of shareholders, but as purely a vehicle for speculation.  

 

Government conservator-ship of companies should not be an option.

 

• Shares of companies currently held should be dispersed to the tax payers on a proportional basis to the amount of taxes paid in order to get the government out of private markets both for autos and homes. Housing markets should not be controlled by Government firms. Fanny and Freddie should be divested to individual share holds based on taxes paid. Banks or firms which loan money for mortgages should be required to carry the paper for a minimum of five years as they serve as the checks and balance system for the property appraisal firms with whom they work in the local market. A direct link between the mortgage and any financial institution must be established and confirmed to the mortgagor.

 

Physical health and well being is our personal responsibility:

 

• Everything possible should be done to recreate the one on one relationship between the patient and the doctor. No third party insurance or government procedure system is required. Government agencies should only collect data and provide information on procedures and drugs for the evaluation of their effectiveness.

 

We are responsible for our debt and our budget. Handled as separate items they must be brought under control.

 

• Flat tax 12 % personnel and 14 % corporate with an additional fixed 2% on each for debt repayment. Expenditures must not exceed income, thus a balanced budget is required. The poverty level should be set at $25,000 dollars/year and anything below that level exempt from the 12% personnel tax. This would create the radical change in government that is needed. Hard decisions must be made and the politicians should be forced to make them. A flat tax program providing a safe haven and preservation for capital will emerge as the primary driver of capital flows around the world towards the U.S. dollar. The tax advantages will have the effect of creating a massive influx of new jobs to invest the capital. In turn this will have the effect of off setting the undervalued Chinese Yuan. The jobs created without government influence will employ new technologies to overcome the problems we are facing as a nation. The biggest limiting factors to new jobs are government regulations, the huge number of government employees and make work government employment.

 

By improving the efficiency of our government we could be on the cusp of one of the most dramatic technological, social and environmental transformations ever undertaken.

 

From sea to shining sea as a nation we have been richly blessed by the Lord God Almighty. He has shown us many times that everything we have is provided by Him and that we are in control of none of it. Any time He wants he can take it all away. We are his people and yet we run from doing His will and seeking to bless Him in return.

 

Look back in history to the times the future of our nation was on the line. Times like the revolutionary war, the civil war, WWI and WWII, the great depression, the sixties, 9-11, Katrina, and the financial crash of ’08 we should ask ourselves why would God let this happen to his people. Why would He allow the Islamic wars today?

 

The answer is God is in control He uses these times of trials and tribulations to purify us. He is doing a good work in us to clarify our rules and regulations and how we relate to one another. God controls our destiny, as a nation we can follow Him in faith as the founders did and receive His continued blessings. If we chose not to follow Him he has other options.

 

We cannot deny that we are a Christian nation as some would like. To do so is to invite the wrath of God, for it is in times of affliction that people will earnestly seek Jesus Christ. They must come to the point they realize that He is in control of everything; nothing is outside of His sovereignty.

 

If we seek Him as a nation He will guide us and give us strength to will and to work for His good pleasure and we will find in doing so that we are richly blessed and provided for in ways that do not fail.

 

The question is what more does God have to do to get our attention? What is next on the road traveled by the prodigal son that we seem to be following? What will it take to purify our collective conscience to the point that we seek to find acceptance in our father’s love? How low must we go to become humble and seek God's forgiveness and return from our evil ways? Must we return to the captivity of Egypt?

 

As a nation each crisis we face when viewed in the passage of time has served as a blessing to the nation as a whole drawing us closer as a people and closer to God. Our greatest leaders have come in difficult times when they have recognized their dependence on God.

 

Jesus Christ is the ultimate blessing and leader our heavenly father has bestowed upon us, GOD himself in human flesh, who came and died to take the punishment for our sins which bankrupt our souls and left us questioning why these disasters happen to us. All we have to do as a Nation is cry out to Him and admit our guilt and once again as history has shown, He will bless his people. His grace covers all.

 

Where do we place our faith? In our government, may it never be. Spending all that fiat money on old technologies like trains, obsolete power distribution systems, dysfunctional over crowded roadways, social security and a socialist medical insurance system, will not buy security. In GOD we trust is printed on the United States dollar for a reason. GOD is in charge of everything and we need not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. We should place our faith in GOD.

The pervasive dissolution of our culture due to the lack of moral principles will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the radical Muslim enemy who stands ready to fill the void. 
 
Without common integrity and virtue, we appear to be ready to surrender our liberties to either the highest bidder or the most secretive invader.
 
We have totally forgotten that "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That, they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."- Thomas Jefferson was correct!
 
Have we forgotten that the basis of our country is on the Bible, the perfect law, the law of Liberty?
 
The Word of God is the means of regeneration, a mirror reflecting man's defects, the ethical guide for Christian living, and the standard for judgment. The Law serves as a tutor to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. As such one should expect that when the Bible is rejected as a trusted source of wisdom and living principles all liberty will be lost.  Because where there is no God there can be no freedom, liberty or constitutional law.  When man becomes the ultimate authority, there is no respect for God or fellow man.  Everyone acts on behalf of their own good thus secular Humanism, where man is god, becomes the religion of the land.
 
America, consider your ways, as a people you are looking for government to provide what God has withheld. As a nation we have turned our backs on Him and tried to be our own provider. Frustration and futility are the corrective disciplines of God.