I really do wish Kate and William success in their marriage. I hope they truly are committed to each other, and if they are then the result will be a marriage that lasts their whole lifetime. Nevertheless, I do not think it is best to live together before marriage like they did, and I am writing this series to help couples see how best to prepare for marriage.
Michael Foust wrote an excellent article, “‘Livingtogether‘ beforemarriage a statisticalrisk ,” March 26, 2008, Baptist Press, and I have enjoyed sharing this article with you the last few days. Here is the fourth and final portion:
Couples who believe they can save money by cohabitating must weigh not only the biblical commandment against it but the likely negative consequences of their decision, the McManuses say. Such couples should instead look for same-sex roommates as a money-saver, they added. Often, couples cohabitate because they rarely have seen a successful marriage up close, Mike McManus said.
“The major underlying reason for soaring cohabitation is that these are couples in which one or both partners grew up in a divorced home or in a home where there was not a marriage,” he said. “These young couples fear marriage because they fear divorce.”
Churches should mentor engaged couples as a way to strengthen relationships, stop cohabitation and prevent divorces, the McManuses believe. Statistics back them up. Of 288 couples who were mentored at their church between 1992 and 2000, only seven divorced or separated. Fifty-five of the couples (19 percent) broke up before marrying.
“That’s a huge percentage — that’s 19 percent,” Mike McManus said of the break-ups. “You need to have the (mentoring) process be rigorous enough that the weak relationships either break up on their own or get better and get stronger.”
Cohabitation, Mike McManus believes, is a subject too often avoided by pastors.
“I think if sermons were preached on this subject and if churches offered an alternative — a better way to test the relationship — the country would be better off.”
–30– With reporting by Katherine Kipp, an intern with the Washington bureau of Baptist Press.
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Chick-fil-A
(4/5) Adrian Rogers – No Other Way to Heaven Except Through Jesus
FamilyLife Weekend to Remember – great weekend getaway!!
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life?
Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments:
“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”
“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”
Mrs. Shriver has asked for spiritual input and I personally think that unless she gets the spiritual help that she needs then she will end up in the divorce court. I am starting a series on how a marriage can survive an infidelity. My first suggestion would be to attend a “Weekend to Remember” put on by the organization “Family Life” out of Little Rock, Arkansas. I actually posted this as a response to Mrs. Shriver’s request on you tube.
You have every right to feel overwhelmed, out of control, enraged, and practically crazy when the affair is disclosed. Don’t put the pain away too quickly; take your time to finish the process as outlined in these pages.
Remember that Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane took all the time that was available between the Last Supper and His arrest to work on the terrible emotional upheaval He was experiencing. Taking time is healthy. You don’t want to make decisions relating to others until you have worked through your own turmoil in this most important of crises.
Now that the affair has been disclosed, you know the truth. For the first time, your relationship has the potential for genuine intimacy. You will have to work through the entire recovery process. So get started. You might be pleasantly surprised.
As you and your mate restructure the intimacy in your marriage, realize that it’s going to be two-steps-forward, one-step-backward progress. Much turmoil will remain to be dealt with.
Difficult days still lie ahead. But keep this thought firmly in mind: you are in the process of recovery. It won’t happen overnight; in an ultimate sense you’ll never be completely over the affair. Trauma always changes people, and it should.
The affair and recovery will change both of you, and as a result will change your relationship. One infidel husband had this to say upon looking back at his recovery:
I never thought Carole could forgive me. But today our relationship is stronger than ever. I thank God for pulling us through, using Christian counseling and supporting friends to help us restore our precious relationship. I’m especially grateful for the difficult circumstances that made me face something ugly in myself: that I was seeking personal fulfillment in sex. What a foolish strategy that was. I didn’t need a change in partners; I needed to change myself! As a result of my realization and her forgiveness, today Carole and I enjoy a closeness I would have thought impossible before the affair.
The fact that that husband can give such a testimony after suffering through months of uncertainty and turmoil in his marriage warms my heart like no other words.
If you’re willing to wade into the deep waters, God will help you put the pieces of your broken relationship back together. You can survive—even thrive—in the wake of infidelity. And I pray that you’ll try, starting today.
