Happy New Year!  About That Fiscal Cliff....

While I'm eager for the festivities to begin and party dresses and good wishes to abound I'm having a moment of foreboding as I think about elected government leadership whose approval rating is in the teens and in secret, behind closed doors, is playing politics with the amount of money that will be taken from you and from me starting tomorrow.  And the president has just signed an executive order giving this same leadership a raise (for excellent performance?).

I'll briefly share my thoughts and then it is off to ring in the New Year and pray for God's blessings.

Thought # 1:

There are NO tax cuts for anyone on the table.  The federal income tax discussion is about keeping rates where they are now or raising rates.  NO tax cuts. Only around 50% of Americans even pay federal taxes.

Thought # 2:

How did we get “into this mess?”

The genesis was failed government policies that forced lending institutions to sell mortgages to people who could not afford a mortgage.  We were told that this was done because everyone is entitled to the American Dream of home ownership.  Problem  is that home ownership isn’t the American Dream everyone is entitled to.  Everyone is entitled to freedom and the pursuit of the American Dream as each person defines it.

This one failed policy led to foreclosures, property values plummeting, financial institutions failing, corruption, collapse of the stock market, recession,  unemployment,  and unsustainable bailouts, stimulus and spending, all funded with tax payer dollars. 

Thought # 3:

What is the government doing since this spending is unsustainable?  

The government is borrowing $4.8 million each day, 48 cents out of every dollar spent. Republicans will likely give in today on the tax hikes they were elected to oppose for the promise to get "spending cuts later."  Ronald Reagan learned his lesson when he allowed tax increases for this promise that never came about.  He then cut taxes and prosperity ruled the day.

Thought # 4:

The amount in additional taxes collected from top earners would run the government for a few days.  This is not an answer.  

Thought # 5:

Where is the discussion among lawmakers about cutting spending?

Question: What do we responsible American families do when we have debt and spending is higher than revenue?  We cut spending.  What we cut varies from household to household depending upon a number of factors including level of wealth.  For example,

• We cut out vacations, down size cars and lifestyle, eliminate luxury spending.
• The children leave private school for public school and boarding summer camp is eliminated in favor of local camps.
• We eliminate dinners out, movies at the theater, cable TV, new clothes.
• We put off projects around the house, we sell the house and move to an apartment, lower the thermostat in the winter, make cost conscience decisions at the grocery store.
• Perhaps it motivates some of us to eliminate tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
• And for some of us we sell the car and use public transportation, cut off the thermostat except on the coldest days, and cut back meals to one or two a day.

We rarely go to our employers and successfully demand a raise.

Next question: What does the government do when it has debt and spending is higher than revenue?

• Borrow more....
• Insult our intelligence by telling us that they are making budget cuts when in reality they have only raised spending 5% instead of the baseline 8%.
• Talk about the need to close “loopholes” such as mortgage interest deduction as if this legitimate deduction is a tax cheat ploy instead of the economic incentive it was meant to be. Eliminate the charitable deduction so we can have less freedom to give our money to worthwhile charities and instead pay that money in taxes so the government can decide the "winners" and the "losers."
• Extol the unemployment rate at 7.7% hoping most Americans are not informed enough to know that the rate came down because unprecedented numbers of Americans left the work force because they couldn’t find jobs.  Therefore these Americans no longer “count” in unemployment figures.

Thought # 6:

What happens when someone loses a job in this weak economy with businesses closing daily? 

Unemployment rarely covers the out of work person’s expenses. It doesn’t take long until paying expenses depletes the savings account, foreclosure proceedings begin, self esteem plummets and the unemployed person looks to the very source of the problem for help – the government, funded with tax payer money.  Government policies lead to impoverishment, dependence on government, and eventually a system that cannot be sustained.

Thought # 7:

We are told that the tax rates for large corporations should go down but at the same time small business rates, employers of the majority of Americans, should go up (for families making $250,000 a year and above.  These income brackets represents the small businesses who file as individuals).

Small businesses can’t invest in new equipment, expansion and employees.  Employees' hours are reduced and in many cases let go.  New employees aren’t hired.

Thought # 8:

How does taxing “the rich” more help everyone else?  

Well it runs the government for a few days and in no way positively changes the lives of the rest of the country.  My “rich” neighbor paying more does nothing positive whatsoever for me. My income doesn’t go up.  In fact “the rich” paying more is devastating.  Income tax is an obstacle to most Americans acquiring wealth.  I am actually hearing people I know say they are relived that they don’t make $250,000 or their taxes would be going up.  Our government is implementing policies that discourage ambition and success.  This tax policy won’t affect the mega rich – maybe punish them for success and let them bear the burden for running the government for a few hours.

