Give The People Bread And Circuses

Have you noticed how our "representative" leaders are accomplishing their goals? It has nothing to do with solving the problem or even reality. They are using the same technique the mafia uses. Through threads of harm or by paying off the opposition. Threats of harm mean threats of lawsuits or destruction of someone's reputation - essentially taking away they life they had. For example, this has been used a lot to get pharmaceutical companies to give support to health care reform. It is also being used against the CIA and justice department attorneys from the Bush administration. The payoffs are easier to see. The latest is the Senator from Nebraska holding out on supporting the Reid health care bill until Nebraska is given extra money (a pay off). Or President Obama promising future payments of $100,000,000,000 per year to other countries, if they support reduction of carbon emissions. Nothing but another payoff. And since others now recognize this is the way Obama works, they won't agree to what Obama wants until they get their share of YOUR money. That's where the money comes from. Your pocket.

I read something interesting a while ago. A survey showed that when asked where the government gets their money, about 45% said, "They have their own money." What's especially interesting is that about the same percentage of people pay very, very low levels of taxes. Let's get in touch with reality!! The government doesn't have any money. All of it comes out of YOUR pocket.

This is why the way the Bible sets up government and taxation everyone pays taxes.

This is also why in the Bible representation of the people is set up on a household basis, not an individual basis. Only those who have a stake in the outcome have the right to decide on the laws that control the outcome.

You will be paying more for health care. You will be paying BIG TIME for reducing carbon emissions. But don't worry, you will still have TV.

Roman poet Juvenal wrote in the first century: give the people bread and circuses and they will never revolt. What was true then is still true today... unless we turn to God.

Fixing The Real Problem - Government

There's starting to be a hint that things are getting better, but many things sure seem to be messed up these days.

There is the financial crisis that started with the meltdown on the home mortgage industry. What caused that? Fingers have been pointed at bankers, "greedy" executives, Wall Street brokers, investors and "greedy" home owners. But what is the one group of people whom the government never identifies as the source of the problem? The government. Yet if you read the reports now being written by economists, the #1 cause of the financial meltdown was government. In brief, our laws, codes and regulations were (and still are) written to encourage as many people as possible to buy homes, and encourage (and many times require)the lending institutions to do it in such a way that the risk was hidden.

What needs to be fixed in order to get us out of this mess, and prevent it from happening again, is the government. If we leave things as they are you can expect a bigger crash, and greater loss of savings and jobs, coming your way.

What about health care? The finger gets pointed at "greedy" insurance companies, overpaid executives, the drug companies, and even at doctors as being the cause of the problems we have with health care. But the true problem is ignored... government. Government regulation, codes, laws and favoritism of special interests groups (tort lawyers and unions for example) drive up the cost and limit access to health care. The solution is not a big expensive, unaffordable government program. The solution actually costs nothing and will save you money. The solution is to get the government out of health care. Implement tort reform. Allow insurance policies to be sold across state lines (so you don't have to pay high premiums mandated in the state where you live). Free doctors to practice medicine and legal defense.

I'm not against government. But I am against government stepping outside of the areas it should be in. God has defined the role of government -- essentially telling us those things government can do well and those things government will make a mess of (and hurt people). People have been serious hurt by what the government has done in the financial (mortgage) markets. People are already being serious hurt by what government has done in health care. But instead of changing this, we heading in the direction of doing more of what will hurt people. I doesn't make sense.