Chip Ingram – How to Diffuse Conflict in Your Marriage (pt 5)
Recently I’ve shared with you several brief video messages about how to resolve conflict. This is such an essential issue that so many of us would rather avoid! The truth is that unresolved conflict creates stress and often results in unhealthy and damaging sin patterns. This quick message will give you some practical ways to approach and diffuse conflict that can help break the cycle. If you or someone you know would like to learn more on this subject, I encourage you to download the full message for free: http://www.venturechristian.org/files/sermons2/t032011.mp3
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The clip above has some material that originally came from a video from Family Life. I have mentioned this organization several times in this post. Contacting ”Family Life” (out of Little Rock, Arkansas) would be a great place for Arnold and Maria to begin their recovering. I am hoping that Maria realizes that this family is worth saving. It will take a lot of forgiveness and she will have to turn to Christ for his supernatural help to make it happen.
I love the Book of Daniel and have spent a lot of time studying it. For about 10 years I knew a man by the name of Edgar C. Whisenant in Little Rock. He gave me some material to read and I told him that it was wrong to predict the exact date and time of Christ second coming and he got quite mad when I asserted that. Today we have the exact same thing going on with another preacher.
I predict that Harold Camping, the elderly radio talk show host now predicting Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, and the end of the world October 21, 2011, will adjust his predictions to future dates after doing further calculations on May 22, 2011.
I believe my prediction will most certainly take place because “no one knows the day or the hour,” according to Jesus. Since Camping is working from the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 and the account of Noah’s great flood, I assume he can and will come up with calculations to support new dates for the world’s demise.
William Miller, a sometimes Baptist preacher, predicted the end of the world no later than March 21, 1844. He adjusted his prediction after the fateful day passed without incident, lighting on numerous other dates in 1844.
Edgar C. Whisenant predicted that the rapture of the church would occur Sept. 13, 1988. As an American pastor, I received his free booklet, “88 Reasons,” which I keep as a more recent example of misguided apocalyptic fervor. Whisenant was insightful enough to realize that his date had passed without incident, so he then predicted Sept. 15, 1988; then Oct. 3, 1988; and then again selected a day in 1989, 1990 and 1991. By then no one was listening.
So why are we listening to the presumptuous Camping? He thinks all churches were abandoned by God and conquered by Satan on May 21, 1988, his own un-churched and unaffiliated status apparently providing him protection.
This is Camping’s second go-around for predicting the end of the world. His book “1994?” postulated the end of days in 1994 with a tad more humility. He thought at that time he could be wrong, but apparently all uncertainty has passed.
I first encountered Camping’s date on a huge billboard in Accra, Ghana. Similar signs in downtown New Orleans encourage us to “save the date.” Seminary students here are discussing the prediction, and various Christian ministries have gotten on board with Camping just as Trinity Broadcasting partnered with Whisenant in 1988.
Expectation of the return of Jesus Christ and the end of the age is an historic part of orthodox Christian theology. It should keep Christians future-oriented and eager to see God’s unfolding plan. It gives hope beyond human strength and wisdom. And it provides confines for human history that exalt the role of God in the world and set all human effort in the context of God’s sovereign rule.
Setting dates for the end of the world is a truly bad idea. While it may remind us of God’s ultimate authority, it also disappoints and disillusions those who assume the prediction to be true. I have personally witnessed the flagging enthusiasm of those who thought they knew when the end would come.
The prophets generally profit from their prediction in various ways but often recover nicely despite the inevitable disappointment. The average person who is caught up in the excitement of the final day leaves the whole ordeal with a bad taste in his mouth.
Judgment Day is coming because justice is an eternal quality of our eternal God. May 21, 2011, is a great day to hope in God’s sovereign rule and continue your faithful routines. If the end of the world should catch you in the classroom or at work instead of on the mountain, you will be found faithful. –30– David Crosby is pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans. This column first appeared at SBCToday.com.
