I am going to wade into "deep yogurt" here. I am no expert... but have a thought or two.
It's this AIG thing. I understand that the government bailed them out last fall because they were "too big to fail." I understand that salaries and bonuses are hot buttons today and get people all riled up. I have watched for the last 2 months or so at how the "government " has been outraged at what has been happening in some of these banks and insurance companies. Today, I listened for a bit as Congreessmen and Senators, and even the President said, "We will figure out a way to get that money back, even if we have to tax them (those that got the bonuses) at 90%.
WOW.... here is my problem. Several ( I am being generous here) of the administrations top financial people , along with tax legislation writing congressmen have been accused of dodging personal income taxes over the past few years. Only when they were nominated to the cabinet, or called on the carpet by regulators did they come clean and pay up. Hmnnnn..... and now they are screaming bloody murder about AIG bonuses?
Don't get me wrong... I am not a big fan of 1 million dollar bonuses. ( I never have received one.) This is not the time to be doing that... bad PR.... I think that there would be some better uses of the money.
But , if they are contractual in nature, and have been agreed upon before this current crisis hit ( and that seems to be the case), then what is the big deal about? A year ago, the climate was different. I kind of doubt that someone at AIG woke up in mid-feb and said, "Hey I think I will shell out 165 million dollars of the tax payers money, to a bunch of my buddies at work, some of whom do not work there any more."
What bothers me more is the idea that Congressional members are trying to write laws that would TAX 90% of that money to recoup it. If they will do that, then where will it stop? Talk about "trickle down economics." Pretty soon we will taxes go up on everything , even for the middle income kind of guy...all in the name of "making things right." That is code for "wealth re-distribution." And no matter what anyone says, when the wealth get re-distributed someone gets rich. Its generally the guy who did not work for it.
This gets personal if the government decides to take their new found power to "make things right" and tells me that I can not preach on passages in the Bible that stand against homosexuality ( and if it begins there, it will never stop until Biblical Christianity is legislated out of existence in this country.)
I see this desire to use "power in legislation" to re-shape our country. It is scary.
I am not all that political in nature... I generally try to stay out of these kinds of things... I rarely if ever, write about it. But this Sunday I preached about "Dealing with Bitterness". At the end I talked with people who were dealing with bitterness toward family members, toward employers, even toward God. But one guy really caught my attention. I respect this guy so much and have grown to love him. He told me how good the messages in this "Baggage" series have been, and then he told me he had a problem with bitterness... toward the people that are running this country into the ground right before our eyes.
I thought it was a very transparent and sincere thing to say. He really wants to guard his heart.
There are days like today when I think, "He could be right... and we could be watching it all happen right before our eyes."
I am not smart enough to know whether that is exactly true or not. But I do know that if our government can write legislation in the name of "making things right" that will tax anyone any amount they deem "right", allowing them to dip into our wallets, and to leigslate our own moral beliefs, then this is really not the United States of America any more.
Our hope???? Turn to God...Put our faith and trust in Him. For in the end, all of this will be hay and stubble, and all that will remain is our faith in God and trust in His Son. I believe God is in control and in the end, he will use anyone, anytime to draw people's hearts and mind back to Him.
Charlie
PS . MARCH MADNESS HAS BEGUN.
I will post my final predictions tonight.
2 comments:
Does it amaze you how far this country has gotten from it roots of "minimal government, taxation only with representation, and capitalism.
We have grown the government to the point where the taxpayer may not be able to support the beast before long .... and that same government has now taken on the task of determining which businesses are worth retaining and which ones should be allowed to disappear (with our tax dollars). Not sure what we will call it, but it is not the free market capitalism that is determined by the consumer.
Mark... I am stunned at what is happening...I am not sure that this wasn't a perfect storm...economic, millitary, and morally for our country. We may be reaping what we have sown for decades... The question is as the American people wake up to this, whose will will be imposed... those who work hard, save their money and support the government with thier taxes, or the government itself who seems to be using this current crisis as a tool to get what they wanted in the first place.... higher taxes, bigger government and a hero that says, "I will save the day?"
I have no ax to grind with current administration. It seems to me that no in Washington has known what to do for months if not years. And there has been no change in this "keystone cops" approach to economic governing...
All the while we have to take our eyes off the ball when it comes to our millitary in harms way, and to potential terrorist targets in America.
We should pray...that is what we have to do.
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