Tea Party Grit Saved Nation Half-Trillion in New Debt
on Mon, 26 Aug 2013
Perhaps anticipating its new life in the Bezos' world, the Washington Post on Sunday put on its green-eye-shade to tally up the books for the federal government. It noted that federal spending was down just $2 billion since 2010, when the Republicans, and the Tea Party, took control of the House. While implicitly trying to minimize the impact of the Tea Party, the Post ignored where spending would be without the healthy dose of austerity. Based on a decade-long trend-line, the influence of the Tea Party didn't just trim $2 billion from the budget but avoided almost $500 billion in new debt.
Since the turn of the new century, government spending has increased an average 6% a year. Applying this historical trend to the Post's 2010 baseline number indicates that federal spending would be about $430 billion higher than it is today. Even this might be underestimating the impact of the Tea Party revolution.
In the four years that Democrats had complete control of Congress, federal spending increased by an average 9% a year. If the Democrats had maintained control of Congress after the 2010 elections, this trend would put spending over $4.1 trillion today. All things being equal, the federal debt would be $700 Billion higher than it is today.
The Post does get one thing right, however. We are nowhere close to tackling our fiscal problems. People can scream about earmarks, subsidies and wasteful spending until they are blue in the face, but those are almost a rounding error in terms of our budget. More than two-thirds of all federal spending is on entitlements or other redistribution schemes. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid consume almost all federal tax dollars.
Outside of those three programs, our government spent $1.2 trillion last year. That includes the military, highways, FBI, the courts, farm programs, food stamps and all the federal agencies. Our deficit last year? $1.1 trillion. Essentially, we spent all federal tax revenue writing checks to people and borrowed money to fund the things we think government ought to do.
So, yes, we have a long way to go. But, the Tea Party revolution is having an impact. We just need now turn the volume of activism up to "11".
THE SERPENT OF BRONZE
ReplyDeleteThe Israelites spoke against God and Moses, so God sent fiery serpents among them because they sinned and many people of Israel died. (Numbers 21:4-7)
God gave them a plan to escape death.
Numbers 21:8-9 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (NKJV)
TAKE NOTICE.
1. Not one Israelite said "Looking at the bronze serpent did not save me from death, because I was saved the minute I believed in the message of Moses."
2. Not one Israelite said "I was saved from death by faith alone, and looking at the bronze serpent was just an act of obedience."
3. Not one Israelite said, "Looking at the serpent of bronze was a testimony of my faith, however, it had no bearing on my sins being forgiven by the Lord and I was saved from death before I looked at the bronze serpent."
4. Not one Israelite said, " Looking at a serpent of bronze is a work and works cannot saved anyone from death."
5. Not one Israelite said, "Moses meant that we were to look at the serpent of bronze because we were already saved from death."
6. Not one Israelite said, " You must look at the serpent of bronze in order to join the local synagogue, however, it has nothing to do with being saved from death."
7. Not one Israelite said, There are three modes of looking at the serpent of bronze. 1. Looking at the serpent of bronze. 2. Talking about looking at the serpent of bronze. 3. Reading a book about looking at the serpent of bronze.
8. Not one Israelite said, "Looking at the serpent is an outward sign that we have already been saved from death."
You notice, that unlike the denominational churches of today, the Israelites did not write down some man-creeds in order to be saved from death from snake bites. They believed the words of Moses, as spoken by the Lord.
If only men today would simply believe what God says about the terms of pardon under the New Covenant.
THE TERMS: 1. Faith-John 3:16 2. Repentance-Acts 2:38, Acts 19:3 3. Confession-Romans 10:9 4. Water baptism-Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21
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