Edgar C. Whisenant (September 25, 1932 – May 16, 2001), was a former NASA engineer and Bible student who predicted the Rapture would occur in 1988, sometime between Sept. 11 and Sept. 13. He published two books about this: 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 and On Borrowed Time. Eventually, 300,000 copies of 88 Reasons were mailed free of charge to ministers across America, and 4.5 million copies were sold in bookstores and elsewhere. Whisenant was quoted as saying “Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong; and I say that to every preacher in town,” and “[I]f there were a king in this country and I could gamble with my life, I would stake my life on Rosh Hashana 88.” [1][2]
Whisenant’s predictions were taken seriously in some parts of the evangelical Christian community. As the great day approached, regular programming on the Christian Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) was interrupted to provide special instructions on preparing for the Rapture.
When the predicted Rapture failed to occur, Whisenant followed up with later books with predictions for various dates in 1989, 1993, and 1994. These books did not sell in quantity. Whisenant continued to issue various Rapture predictions through 1997, but gathered little attention.
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Here are the other posts I had on this same subject:
Yahoo News reported this morning: It’s hard to feel bad for someone whose doomsday predictions caused so much anxiety, but 89-year-old Harold Camping’s recent admission that he’s “flabbergasted” the world didn’t end last weekend sounds somewhat pitiful. “It has been a really tough weekend,” Camping said Sunday, after emerging from his Alameda, California home […]
(Photo: Reuters/Reuters TV) Harold Camping, 89, the California evangelical broadcaster who predicts that Judgment Day will come on May 21, 2011, is seen in this still image from video during an interview at Family Stations Inc. offices in Oakland, California May 16, 2011. The U.S. evangelical Christian broadcaster predicting that Judgment Day will come on […]
I am a Christian and I do believe Jesus is coming back. In fact, at noon today in Little Rock, the skies got dark and it looked like it was midnight. I am sure the Harold Camping followers were expecting something like this. However, it is 2:53pm now and the skies are much brighter. […]
I love the Book of Daniel and have spent a lot of time studying it. I noticed a gentleman making a lot of copies of his notes on the Book of Daniel, and I asked what he was studying. That man was Edgar Whisenant and he began to tell me that he knew the […]
By Justin Berton | SFGate.com For about 10 years I knew a man by the name of Edgar C. Whisenant in Little Rock. He gave me some material to read and I told him that it was wrong to predict the exact date and time of Christ second coming and he got quite mad when I asserted […]
Who was Milton Friedman and what did he say about Social Security Reform? (Part 2)
I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible. Milton Friedman
Ep. 4 – From Cradle to Grave [1/7]. Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose (1980)
Since the Depression years of the 1930s, there has been almost continuous expansion of governmental efforts to provide for people’s welfare. First, there was a tremendous expansion of public works. The Social Security Act followed close behind. Soon other efforts extended governmental activities in all areas of the welfare sector. Growth of governmental welfare activity continued unabated, and today it has reached truly staggering proportions.
In this series I want to both look closely at who Milton Friedman was and what his views were about Social Security reform. Here is the first portion of an autobiography from Nobelprize.org: I was born July 31, 1912, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the fourth and last child and first son of Sarah Ethel (Landau) and Jeno Saul Friedman. My parents were born in Carpatho-Ruthenia (then a province of Austria-Hungary; later, part of inter-war Czechoslovakia, and, currently, of the Soviet Union). They emigrated to the U.S. in their teens, meeting in New York. When I was a year old, my parents moved to Rahway, N.J., a small town about 20 miles from New York City. There, my mother ran a small retail “dry goods” store, while my father engaged in a succession of mostly unsuccessful “jobbing” ventures. The family income was small and highly uncertain; financial crisis was a constant companion. Yet there was always enough to eat, and the family atmosphere was warm and supportive.
Along with my sisters, I attended public elementary and secondary schools, graduating from Rahway High School in 1928, just before my 16th birthday. My father died during my senior year in high school, leaving my mother plus two older sisters to support the family. Nonetheless, it was taken for granted that I would attend college, though, also, that I would have to finance myself.
