(April 10, 2010) A friend of mine recently forwarded an email to me titled “Budget in Wonderland” written by Bill Miller who is the Senior Vice President and National Political Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The email stated, “‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ Alice exclaimed after falling into Wonderland and suddenly growing to nine feet tall. Forgive us if we feel the same way about President Obama’s latest budget proposal. Because only in Wonderland would record spending increases equal a smaller deficit. Yet that’s what the White House would have us believe. Back up the rabbit hole we go to find the truth about the budget: tax hikes and deficits as far as the eye can see.”
American Economic Policy
I know of no Federal agency that has ever decreased government spending. I believe the Healthcare legislation will severely hurt the U.S. economy over the next few years. Taxes will have to increase in order to pay for millions of uninsured citizens and non-citizens. The problem is that Healthcare is not the end of President Obama’s political agenda. He wants Congress to pass environmental legislation which will impose new financial burdens on American companies and thereby the American people (Who Pays for Cap and Trade?). He wants to follow that with Immigration reform which will further burden the average American taxpayer. I cannot see a positive economic result from any of these legislative acts. To the contrary I believe that America will dissolve into economic ruin. The Washington Post had an article on its website titled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit which said,
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Wednesday that Americans may have to accept higher taxes or changes in cherished entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security if the nation is to avoid staggering budget deficits that threaten to choke off economic growth. ‘These choices are difficult, and it always seems easier to put them off — until the day they cannot be put off anymore,’ Bernanke said in a speech. ‘But unless we as a nation demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.’”
American Defense Policy
President Obama announced a change in America’s nuclear strategic policy and signed a nuclear weapon reduction agreement with Russia. A New York Times article (Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms) states, “Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary. Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China. It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.” [Bold type mine]
It would be great if we could live in a world without wars and human tragedy but we don’t. We live in a sinful, fallen world where evil has designs on those who would seek peace. From a biblical point of view governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens from evil, “3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” (Romans 13:3-4) With evil on the rise in the world any reduction in America’s deterrent capabilities may not be the wisest course of action and could invite attacks by rogue nations as the N.Y.Times article points out.
American Foreign Policy Towards Israel
Our relationship with Israel continues in a downward spiral. I noted this fact in a recent article on this blog (The Decline and Fall of America Redux and Ezekiel 38-39):
U.S.-Israeli Ties in ‘Historic’ Crisis – “Top U.S. officials have lined up in recent days to condemn the Israeli plan to build 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, the sector of the holy city that the Palestinians claim for their future capital. The project caused a storm in Washington because it was announced during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the region last week, badly embarrassing the U.S. and complicating its efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. The Palestinians immediately threatened not to join upcoming U.S.-brokered talks meant to jumpstart negotiations after a 14-month breakdown…”
US envoy cancels Mideast trip, Israel feud deepens – “A U.S. envoy’s postponement of his Mideast trip appeared Tuesday to deepen one of the worst U.S.-Israeli feuds in memory – even as Israel’s foreign minister signaled his government had no intention of curtailing the contentious construction at the heart of the row…”
It appears as though America is in a transitional period in our policy towards Israel and our historical alliance with them. We seem to be turning our backs on our friends in Israel in favor of the Arab world who has tried to do damage to our nation over the last few decades through terrorism and oil manipulation.
Curiouser and curiouser
I cannot see any logic behind America’s current economic policies, defense policies, or foreign policies. It’s as though no matter how obvious the right course of action may be it seems as though America is on an express train to global and national impotence. Liz Cheney echoed my beliefs at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last Thursday. A CBS News website article reports, “Cheney told the roughly 3,500 conservative activists and donors gathered for the conference that there are three prongs to the president’s foreign policy: ‘apologize for America, abandon our allies and appease our enemies.’ ‘The Obama administration is putting us on the path to decline,’ added Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She criticized the administration for the “shabby reception” given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington recently, which she deemed “disgraceful.” ‘President Obama is playing a reckless game if he continues down the path of diminishing the United States’ ties to Israel,’ she said, deeming the world safer when there is “no daylight” between the two countries.” (Liz Cheney: Obama Putting America on Path to Decline) [Bold type mine]
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said on his show last Thursday “We have his budgets. We have seen the deficit. We know the underemployment and employment numbers. We know tax increases are coming. It’s clear Obama is not serious about developing domestic energy supplies. We know that the public sector is expanding at the expense of the private sector. We know that our relationships with allies very deteriorated. We know we aren’t safer. We know the country is more divided. We know the State-Controlled Media has no intention of practicing journalism ever again. We have enough hard evidence to make sound judgments about Obama, his czars, and the regime. Either Obama hopes we fail or is unintentionally causing failure. This is not speculation. That’s fact. What isn’t known is the extent of the damage. But I’m going to make some predictions about that which are not pretty coming up soon on this program. We don’t know the exact date of our country’s future bankruptcy, but we just know that it is a certainty under Obama’s direction and the help of Democrats in Congress and the government-run media. America is being administered statist-assisted suicide.” (Obama Performs Statist-Assisted Suicide on the American Economy)
According to a recent Fox News poll the majority of Americans also think the future is bleak for the United States, “A majority of voters think life for the next generation of Americans will be worse than life today…The poll also finds that three-quarters of voters think the United States is weaker today than it was 10 years ago. Moreover, almost all consider the current economic and unemployment conditions a “crisis.” The 74 percent that thinks the country is weaker today includes sizable majorities of Democrats (61 percent), Republicans (87 percent) and independents (78 percent). Overall, far fewer voters — about one in five — believes America is stronger than a decade ago (19 percent). Democrats (31 percent) are three times more likely than Republicans and independents to feel that way.” (Fox News Poll: 57% Think Next Generation Will Be Worse Off)
It makes one wonder “Why is this happening? Curiouser and curiouser.”
I believe the answer lies in End-Times prophecy. As I stated above, Romans ch. 13 declares that God ordains governments to exist. It may be His will that America declines in order to fulfill the prophetic invasion of Israel declared by the prophet Ezekiel. Although it seems national and world events sometimes randomly spiral out of control this may not be the case with what is happening in America under the present Administration.
No matter how illogical and “curious” the decisions which America is making at this time I believe it is very possible that God’s unseen hand is ordering current events. His unseen hand caused the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar to decree a census in order to fulfill the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. The world one day will be in a position to fulfill all of God’s End-Times prophecies. How soon that occurs is also in God’s hands. As I’ve told my wife many times, “I would rather be in God’s hands than anywhere else in the universe.”
