Obama’s Budget Cuts

(HT: Z)

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Notre Dame Puts Its Foot Down

Interesting stuff here from Rudy’s Alma Mater:

Nearly 65,000 people have signed an online petition protesting President Obama’s scheduled May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, saying the president’s views on abortion and stem cell research “directly contradict” Roman Catholic teachings.

“It is an outrage and a scandal that ‘Our Lady’s University,’ one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States, would bestow such an honor on President Obama given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage,” the petition at notredamescandal.com reads.

Read the rest here.

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What $1 Trillion Looks Like

A few weeks ago, I linked to some practical examples to help us get our minds around what the stimulus package is going to cost.

Here is a great visual presentation of what it looks like.

Click here – it’s pretty amazing.

(HT: Z)

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$1.1 Trillion?

Are we sure this is a good idea, Mr. President? Are we sure we really grasp how much money that is?

From Amanda Shaw @ First Things:

It’s 1.1 times ten to the twelfth power, or 1,100,000,000,000. To put that in perspective, the Family Research Council has pulled out a calculator and crunched some numbers. With $1.1 trillion, the grand total so far of Obama’s stimulus plan, we could pave the entire US interstate highway system with 23.5-karat gold, we could build 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, we could hire 1.9 million teachers.

To put this further in perspective:

* The Marshall Plan cost $12.7 billion ($115.3 billion, adjusted for inflation)
* The space race cost $36.4 billion ($237 billion with inflation)
* The Korean War cost $54 billion ($454 billion with inflation)
* The New Deal cost $32 billion (estimated; $500 billion with inflation)
* The invasion of Iraq cost $551 billion ($597 billion with inflation)
* The Vietnam War cost $111 billion ($698 billion with inflation)

So, the total cost of the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, and the New Deal—using all figures adjusted for inflation—is less than that of the current economic stimulus package. That’s how much $1.1 trillion is.

Or consider these numbers, from Ask.com:

One trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000) is enough money:

To buy everybody living in Los Angeles at least one Lamborghini Gallardo.

To buy 88,052, 394′ custom mega yachts; enough to stretch around ¼ of the world.

To buy everyone living in Belize and Malta a Manhattan apartment.

To get half of the Democratic Party into a fundraiser for Barack Obama at the $28,500 admission price.

To give one out of every two men in the United States a Men’s Presidential Rolex watch.

To buy every woman in the United States a Tiffany Diamond Starfish Pendant.

To get two Mitsubishi 73″ HDTVs for every household in America.

To buy four copies of The Office: Season Four on DVD, to every person on earth.

To send everybody in America on an all-inclusive vacation to Tahiti (and some people can stay a few extra days).

$1 trillion is enough money for everyone in Buffalo, NY to buy their own 65-acre island in Panama.

This is how much the government is going to cost you (roughly $3,278 for every man, woman and child in the United States).

(HT: Z)

(HT: Adam)

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Dave Ramsey and the New Stimulus Package

From Dave’s Newsletter:

There are some bogus government strategies floating around to stimulate the economy and “save us from ourselves.” Just because they’re all everyone talks about doesn’t make them true! Here are a few of the big issues:

Tax Breaks
These aren’t bad, and I would never turn them down. But to think that tax breaks single-handedly stimulate the economy is laughable. Remember last fall? Those stimulus checks didn’t fix the problem, so what makes us think it’s going to fix everything this time? Did you know it was your money to start with? They’re just giving it back to you and making you feel good about it. If you’re looking for $1,000 to change your life this year, you obviously don’t have a life to start with!
It may help you today or this month, but $1,000 will do very little for you in the long run. To win with money, you’ve got to think long term.

Patriotic Duty
The government wants you to spend, spend, spend—and many Americans are taking this advice while still in debt! No matter what the talking heads say, it is not your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have. Your duty is to take care of yourself and your household with the money you earn from an honest day’s work.
If you have your full emergency fund and are in a position to buy something, now is the perfect time! You can get some fabulous deals, but don’t let the deals entice you if you haven’t planned ahead and don’t have the cash!

National Deficit
The dog is still chasing its tail.
Debt started the problem, so what is the current plan to fix the problem? More debt!
What really drives the economy? Is it D.C.’s programs or small-business people scattered throughout the country? This down economic time will begin to heal itself. Do we have to go $1 trillion in debt to do that? No way!

The good news is that our future as an economy isn’t coming out of Washington. Our future prosperity is coming out of the hopes, dreams and individual freedoms of the American people. When left alone, we have a tendency to prosper.

The healing of the economy will begin and end with you. Yes, you, the person you see in the mirror! You have to make your decision as to whether or not you’re going to take part in the recession.

As for our new president, if you’re not a fan, pray for him. He’s your president. If you are a fan, pray for him. He’s your president, not your savior. Your hope will be crushed if you wait for him and his administration—or anyone else—to fix your life and give you money.

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Pro-Life Christians Under Pro-Choice Leadership

From Desiring God:

That is the title of a sermon I preached January 17, 1993 three days before Bill Clinton was inaugurated president. It is just as relevant—or more—today.