I was awarded a competitive scholarship to Rutgers University (then a relatively small and predominantly private university receiving limited financial assistance from the State of New Jersey, mostly in the form of such scholarship awards). I was graduated from Rutgers in 1932, financing the rest of my college expenses by the usual mixture of waiting on tables, clerking in a retail store, occasional entrepreneurial ventures, and summer earnings. Initially, I specialized in mathematics, intending to become an actuary, and went so far as to take actuarial examinations, passing several but also failing several. Shortly, however, I became interested in economics, and eventually ended with the equivalent of a major in both fields.
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Milton Friedman wrote an excellent article, “Speaking the truth about Social Security Reform,” April 12, 1999, Cato Institute and I will posting portions of that article in the next few days. Milton Friedman, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics, was a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Originally published in the New York Times January 11, 1999. Here is the second portion:
Introduction
The journalist Michael Barone recently summed up the conventional wisdom about reforming Social Security. “The content of the reform is fairly clear—individual investment accounts to replace part of the government benefits financed by the payroll tax, later retirement ages, adjusted cost of living increases,” he wrote in the American Enterprise. And, he added, “suddenly the money to pay for the costs of transition is at hand, in the form of a budget surplus.” I have italicized “part” and “costs of transition” because they epitomize key defects in conventional wisdom. Social Security has become less and less attractive as the number of current recipients has grown relative to the number of workers paying taxes, an imbalance that will only get bigger. That explains the widespread support for individual investment accounts. Younger workers, in particular, are skeptical that they will get anything like their money’s worth for the Social Security taxes that they and their employers pay. They believe they would do much better if they could invest the money in their own 401(k)s or the equivalent. But if that is so, why replace only part and not all of government benefits? The standard explanation is that this is not feasible because payroll taxes—or part of them—are needed to pay benefits already committed to present and future retirees. That is how they are now being used, but there is nothing in the nature of things that requires a particular tax to be linked to a particular expenditure. _______________________________________________
If you know anything about me, then you know that in 1980 my political life was forever changed by a man by the name of Milton Friedman. He could take tough questions that I could not answer and provide easy answers backed up with facts. My liberal professors were strong believers in high inheritance taxes.
Milton Friedman shows that this tax does hurt families and our society. The questioner suggests a 100% inheritance tax but that would destroy a society. Liberals try to downplay the harmful effects of the tax by saying it is alright since less than 1% of the USA will be affected, so lets stick it to them despite the harm it causes to family businesses. Milton Friedman shows them how foolish that is!!!
Below are some other posts I did about Milton Friedman’s ideas:
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gorgeous mistress Mildred Patricia Baena, 50, threatened to make her affair public after Arnold fired her earlier this year. Star Magazine, along with Radar, launched an investigation to uncover the reason behind Arnold’s admission that he’s a baby daddy.
Arnold reportedly fired Mildred in a desperate attempt to save his marriage with wife Maria Shriver. After being his mistress for God knows how long, Mildred was very upset when Schwarzenegger terminated her employment.
“Mildred was furious that the father of her 14-year-old son would callously fire her from her job after decades of loyal service. She admitted to friends how she finally wanted to tell the secret — that she had kept faithfully for 14 years — to the world.”
Mildred even entertained the idea of coming forward and speaking with a magazine, the source said. “It was a nuclear blow-up between her and Arnold,” said the pal.
This news contradicts the story that Mildred “retired” earlier this year. Mildred was working for Arnold and Maria “until about four weeks ago,” a Radar source says. “But all of a sudden and out of nowhere, she was told there was no longer work for her. Mildred took it hard.”
I think that Mildred Patricia Baena could be one of many mistresses, but she may be the only one who had a love child with the former Governor.
