Why can’t I find this video anywhere else besides Facebook? There is a good reason the American people do not trust their government. I rarely post articles like this but these Senators are obviously being contacted by concerned citizens that are sickened by the size of the Government and intrusion into personal lives.
The fact that inflation is at the highest rate in 40 years means that we can’t just cavalierly continue squeezing the American public and future generations.
I have always thought that our financial problems are just a consequence of our spiritual problems.
They are having another debt limit vote today. Sometimes I think many of our “leaders” are determined to break us. Is it intentional? I don’t know but some think that the American people have no limit of resources to fund a government larger than we already have. I have news for those people…they are living in a different world than I.
CR
Wings of the Wind
Est. September, 2009 – ReEst. April, 2010
Recent Comments
Wings of the Wind 
Hi Chris. Our county here in Western New York has the distinction of having the highest property taxes in the nation. My wife and I pay $7K per year and our humble abode is hardly a mansion. On top of that is the high 8% local sales tax and the high annual state tax. As a result of the high taxes (and challenging weather) no one wants to live here. A significant number of residents have moved out. No CEO in his right mind would relocate his company here. Western New York is an economic dead zone. We have great colleges here, but no place to get a job after graduation.
I definitely agree with the Republican ideal of less government and less taxes, however, when Republicans have had the majority in county government, no significant changes were made.
Ugh…a sorry distinction indeed. Because Hot Springs is a tourist town, our county sales taxes are actually higher than yours but our property taxes are less than half or yours.
I agree that the Republicans failed to do enough to stop the spending when they were in power as well, but I am glad that they are now in control of my state which once was dominated by democrats. I have to admit that the democrats then were tame compared to what we have now particularly on social issues. Here is what happened just recently in Arkansas:
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/dec/10/new-laws-create-largest-tax-cut-in-arkansas/
Congrats on the tax cut! New York State is taxing itself right out of existence.
Thanks, Tom. I don’t know that much about New York but it is sad to hear that people are having to deal with that kind of taxation anywhere. I grew up in the wonderful state of California but I am so glad that I left it 25 years ago. Leaders there seem to be so out of touch with the average person. Some people there who have full time jobs are homeless because the cost of living is so high. I have no idea how the vast majority of young people in places like the big cities in California are going to be able to afford to live an average life.
In my lifetime the cockeyed focus on material things has come back to bite us. Habitual violation of the tenth commandment is a huge part of the problem in my opinion.
If it wasn’t for the massive federal debt, I would be more hopeful that things could turn around. It’s sad that we are in such a deep hole.
I pray for generations to come. I am so thankful for the freedoms I have that were handed to me by past generations. I appreciate simple things like being able to go where I want when I want.
At the same time, I think we were heading backward before I ever got the chance to vote in 1976. The snowball was already moving downhill. I hope that young people don’t opt for socialism to “save” themselves from the avalanche that appears to be somewhere in the near future. A socialist America would only make things so much worse.
Unless people go back to trusting in God and His Word, I think the days written about in Matthew 24 are not too far in the future.
God’s blessings…
Yikes…so much for the propaganda lie “it will not cost you a penny!” but their action shows otherwise!
Indeed, Pastor Jim. So many of our politicians tell lies today that I think the public’s view of them is at an all time low.
When leaders lie, a nation is in trouble. So much for “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”
“When leaders lie, a nation is in trouble. ” Indeed and they work on making “better” lies, that’s even scarier…sad times we live in
So true and they get away with making so many of those better lies. Being a pastor on the “front lines” I’m sure you see the deterioration of the family unit along with so many of the societal problems we have due to spiritual rot. I appreciate your efforts to be a conduit for God to work through.
God’s blessings my friend…
When I see how crazy our world is I’m so glad for how the Gospel can change individuals and family
How wonderful is the Gospel of our Lord and Savior! I’m sure your heart is lightened, as mine is, when you see people trusting in Jesus.
Indeed!
Yeesh! I agree with you, Chris. Big Government is bad for everyone. It seems that the Democrats are breaking this country and I believe it’s deliberate because they’re proving themselves to be totalitarian tyrants. Many Republicans, on the other hand, are too chicken to stand up to the Dems. I’ve never in my life seen such out-of-control government spending in my life. It’s a good thing they didn’t pass the John Lewis bill or the 3 trillion dollar BBB bill through the Senate because things would’ve been a lot worse. We should continue to pray for our country and our government. Thank you so much for addressing these matters. God bless you.
