“The final price tag on the stimulus bill is either $787 billion or $9.7 trillion, depending on how one defines words like “final” and “stimulus” and whether you are getting your news from a liberal or conservative news source. If you want your news straight … well, so do I. (But then I’d know how large the stimulus bill actually is. )
The fact is that there are as many possible definitions as there are people to define them. President Obama redefined “earmark” so that it meant anything added after the fact, not pork tacked on from the beginning in order to buy congressional votes.
Thus, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts qualifies as emergency stimulus spending, not pork. The 4 BILLION (with a “b”) for ACORN isn’t really a political payoff. It’s necessary emergency spending to stave off economic “catastrophe.” Without ACORN, how could the economy survive?
It is easily the most massive fraud in history, and it is being perpetrated with barely a peep of public opposition. In the first place, nobody understands the amounts of money involved.
Even at $787 billion, what does that mean? A billion seconds ago, Jimmy Carter was president of the U.S. A billion minutes ago, Herod was king of Judea.
I’ve read all kinds of calculations regarding what the final price tag is to cost each individual American, but again, it depends on some sliding scale of definitions too esoteric for ordinary humans to understand.
Somewhere between $1,600 for every man woman and child on earth (on the low end of the scale) to pretty much whatever number one wants to create – using an equally esoteric sliding scale for decimal points.
Let’s just say that it’s more than breathtaking. (To pay for it, don’t be surprised to hear plans for breath-taxing.)
There has never been a spending plan this large in the history of man. To pull it off, all pretense at keeping previous international trade and currency agreements has been completely abandoned. The “Buy American” clause stands in naked violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The printing of money to subsidize an economic downturn is a violation of a number of international currency agreements in force since Nixon removed U.S. currency from the gold standard.
The other day, Sen. Chuck Schumer defended a planned $1.2 trillion expenditure by the Federal Reserve by shrugging, “It’s not taxpayer money.” He didn’t mean to, but Schumer let slip the big secret that only Americans are ignorant of.
It isn’t taxpayer money; it’s pretend money. It doesn’t exist until it is printed.
The only reason the extra $1.2 trillion isn’t counterfeit is because the Fed is authorized to print it, but it will accomplish the same thing. Doubling the amount of currency in circulation has the effect of halving the purchasing weight of the currency already in circulation.
Gerald Celente summed it up well on Glenn Beck’s program the other day: “This isn’t Economics 101. It’s not even Economics for Dummies!”
According to the latest economic information, the stock market is down a whopping 2,000 points since Election Day. (It makes you wonder what investors know that the rest of us don’t.)
And the economic stimulus bill gives a tax cut that amounts, on average, to about $13 more per week in your after-tax paycheck, or about $2.60 per day. (Never mind. Now we all know.)
Almost a trillion dollars in new spending and tax cuts – for a wage benefit for the average worker of about $2.60 per day. Well, America voted for change. And America got it.
Almost enough change to pay for one coffee break.
Tax cuts that would have genuinely benefited the economy – like a tax break for buying a U.S. made car or a tax credit for buying a new home – were dropped.
Provisions that would spend tens of millions to help people quit smoking or $50 million for energy upgrades for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Cemeteries Division remain intact.
Also intact is $8 billion (with a “b”) for high-speed rail service from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Nothing like investing $8 billion to bail out suffering casinos as an economic stimulus.
These numbers aren’t merely unsustainable; they are unimaginable. It is almost as if there were a deliberate decision undertaken to “fix” the economy by spending it out of existence, forcing the creation of a new economic system in its place and … hey, wait a minute!
Naw. Nobody is that diabolical. But still … “- Hal Lindsey
Posted on February 16th 2009 in Uncategorized
I made a driving no-no yesterday. I needed to turn around to get back on the previous road. I patiently waited while two cars drove past and then proceeded to make my move. As I was just getting flipped around, a car blared its horn at me. I slammed on my breaks and and waved my hand to signal my apologies. The young girl behind the wheel gave me that all-too-familiar go to you-know-where-look and her mouth opened to reveal some very obvious obscenities. I waved at her again and let her pass. Now, to my own defense, she was not driving down that street when I began my move, but had taken one of those screeching turns onto that road at the last minute, and decided to accelerate at 90 miles an hour. And yet, it became my fault. As I attempted to shrug off my annoyance, and that little lump that forms in the back of your throat as you consider the potential ramifications of such a situation, I hear my 4 year old’s tiny voice ask, “Why was she honking at you?” “I don’t know,” I said, “some people are just very impatient and angry inside.” But, it did get me thinking about why people are so seemingly angry and impatient, particularly in the car. Now referred to as road rage. We’ve all be victims of it and, let’s be honest, have probably laid on our own horns a few times, but my experience on the road is one that has me considering scripture. Matthew 24:12 says ,”Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” I think we can all safely say, “The love of most has grown cold,” especially when referring to drivers that often share, or don’t share, the road with us. People leave their houses in the morning, hair-trigger tempers just looking for an opportunity to flare, for a reason to transfer their emotional energy on someone else- perhaps to be released of it, if only for a short time, or perhaps because, “The love of most has grown cold.” Let’s face it, Christian or athiest, liberal or conservative, wickedness has indeed increased. Our viewpoints of what consists as wickedness will most surely differ, but we all are shocked, grieved, and horrified by some of the news realities surrounding us in our culture. I think it’s also safe to say that cynicism has become the order of the day. I’d like to know what reason people would give for this increased wickedness and negativity that surrounds our lives. In a nation that has become increasingly defiant of the powers that be, that has set aside more and more rules, more and more moral absolutes in the name of “pursuing happiness” and “freedom”, we seem to be constructing our very own jail cell. Each affair, each abortion, each shot, each hit, each act of sexual immorality, each child abused, each credit card, each time a prayer is quarantined from the public, each cross that is torn down all represent a bar, and I, along with many others, are starting to feel the claustrophobia of a nation closing itself in. The Bible says in Galatians,”Do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature.” Perhaps, as we seek to engage freedom, we find ourselves held captive by the pain the bondage in our lives creates. If we really can and should act however we will, after all, you only live once, right, then why is it that random acts of kindness, love, and joy are disappearing into the no-holds-barred Abyss? Why is it that this “freedom” everyone thinks is so great comes with such a hefty price tag? Perhaps because freedom is the ability to do what you ought, not the right to do whatever you want. Perhaps true freedom is found only when we establish rules and boundaries and discipline ourselves to live inside them. Discipline? Ourselves? Why would I ever do that? The Bible says that “A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls.” What good are walls surrounding a city if they are not built up and fortified in order that they may serve to protect those inside? In order that they may establish a boundary line to, in fact, proclaim the city and create a sense of belonging, permanence, and purpose. Crumbling walls represent exhaustion, loneliness, pain and defeat. An established city screams, “Victory!” The Bible also says that those who ignore discipline are “fools…who come to the brink of utter ruin. <They> will die for lack of discipline, led astray by <their> own great folly.” It goes on to say, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” To discipline and hold ourselves accountable will be painful initially, but we are promised a HARVEST of rightousness and peace. Peace. Ahhhh. Just typing it is refreshing. And maybe, that kind of peace, is just what this society needs.