I got a lot out of this article below: Adrift in Marriage:Jerry and Olivia Dugan wanted to stay married but didn’t know how by Mary May Larmoyeux When Jerry and Olivia Dugan got married, they pledged lifelong commitment to one another. After all, they each knew firsthand how divorce rips families apart. They had individually […]
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments: […]
Hot Topics-Arnold’s Love Child – The View Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In […]
Schwarzenegger’s Love Child Bombshell Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger: News On Woman & Love Child TMZ Scoop Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica In This Photo: Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA. (// May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com) Hot Topics-Arnold’s Love Child – […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica In This Photo: Maria Shriver, Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA. (May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com) Schwarzenegger’s Love Child Bombshell Maria Shriver Asks – […]
California First Lady Maria Shriver (L-R) California First Lady Maria Shriver, niece of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, her son Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger and her husband CaliforniaGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger attend funeral services for Senator Kennedy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts in this August 29, 2009 file photo. Former […]
The private driveway to former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home is seen in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California May 17, 2011. Schwarzenegger,newly estranged from his wife of 25 years and seeking to resume his Hollywood career, has acknowledged fathering a child more than a decade ago with a member of his household staff ______________________________________ California Governor […]
File photo of Schwarzenegger File photo of the Schwarzenegger family: (L-R) Maria Shriver, Christina, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick(AFP/Getty Images/File/Jason Merritt)… Arnold Schwarzenegger Fathers Love Child With Longtime Member Of Household Staff Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had […]
The Schwarzenegger Family Voting In This Photo: Christina Schwarzenegger Governor Schwarzenegger goes to cast his vote on election day with his wife Maria Shriver and their daughters Christina and Katherine (her first time voting), at the Kenter Canyon elementary school in Brentwood. Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold […]
___________________________________________ Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica In This Photo: Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA. (// May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com) Maria Shriver Asks – […]
File photo of Schwarzenegger File photo of the Schwarzenegger family: (L-R) Maria Shriver, Christina, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick(AFP/Getty Images/File/Jason Merritt)… Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of […]
California First Lady Maria Shriver (L-R) California First Lady Maria Shriver, niece of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, her son Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger and her husband CaliforniaGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger attend funeral services for Senator Kennedy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts in this August 29, 2009 file photo. Former […]
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his son Christopher, 9, and his wife Maria Shriver hold hands as they walk to their vehicle after voting inthe U.S. midterm elections at the Crestwood Hills Recreation Center in Los Angeles, California, in this November 7, 2006 file photo. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has acknowledged […]
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments: […]
In this series “Will Maria Shriver’s marriage survive Arnold Schwarzenegger’s admission of infidelity? I hope so,” there has been a great reaction to it by the public. I have included articles from “Family Life” of Little Rock, Arkansas about how to recover from an infidelity. I have also included info on how to take part in a “Weekend to Remember,” where you can hear “Family Life” speakers with your spouse. The only hope for Maria’s marriage will come from the power of Christ in her life to forgive. “A Family Life Conference” would be a great first step. Below is some info on that:
In just one November weekend, for example, more than 6,200 people attended 10 Weekend to Remember® marriage getaways around the country. Here are a couple quotes from those who went:
We are moving from a place of being ready to divorce to looking forward to growing together through Christ. This has given us important tools to do so.
We’ve been walking separate roads for many years. Infidelity was the final straw leading us to divorce. I was filling out the papers two days before we came to this event. Over the course of the weekend we found each other, wrote love letters that will be kept as reminders of our true love for each other. I granted forgiveness that my husband really needed. We are going to burn the divorce papers when we get home!
In today’s culture, the issues of marriage and family are open doors for the gospel–the Good News of Christ. Because people want their marriages and families to succeed.
The disagreement is over the solutions — on what spending to cut; what taxes to raise (basically none ever, according to Boozman); whether or not to enact a balanced budget amendment (Boozman says yes; Pryor no); and on what policies would promote the kind of economic growth that would make this a little easier.
After nearly 30 consecutive years of deficit spending, Congress soon will vote on whether to add a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Should an amendment be approved by Congress and ratified by the states, the fiscal policy changes could be enormous. The objective of imposing such discipline is to balance the budget by reducing the size of government. A strong provision to limit taxes — such as a two-thirds supermajority requirement to raise taxes — would help ensure that politicians could not evade the amendment’s intent by simply replacing debt-financed spending with tax-financed spending.
For much of America’s history, government debt was kept under control. On those rare occasions on which budget deficits did occur, almost invariably because of war or economic downturn, lawmakers would approve budget surpluses in subsequent years. Unfortunately, beginning in the 1930s and culminating in the 1970s, this strong sense of fiscal responsibility was replaced by the view that deficit spending was good for the economy.