So glad to see your comment, Cherie. I have been posting about the national debt as long as I have been posting. I have never liked debt and think that one of the worse things we can do is leave debt to our children. I know it has been going on a long time now but never at this pace. I don’t see anyway our children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren will be able to pay for our excesses. I hate to think about what will happen when the bill becomes due.
The Democrats seem to think that money grows on trees and many of the Republicans seem to lean that way as well. It’s hard to believe some of the things the Dems and guys like Bernie Sanders are promising our young (and older) people. I remember the promises of our current president and he certainly hasn’t been able to deliver. Our political landscape has shifted so far to the left that I agree with you that we are in deep trouble. What used to be considered a liberal Democrat when I was a kid could easily be found among liberal Republicans today. I was glad to see that enough (yet so few) Democrats helped us avoid more trillions in debt. I have to give the Republicans credit that that they voted as a unit on these proposals. At the same time, I also think that the Republicans do not nearly expose how badly these Democratic efforts could come back to bite us. On size of government issues (among so many other things) the Republican platform is so much better. I wish they would stick up for themselves and their platform better.
One thing I see happening that is very unhealthy is the continued lowering standards of rhetoric on both sides of the isle. I used to think it was much more of an issue on the Democratic side but it is becoming widespread among average Republicans as well. There will be no communication or decent discussions unless both sides tone down the offensive language used when trying to make a political point. We need to relearn how to communicate with others even when we disagree with them.
Thank you for your kind comments, Cherie. With you I am praying for America.
God’s blessings…
Thank you so much, Chris. And I so agree with you that today’s democrat party isn’t the one from our parent’s generation. And the reason Sanders has made so many (empty) promises to the young is not that he intends on keeping these promises. People like him understand that the young generations have been in the world long enough not had enough life experiences yet to know the difference. But isn’t that the reason the Left targets the young to be their voter base. It’s a very clever move.
Just think…Sanders got very close to being the Democratic nominee in 2016.
All I want is someone who actually tries to follow much of the Republican platform and who actually acts presidential. It seems like those with those qualifications (I like Mike Pence) somehow never get the chance these days.
I know he did. And we’d be living under Socialism now if he had.
Ugh…I hope the American people have enough sense that Sanders would have become a pretty unproductive president with hands tied by both parties because of his socialist ideas. There is no question that many, particularly young people who have not read up on the history of socialism, lean that direction. The day we become as socialist as our once fine neighbors to the south in Venezuela is the day I start looking to move to another country.
I think there are still enough people with smarts. Bernie will never make president. Most Americans don’t want Socialism and the young people who want it only do because they are lazy, entitled, and don’t want to work for anything. They are jealous of the successful and only want free stuff. Bit fortunately, they’re in the minority. Also, we’re still an armed nation so Socialism will never come here as long as we have our guns.
For sure. Bernie is 80 so that pretty much takes him out of the running. I also think that most Americans have it too good to want anything to do with socialism and I pray that it stays that way. Those who came before us worked too hard to defend the freedoms we have for us to just hand over our situation to someone like Hugo Chavez.
At present we have just a few members of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) in Democrat positions. A lot of things need to change for us to completely lose it I think.
Still some people consider the democratic party very socialist in some ways and I think it is true to some degree.
Of course I do not follow American politics well enough to have too solid opinions, so please forgive these thoughts if you find them irrelevant:
I do not doubt that many communists are, or at least start out as, idealists and that their ideals are good. The question is, though, whether their ideas of how an economy works are anything like realistic, when you take away people’s right to work for their own livelihood and that of their family in the way they choose. And where does the idea of a perfect society go to when people are not served by fancy ideas in practice?