Time's up!  Let the festivities begin! Five hours and counting until 2013.  Wishing God's blessings for us all.

Good Reading

The Declaration of Independence and 

The Constitution of the United States of America

This 56 page booklet tells the story of our glorious founding and a form of government which had, as James Madison said, “no model on the face of the earth.”

It is critical for the continued success of the United States that (1) citizens and people elected to act as trustees representing them maintain the Constitution and (2) students in American schools learn about the founding of our nation which will include the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  The Declaration assures equal rights and the Constitution states the government was to be limited to protecting those rights. If America is to survive as founded we must return to the moral foundations of these documents and ensure that our liberties are protected.

These booklets are available from the Hillsdale College book store for a nominal cost. 

Hillsdale College in Michigan, whose motto is “Pursuing truth and Defending Liberty since 1844” requires every student to complete a one-semester course on the principles, meaning, and history of the Constitution.  Hillsdale has made the course available online at no cost. 

The Barney Charter School Initiative has provided an incredible resource to schools entitled The Constitution Reader.  I’m attaching the link to this free interactive resource for your enlightenment and enjoyment.  

The U.S. Constitution: A Reader 

Constitution Course from Hillsdale College 

Killing Kennedy

I just finished reading Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard.  It is an excellent account of John F. Kennedy’s last days before his assasination during a campaign trip to Dallas in 1963.  This book was hard to put down.  I look forward to reading Killing Lincoln by the same authors.  Both books have been #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived

This short powerful book will change the way you look at success and failure, wealth and happiness.  Steven K. Scott shares solutions to life’s problems through the Book of Proverbs and King Solomon’s secrets to unimaginable wisdom and success.  I especially learned from the chapter about the power of partners.  “Without counsel plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.” Proverbs 5:22

Mr. Scott shares his failure in two of his own businesses and six of seven jobs and on job number ten partnered with his mentor for radically different results.  Partners will help you accomplish your dreams.    Solomon’s experiences teach us that with effective partners we can win battles that would otherwise be lost, we’ll gain wisdom that will serve us the rest of our lives and in hard times we’ll have someone to help us out.  Solomon also warns  of reaching out to the wrong partners.

How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

If you've got 45 minutes you have time to read a wake up call by Andy Andrews.  Eleven million - 11,283,000 actually - is the number of people killed in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945.  Andrews shows how a citizenry that is largely apathetic, uninformed and "not interested" in politics can suffer terrible consequences.  How do you kill 11 million people?  "Lie to them."  

Hitler rose to power in a time of challenging economic conditions and promised in his campaign speeches whatever the current audience wanted to hear. It is a fact that only approximately 10% of the German population actively supported Hitler but the remaining 90% largely stood by and watched.  As Andrews says, "Mothers and fathers held their voices, covered their eyes, and closed their ears....And when the Nazis came for their children, it was too late."

One of the most unsettling stories in this short book is that of members of a church who could hear each Sunday morning the whistle of a train roaring down the tracks directly behind their place of worship.  While these eyewitnesses had heard about what was happening to Jews in Nazi Germany they largely blocked it out distancing themselves from it.  However it was hard to block out the cries and screams of the people in the cattle cars as Jews and other prisoners were transported by the church to the death camps.  But block them out they did.  When the church members heard the whistle and accompanying screams they sang their hymns louder and louder until they no longer heard the horrifying sounds.

Andrews' book is a wake up call to become informed citizens who demand the truth and integrity from the people elected to lead. The murder of innocents - in Nazi Germany, Cambodia, the Soviet Union, North Korea and countless other nations - didn't come about overnight.  It started with a too trusting population that didn't demand the truth and largely stood by and watched.  

Andrews quotes Hitler who said, "How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.  Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it."

Thanksgiving Reality Show

And in 2012, we gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.

Here's how it really happened.....

Today's school children are typically taught that the first Thanksgiving was held in 1621 although there is little evidence to connect the gathering with our modern Thanksgiving Day.  Please read on!

The true story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century.  The Church of England under King James was persecuting subjects who refused to recognize it's absolute civil and spiritual power. The King did not grant his subjects the freedom to worship as they pleased. Death was typically the penalty for challenging the Church of England's ecclesiastical authority.