Armed with the rationale that more government would help the economy, politicians therefore were free to indulge in special-interest spending on an unprecedented scale. The fiscal policy consequences, not surprisingly, have been unpleasant. In particular:
The annual budget today is nearly 18 times larger than it was in 1960.
In inflation-adjusted dollars, government spending has tripled.
Government is now spending nearly $6,100 for every man, woman, and child in America, up from $510 in 1960.
Since 1960, the budget has been balanced only once, and deficit spending has increased the national debt from less than $237 billion to nearly $3.9 trillion.1
Each person’s share of that $3.9 trillion debt is more than $14,450, up from $1,311 in 1960.
Interest payments on the debt now consume about $240 billion annually — more than the combined budgets of the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Education, Energy, Justice, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, and Transportation.
The real news is even worse: The government’s official debt calculation does not include $10 trillion to $20 trillion in unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, government employee retirement programs, and other programs.
This rampant use of deficit spending not only endangers the well-being of millions of Americans, but also has mortgaged the future of America’s children. The United States needs a balanced budget now. Even more important, however, is how the budget is balanced. If policymakers want a balanced budget amendment to promote faster economic growth, they need to make sure that their efforts result in less government spending. And the only way to do that is by adding to the amendment a meaningful tax limitation provision.
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If you know anything about me, then you know that in 1980 my political life was forever changed by a man by the name of Milton Friedman. He could take tough questions that I could not answer and provide easy answers backed up with facts. For instance, I was told by my liberal professors at college that the founding fathers envisioned a small simple government that would never work in the complicated world we live in now. How was I to answer? Take a look below at the answer that Milton Friedman had.
Today I have included some comments from Milton Friedman from his Film Series “Free to Choose: Episode 10 How to Stay Free,” which addresses several issues concerning how to control our spending.
Lawrence E. Spivak: Let’s go back to Jefferson. You say cut the functions of central government to the basic functions advocated by Jefferson which was what? Defense against foreign enemies, preserve order at home, and mediate our disputes. Now, can we do that in the complicated, the complex world we live in today, without getting into very serious trouble.
Friedman:Suppose we look at the activities of government in the complex world of today. And ask to what extent has the growth of government arisen because of those complexities? And the answer is, very little indeed. What is the area of government that has grown most rapidly? The taking of money from some people and the giving of it to others. The transfer area. HEW, a budget 1_1/2 times as large as a whole defense budget. That’s the area where government has grown. Now, in that area, the way in which technology has entered has not been by making certain functions of government necessary, but by making it possible for government to do things they couldn’t have done before. Without the modern computers, without modern methods of communication and transportation, it would be utterly impossible to administer the kind of big government we have now. So I would say that the relation between technology and government has been that technology has made possible big government in many areas, but it’s not required it.
Ronald Reagan on Milton Friedman
Ronald Reagan introduces a volume of the documentary series Free To Choose by Milton Friedman. From the 1990 series, volume 3 of 5.
Below are some other posts I did about Milton Friedman’s ideas:
I asked Dr.Paul what books on economics he has read. He told me he has read all the Austrians, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Friedrich Hayek and Henry Hazlitt. He also told me he has a copy of The General Theory by John Maynard Keynes. He said he still uses the book as a reference to check a quote when he is preparing a speech.
He then said that he tells people that the real problem isn’t Bernanke or President Obama, but John Maynard Keynes. “It’s the thinking of Keynes that is causing the real problems,” he said.
We started talking money again and I mentioned that the nickel had almost 7 cents of metal in it. He quickly replied, “The nickel will disappear from circulation real soon.”
We reached the venue for the Republican breakfast and there were people outside waiting to greet him. One woman ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Dr. Paul was correct, this crowd could not be mistaken for a YAL crowd. It was much older and appeared very mainstream and they all seemed very excited to see him.
The disagreement is over the solutions — on what spending to cut; what taxes to raise (basically none ever, according to Boozman); whether or not to enact a balanced budget amendment (Boozman says yes; Pryor no); and on what policies would promote the kind of economic growth that would make this a little easier.