The East-European countries were in reality under Soviet rule for close on 50 years (from the end of the 2nd world war until about 1990-91). The result was utter poverty, and a backwardness and lack of an infrastructure needed to make the economy work from day to day, in which people could only be kept ‘at bay’ by strong repression, a ban on receiving information from the West or on free interaction with visiting Westerners, a ban on going abroad oneself, the use of concentration camps and political imprisonment. The need for all sorts of basic goods is still great in Eastern Europe; many of us are still engaged in sending transports and cooperating with people who try to start little businesses of production and trade. In Russia and China themselves, communism has developed into slightly new types of dictatorships.
But human beings, even in relatively free countries with access to information, do not want to remember and learn from such events. And so the same kind of idealistic ideas of pervasive socialism catch their fancy again and again, like in Venezuela. One should not excuse the part played by abuses of the incredibly rich and powerful in many societies either. The poor react against it, and no wonder. – Once in power, it seems that most politicians, in most countries, are set on retaining it regardless. How to keep them in check and find an acceptable balance between people’s basic interests?
I have wondered whether Americans, because they have not had repressive socialistic/communistic rule, are more naïve about it than Europeans. It is doubtful, though. I see the same sanguine attitudes here too. We ought to know better.
Your thoughts are always relevant here, Marianne.
“But human beings, even in relatively free countries with access to information, do not want to remember and learn from such events.”
This statement is so true, Marianne.
People sometimes think we have advanced to a place where doing the things that once caused tragic consequences will somehow have different results. If we could only learn from history certainly a lot of grief could be avoided.
Many in our younger generations have little knowledge about the post WWII years when so many were controlled and died because of wicked socialist leaders.
My generation is to blame to a large degree. We have not educated our children as we should. Add the fact that my generation didn’t get the best education either and you have a recipe for possible disaster. I admit to knowing nothing about the history of Romania until just a few years ago. I remember nothing about the uprising there in 1989 and I was 31 years old at the time. I was so focused on my work that many things going on in the world were simply ignored. My wife was teaching children of immigrants from Romania, but I had no idea why they had come to America. Thankfully, I eventually found out.
At the same time, most of my generation was very aware of the Cold War. I still remember a speech that Nikita Khrushchev gave while pounding his fist fiercely on the lectern. I read books about Cold War spies that my mom bought. My parents greatly appreciated our freedoms and every patriotic holiday my mom took all six of us kids out to the porch and we had a flag salute ceremony where we all said the Pledge of Allegiance and raised the flag and hung it on our front porch for the remainder of the day.
The Eastern Europe of post WWII that you describe is hardly known by many young Americans today. We are having a hard time getting our own history straight.
People who have experienced what Richard Wurmbrand, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Corrie ten Boom did under evil political leaders are not nearly as well known as they should be. Even though their books have been read by millions it is millions too few.
I have not related it to Europeans, but I have also wondered whether Americans, because they have not had repressive socialistic/communistic rule, are naïve. I think the answer is an easy “yes.” I have heard more disdain about socialism from those who have come to America because of it than those who are here for other reasons. We don’t understand what it is like to live under someone like Ceaușescu. Many American/Romanians do and are not afraid to discuss it.
You mentioned that:
“Once in power, it seems that most politicians, in most countries, are set on retaining it regardless.”
Americans can vote anyone in or out of office. That includes those who are more interested in their careers than the lives of the people they serve.
We ought to know better, Marianne, but we keep on doing the same bad things and the results aren’t going to change.
One cannot rely on the things you’ve mentioned being learned in the American public school system today. Teachers are having a difficult time just teaching kids to read, write, and do some math. Parents need to be very active in helping their children learn important things that will not be taught in school.
The problem is that the family is in trouble in America, something I’ve mentioned many times on this blog.
I have to quote Dr. Kevin Leman here:
“Parents used to have many children. Now, children have many parents.”
The things that many children have to deal with today that were never on my radar as a child stunts their ability to be able to learn things outside of themselves. Many are so focused on their own problems that they don’t have the time to think about what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes. It is probably very similar to why I had no idea what was happening in Romania in 1989.
I wish I had solutions, Marianne. The problems are somewhat identifiable but answers for them would mean huge changes.
Changes in family life would involve changes in how we view marriage, something that God ordained between one man and one woman. Much of the world disagrees with this view which brings me back to the same place I find so many of my answers. These are the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John. They are words that many don’t want or care to hear in our day. I think it would be a much better world if people cared about words like these more:
15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”