The text was 1 Peter 2:17, “Honor the king.” I closed with eight ways to honor a pro-choice president. The seventh was this:

We will honor you by expecting from you straightforward answers to straightforward questions. We would not expect this from a con-man, but we do expect it from an honorable man.

For example,

1. Are you willing to explain why a baby’s right not to be killed is less important than a woman’s right not to be pregnant?
2. Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
3. Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
4. And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the “Freedom of Choice Act” by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Perhaps you have good answers to each of these questions. We will honor you by expecting you to defend your position forthrightly in the public eye.

You have immense power as President of the United States. To wield it against the protection of the unborn without giving a public accounting in view of moral and scientific reality would be dishonorable. We will honor you by expecting better.

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A Scripture and Prayer for Election Day

On this day when we have the privilege of voting, I found it helpful to remember that regardless of what happens, the ultimate decision and rule still belongs to God:

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning” (Daniel 2:20-21)

And this prayer from John Piper:

Father in heaven, as we approach this election on Tuesday, I pray

1) that your people will vote,

2) and that they will vote with a sense of thankfulness for a democratic system that at least partially holds in check the folly and evil in all our hearts so that power which corrupts so readily is not given to one group or person too easily;

3) that we would know and live the meaning of

• being in the world, but not of it,
• doing politics as though not doing them,
• being on the earth, yet having our lives hidden with Christ in God,
• rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s;

4) that we would discern what truths and values should advance by being made law and which should advance only by the leavening of honest influence;

5) that your people would see what love and justice and far-seeing wisdom demand in regard to the issues of education, business and industry, health care, marriage and family, abortion, welfare, energy, government and taxes, military, terrorism, international relations, and every challenge that we will face in the years to come;

6) and above all, that we will treasure Jesus Christ, and tell everyone of his sovereignty and supremacy over all nations, and that long after America is a footnote to the future world, he will reign with his people from every tribe and tongue and nation.

Keep us faithful to Christ’s all important Word, and may we turn to it every day for light in these dark times.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

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Nobody is Welcome Back

After watching the “debate” last night, I came to the realization that I’m sick of politics. And I’m sick of patronizing people who claim to know what is best for the American people. That’s why I’m considering starting a movement – that’s right, I say a movement – called “Nobody is Welcome Back.”

I think we need to start over in this country’s government. Everybody – that’s right, I say everybody – has been among Washington circles too long. Nothing gets done, nobody works together, and we as the American people have sat by and let it get worse and worse. And what’s the result? A $1 trillion debacle. No more.

Here is how the movement starts. We begin a facebook group, just a simple little facebook group, called “Nobody is Welcome Back.” The only requirement to join that group is the promise that you will vote against any incumbent running for office. Doesn’t matter if that person is a Republican or Democrat – there’s enough blame to go around. We are starting over. Nobody is welcome back.

What will happen to all the politicians voted out you say? Not sure, but maybe they can have fun trying to find jobs within the economic system they have created.

That’s where it starts. It picks up momentum as the uber-bloggers start supporting our cause. Pretty soon we are being courted by the people in office but we will stand on principles. Because we believe we need a do-over.

And I need to know now is whether or not you’re with me. And whether or not it will work.

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Dave Ramsey on the Current Financial Crisis

As only he can, Dave Ramsey wrote a little about the current financial crisis. I found his comments to be informative and a little funny, sort of like his show. Here goes:

Are we okay, Dave?

Definitely. Remember Enron and WorldCom in the recent years? We survived that. But much worse than all this was the financial crisis of the ‘80s – S&L collapse and 1,000 bank failures in 2 years. We’re nowhere near this type of thing; that was probably 50 to 100 times worse than all of this.

What does all of this come back to?

Greedy banks financing homes to broke people. It all seemed to work okay in their minds when the economy was booming, but when the economy slowed a little bit broke people quit paying on their subprime mortgages. DUH. No wonder they went out of business. Stupid decisions.

Is there anything we can do to fix this bailout mess?

YES! Here’s a quick summary: Companies that had billions in subprime loans were feeling the effects of their stupid decision to make those loans in the first place, and practically gave them away for pennies on the dollar. But since no one wants these loans, and they’ve had to mark them down to market value, it has frozen the market. If we temporarily change the rule that forces companies to do that, that will free the market up.

This is an absolutely huge deal, and it involves everyone getting in touch with their congressperson before we spend hundreds of billions of dollars that we don’t need to!

Will the collapse of businesses and banks affect me?

No, not unless you work there. Thousands of stock brokers on Wall Street have lost their jobs in the past few weeks, but that happens in other industries across the country in good and bad times. This time it just happened in NYC where all the national news media is so they made a big deal of it.

Read the rest of Dave’s comments here.

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A Reflection on Political Slogans

T-Wax has a great post at Kingdom People concerning the slogans for the major parties during this political season:

The 2008 presidential campaign is heating up. The parties have chosen their candidates. The candidates have chosen their running mates. And both the Obama and McCain campaigns have adopted certain slogans designed to express the attitudes of the candidates.

“Yes We Can” has become the mantra of the Obama campaign.

“Country First” has become the tagline for the McCain camp.

No doubt these easy-to-remember slogans will help the strategies of both campaigns. But Christians should carefully consider both the commendable and condemnable aspects of these sayings.

Read the rest of the article here.

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