We have all experienced a time when we opened a credit card bill, only to be shocked by the balance. On more than one occasion, I’m sure, we’ve all said, “Who put that charge on my account?”
Now, imagine opening that bill and finding out your balance has shot up by $37,000!
You call the company to say somebody ran up $37,000 on your card without your knowledge. Who could have done such a thing? Congress and President Barack Obama.
Let’s look at what they charged to your account:
Obamacare: $1 trillion.
Taxpayer bailouts: $3.5 trillion.
The national debt: $13 trillion.
The deficit: $1.47 trillion.
Though you tell the credit card company you didn’t authorize the charges, you’ve still got to pay the bill. After all, they were from the government, which came to help you.
Too many in Congress, as well as the president, have been issuing checks that they can’t cash, but they want you to — to the tune of $37,000 for each and every American citizen alive at the end of this sentence.
And the government isn’t done yet. So what can we do?
The American people have the ability, under Article V of the Constitution, to compel Congress to pass constitutional amendments — either through a Constitutional Convention or through the threat of 34 states passing petitions to force Congress to hold a convention.
The bottom line is, whether it’s via a Constitutional Convention or an act of Congress, we need the protection of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
While more conservatives may be elected to Congress in November, there’s no guarantee that there will be enough to blunt the efforts by Congress and the president to spend yet more of your money and cost more of your economic future.
The only guarantee is in the Constitution itself. And the only way the Constitution is likely to be changed is if state legislatures and governors raise their voices and petition Congress to take action. The American people have to rise up and demand that Congress do what 49 states must: balance their budgets.
Those who now preach more spending and more government programs say we are threatening the economic recovery if we pay down our debt and reduce our deficit.
In other words, if our economy is going to recover and jobs are going to come back, they have to spend more of your money to make it happen.
How many Americans, in their family budget, have used the federal government’s neat trick of spending themselves further into debt to create greater economic opportunity for their family?
Does the increased monthly payment on your credit card — the higher level of interest — put more food on your table? Does putting your family further into debt increase your chances to reduce your debt?
Seriously, only Washington politicians and limousine liberal economists would think that going further into debt would help you get closer to getting out of debt.
It’s time to take back our government. It’s time to take back America. And it’s time to give the American people true, honest and guaranteed political power.
We need a balanced-budget amendment to our Constitution. We need laws that require a two-thirds supermajority to raise taxes, so that Congress and the president don’t use a balanced-budget amendment as an excuse to raise taxes.
Washington won’t solve the debt problem. We, the people, can and must.
We need the American people, through state legislatures across our nation, to demand that Congress pass a balanced-budget amendment — or get out of the way and allow 34 states to compel Congress to do what it won’t do on its own.
Norm Coleman, a former Republican senator from Minnesota, is chief executive officer of the American Action Network.
Ken Burns discusses his Emmy winning series The Civil War – EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG
I really enjoyed the article “REBEL GRAY’S GOLDEN DAYS: In 1911, LR filled to the brim with Confederate veterans,” by Jake Sandlin that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on May 15, 2011. It took 81 years before more people to gather in Little Rock for another event (Bill Clinton’s election to president) I will be sharing portions of it the next few days and here is the fifth part:
The veterans were well taken care of at what was called Camp Shaver at City Park. The camp was named for its commander, Robert G. “Fighting Bob” Shaver, 81, who led the Confederacy’s 7th Arkansas Infantry.
The camp fed the veterans for free in two large dining tents. Dozens of cooks, waiters and dishwashers were hired. Provisions included 16,000 loaves of bread, 8,000 pounds of steak, 3,000 pounds of roast beef, 110 cases of eggs, 1,700 pounds of coffee for three 60-gallon coffee urns, 350 bushels of Irish potatoes, 400 pounds of rice and 300 pounds of tapioca pudding, according to the museum exhibits. Camp Shaver is said to have served 54,000 meals.