A group of members of the English Separatists Church - a Puritan sect - eventually could no longer tolerate this persecution and fled to Holland seeking religious freedom.  They established a community in Holland but became disenchanted with the Dutch way of life and after twelve years around 40 men agreed to make a pilgrimage to the New World where they could worship God according to their own beliefs and consciences. (Additional reasons for their departure from Holland are noted in Of Pilgrim Plantation by William Bradford.)


Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall 1882

The Merchant Adventurers agreed to finance the voyage, and after a series of false starts, on September 6, 1620 the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England with 102 passengers including Separatists and men hired to protect the interests of the stock company. A long and perilous journey insued that included strong winter gales, leaks to the ship, birth of a baby, and the death of a sailor and a young boy who was a servant to the passengers' doctor. 
The Pilgrims entered Cape Cod in the early morning of November 11 and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor.  Over the next month and a half they sent out exploring parties to seek a suitable place to build their colony.  While the Mayflower lay off shore the colonists wrote the Mayflower Compact, drawing from the teachings of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, that established laws for all members of the settlement. William Bradford was the primary author.  The laws were equal for all and freedom of religion was implicit.

The Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor on December 17 and on December 21 the first landing party arrived and selected the site for their settlement which would be known as Plymouth. The winter ahead would test their courage and strength and claim 46 lives but their faith and passion for freedom remained strong. 

When the spring finally came Indians taught the settlers many skills to survive in the New World including how to plant corn, use dead fish to fertilize the soil, and skin beavers for coats.  Life improved but was far from prosperous.

The "first thanksgiving" in the fall of 1621 was simply a gathering over a period of three days for the purpose of expressing gratitude to God. The settlers invited Indians Massasoit, Squanto and Samoset along with 90 of their men.  Their "feasts" included fish, berries, duck, geese, venison but probably not what we know today as turkey.  The word "turkey" in Pilgrim days referred to any sort of wild fowl.

The next part of this story, and an important part of this story, is often omitted in teaching the history of the Pilgrims.  The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.  Everything would be distributed equally.  In essence everything belonged equally to everyone. 

This system of collectivism and communal property rights with everyone receiving the same rations whether they produced anything or not simply did not work and the Pilgrims did not prosper.  Half of the Pilgrims did not work and depended on the others to provide for them.  There was no incentive until, thanks to the leadership of William Bradford, the power of free enterprise was introduced. 

In the spring of 1623 Bradford, who was now governor of the colony, realized that bad economic incentives rather than lack of farming knowledge or bad weather was preventing the prosperity of the colony. As he wrote years later in Of Plymouth Plantation, collectivism

"was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.  For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense."

Bradford introduced a new system in which each family was assigned a plot of land to work and manage.  Each family was permitted to market its own crops and products.  They were free to set up trading posts and exchange goods with Indians.  The result according to Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation, was "very good success" because "it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."  

While the Pilgrims still faced difficulties, thanks to the power of capitalism, they never again starved.  Successful commerce enabled them to pay off their debts to the Merchant Adventurers and attracted more Europeans to the New World.

As Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg in Reason note, on Thanksgiving we should "give thanks to the true patron of this holiday feast:  property rights."

On October 3, 1789 George Washington signed an historic proclamation entitled"General Thanksgiving" that set aside Thursday, November 26 as

"A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

There were numerous thanksgiving observances throughout the colonies in the years proceeding Washington's proclamation yet this was the first Thanksgiving designated by the new United States government. Most previous thanksgiving days were set aside for fasting and prayer. The states periodically had set aside days of thanksgiving to celebrate a military victory such as the thanksgiving held in December 1777 across the thirteen colonies to commemorate the surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga.

Washington's proclamation was the first official presidential proclamation issued in the United States.  Lost for 130 years the original document, written in long hand by William Jackson, secretary to the President, and signed by George Washington, it turned up at an art gallery auction in New York in 1921.  Dr. J. C. Fitzpatrick, assistant chief of the manuscripts division of the Library of Congess, purchased the document for $300 for the Library of Congress National Archives where it resides today.

On October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the observance of the last Tuesday of November as a national holiday.  A late November Thanksgiving became a permanent celebration ever since.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the holiday to the third Thursday.  This change was motivated by his desire to extend the Christmas shopping season but this change was unpopular and in 1841 it was changed back to the fourth Thursday and sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday.

Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford 

Mayflower Compact 

When Work is Punished 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

God Bless America

"The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.  To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God."

A selection from Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation