I'm confused. If the government has not grown since the 1950's as a percentage of GDP and the GDP has consistently grown, why is the US so deeply in debt? Taxes cannot possibly be raised enough to cover the deficit. Why does Congress spend each dollar of taxes multiple times and never audit, revise or eliminate programs that are ineffective or inefficient. It's just not as simple as you suggest.
For several recent cycles the Presidential campaigns have focused on change, but nothing has changed. I thought Obama had an outstanding opportunity to effect change. He failed. They all have because they were more worried about re-election than making the changes we need in our system of government to make it agile enough to be responsive to the needs of the people and our ever-changing technologies. Bottom line, real change is painful, it always is. Even on the smallest level.
I pray that you and others might be willing to come away from assuming the worst is upon us, when it may actually be what we need. For a balanced perspective I highly recommend 2way.tv also accessible through Mark Halperin's Substack.
Kimberly, thank you for taking the time to comment. You’re helping to deepen my thinking. I don’t think any population anywhere in the world would report that their government is operating at peak efficiency. Reform, it seems, is always needed in these kinds of institutions. Particularly these days. My objection is not that we are experiencing change. It’s how and to who that I find troublesome. In a democratic society, reform of government respects legal and legislative contribution. In a democratic society, a president doesn’t get to decide which programs receive funding, and who gets access to the benefits and protection of the government. Those decisions should be debated within the House of Representatives and Senate, adjudicated by the judicial branch and executed by the executive branch. That is not what we are seeing here and that is why I am deeply alarmed. Does that make sense?
You make the argument that we can’t tax our way out of the debt that we continue to take on. Maybe. We have in the past. America has produced the wealthiest companies on earth. Tesla paid zero dollars in taxes last year. General Electric earned nearly $7 billion in 2023, yet instead of paying any federal income tax on those profits they got a refund of $423 million. Together the five largest US companies earned over $70 billion in profits yet paid an effective average tax rate of just 6.9%, even as several of them provided wealthy shareholders with stock buybacks. The statutory corporate tax rate is 21%; in a recent year, a typical American family paid 13.6%. I could go on and on.
I think it’s a fair question to ask why modestly paid government workers should be fired and essential programs like Medicaid cut, and foreign aid gutted, but no one is asking major corporations, and the exponentially wealthy billionaires to pay their fair share. To me, that is at the heart of the Christian gospel. Maybe it only sounds extreme now because it’s presenting itself in such an extreme way. As we say in the south, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but she’s still a pig.” I mean no disrespect to pigs.
Anyway, you’ve granted me the occasion to ramble. But also invited me to think. Thank you. I am grateful we can sense and sort these times together.🙏
Thank you, and very well said. I always appreciate the prayer, questions, and spiritual exercise you include. I find that I have been questioning information and analysis for a lifetime, and have noticed that meanwhile more and more people around me have followed the easy, wide scorched path of narrow-boundary inquiry. We are here because Christians have adopted the belief in “magical white Jesus” who is no different from secular beliefs in “techno-magic”. False narratives of exceptionalism and a presumed destiny of endless domination now bear fruit in what feels for many to be a sudden change, but what is actually the culmination of a long process of corruption. Your exhortations to beloved community and faithfulness to truth and mercy are especially needed now. Thank you, again!
I am so grateful for the comfort and the challenge that you provide each day. Yes!
Thank God we are in it together.
I'm confused. If the government has not grown since the 1950's as a percentage of GDP and the GDP has consistently grown, why is the US so deeply in debt? Taxes cannot possibly be raised enough to cover the deficit. Why does Congress spend each dollar of taxes multiple times and never audit, revise or eliminate programs that are ineffective or inefficient. It's just not as simple as you suggest.
For several recent cycles the Presidential campaigns have focused on change, but nothing has changed. I thought Obama had an outstanding opportunity to effect change. He failed. They all have because they were more worried about re-election than making the changes we need in our system of government to make it agile enough to be responsive to the needs of the people and our ever-changing technologies. Bottom line, real change is painful, it always is. Even on the smallest level.
I pray that you and others might be willing to come away from assuming the worst is upon us, when it may actually be what we need. For a balanced perspective I highly recommend 2way.tv also accessible through Mark Halperin's Substack.
Kimberly, thank you for taking the time to comment. You’re helping to deepen my thinking. I don’t think any population anywhere in the world would report that their government is operating at peak efficiency. Reform, it seems, is always needed in these kinds of institutions. Particularly these days. My objection is not that we are experiencing change. It’s how and to who that I find troublesome. In a democratic society, reform of government respects legal and legislative contribution. In a democratic society, a president doesn’t get to decide which programs receive funding, and who gets access to the benefits and protection of the government. Those decisions should be debated within the House of Representatives and Senate, adjudicated by the judicial branch and executed by the executive branch. That is not what we are seeing here and that is why I am deeply alarmed. Does that make sense?
You make the argument that we can’t tax our way out of the debt that we continue to take on. Maybe. We have in the past. America has produced the wealthiest companies on earth. Tesla paid zero dollars in taxes last year. General Electric earned nearly $7 billion in 2023, yet instead of paying any federal income tax on those profits they got a refund of $423 million. Together the five largest US companies earned over $70 billion in profits yet paid an effective average tax rate of just 6.9%, even as several of them provided wealthy shareholders with stock buybacks. The statutory corporate tax rate is 21%; in a recent year, a typical American family paid 13.6%. I could go on and on.
I think it’s a fair question to ask why modestly paid government workers should be fired and essential programs like Medicaid cut, and foreign aid gutted, but no one is asking major corporations, and the exponentially wealthy billionaires to pay their fair share. To me, that is at the heart of the Christian gospel. Maybe it only sounds extreme now because it’s presenting itself in such an extreme way. As we say in the south, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but she’s still a pig.” I mean no disrespect to pigs.
Anyway, you’ve granted me the occasion to ramble. But also invited me to think. Thank you. I am grateful we can sense and sort these times together.🙏
Thank you, and very well said. I always appreciate the prayer, questions, and spiritual exercise you include. I find that I have been questioning information and analysis for a lifetime, and have noticed that meanwhile more and more people around me have followed the easy, wide scorched path of narrow-boundary inquiry. We are here because Christians have adopted the belief in “magical white Jesus” who is no different from secular beliefs in “techno-magic”. False narratives of exceptionalism and a presumed destiny of endless domination now bear fruit in what feels for many to be a sudden change, but what is actually the culmination of a long process of corruption. Your exhortations to beloved community and faithfulness to truth and mercy are especially needed now. Thank you, again!