The only blacks reported to be present were “body servants,” who had been Confederate officers’ personal slaves. An Arkansas Gazette article said about 20 of the former servants arrived in Little Rock to hold their own reunion. Among them was 86-year-old Jefferson Shields of Virginia, said by the Arkansas Gazette to have been the servant of Gen. Stonewall Jackson.
The reunion’s highlight was the parade on the final day. “At an early hour,” the Arkansas Democrat reported, “the streets were well lined with spectators along almost the entire line of march” awaiting the 10 a.m. start. People also crowded in windows and along rooftops, or climbed poles.
The parade route covered 20 blocks. It stretched along Markham Street from State Street to Main Street, continuing to 10th Street eastward to Camp Shaver. The parade took 1 hour and 47 minutes, according to the Gazette, then its participants turned around and marched back to where it began.
This Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation mini-documentary debunks White House pro-tax propaganda with a point-by-point rebuttal of a video narrated by Austan Goolsbee of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. http://www.freedomandprosperity.org
The disagreement is over the solutions — on what spending to cut; what taxes to raise (basically none ever, according to Boozman); whether or not to enact a balanced budget amendment (Boozman says yes; Pryor no); and on what policies would promote the kind of economic growth that would make this a little easier.
The crisis of budgeting in Greece, California, New York and New Jersey are warning signs of the coming crisis of government in Washington, D.C.
We got to our current fiscal predicament because of too much spending; we will start to get out of the problem by cutting spending.
A responsible government does not spend any more on necessary government than it collects through a taxation system that maximizes economic growth, jobs, wages, family income and overall prosperity for working people. In Washington today, irresponsible leaders are putting our nation’s future in jeopardy by borrowing trillions of dollars more than it can collect in taxes to pay for unnecessary government and in the process making changes to our taxation system that distort economic growth, kill jobs, and make our fiscal outlook even bleaker.
Our national debt is more than $12 trillion, having doubled in the past eight years. The Obama administration’s 10-year budget forecast predicts the national debt will triple to $17.5 trillion by 2019. When Medicare and Social Security spending are included, the debt is closer to $65 trillion.
If these numbers do not improve in the next 15 years, the national debt will exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), meaning the federal government will owe more than the entire value of the American economy. No nation can endure such reckless spending. So what to do?
An essential first step is that candidates for Congress in 2010 commit to balancing the federal budget by 2015 without raising taxes. Balancing the federal budget is not a wild-eyed dream. It can be done. We know because we balanced the budget in the 1990s for four straight years without raising taxes.
It begins with electing representatives who are committed to the principle of balanced budgets. We held spending at an annual increase of 2.9 percent from 1996-99 (the lowest since the 1920s), and the result was balanced budgets for four years in a row beginning in 1998, where the Treasury paid off $405 billion in debt, 14.3 million new jobs were created, charitable giving increased, and welfare reform led to falling child poverty rates and 2.5 million families leaving the welfare rolls.
The key to achieving these balanced budgets in 1990s was adhering to the principle that the budget would be balanced through spending reductions, government reforms, and the adoption of incentives that reward work, savings and investment–all without raising taxes. We can balance the budget again today if we adhere to the same principle.
We got to our current fiscal predicament because of too much spending; we will start to get out of the problem by cutting spending. We need a spending commission, not the deficit commission the president created. The White House Deficit Commission should therefore rule out any tax increases and focus solely on spending cuts. The focus should be on replacing, not just reforming, failed institutions.
We also need to reward work and savings and investment, which will create new wealth and new jobs. But the first step is for candidates to commit to a balanced budget and for voters to support such a commitment.
Judging by the failure of this Congress to even prepare a budget, a commitment to a balanced budget is only going to grow large enough to have an impact in the context of an election campaign.
A constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget is just the reform that can concentrate the minds of voters and rally them in favor of an effort to balanced budgets. We are encouraged that Democrats and Republicans are committing to support H.J. Res 1, the Balanced Budget Amendment.
Balanced budgets, declining federal debt, lower taxes, low interest rates, and government reform is a recipe for prosperity. It’s not a secret. This is what we did to achieve prosperity in the 1990s. We can do it again.
Newt Gingrich is a senior fellow at AEI. U.S. Representative Mike Coffman represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District.
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