Sequestration
Sequestration is the latest ping pong ball played in Washington politics. It is designed by some to gain greater control and resisted by others as the needed medicine for America. Yet the actions have opposite results. The Administration is dramatically using this crisis for securing loyal allegiance from the sheeple (people who act like sheep that don’t care about truth and won’t stand against socialistic tendencies to future control measures). The Republicans, however are resisting compromise with the intent that the defense complex not be destroyed by additional Democratic sequestrations. I know I don’t have the total picture, nor the easy answer. Let’s look at several thoughts.
The problem isn’t the political wrangling. The problem is the cocaine spending addition America has on seeking comfort rather than holiness before God. The political wrangling is merely government’s puny efforts to address a spiritual issue through economic and political ploys. Is God laughing as the nation rages on without seeking Godly counsel (Ps. 2:1-3)? Are we so foolish that we think we can resolve this apart from divine wisdom? Do we think we can get another cocaine injection of spending so we don’t have to face reality of monetary idolatry addictions? Do we value comfort and long life more than we value the holiness of God? Do we think we can keep kicking the can down the road and continue putting a larger burden on our children, while we enjoy the high life? What is sequestration?
Dr. Paul Johnson defines sequestration as,
a legal term referring generally to the act of valuable property being taken into custody by an agent of the court and locked away for safekeeping, usually to prevent the property from being disposed of or abused before a dispute over its ownership can be resolved. But the term has been adapted by Congress in more recent years to describe a new fiscal policy procedure originally provided for in the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 — an effort to reform Congressional voting procedures so as to make the size of the Federal government’s budget deficit a matter of conscious choice rather than simply the arithmetical outcome of a decentralized appropriations process in which no one ever looked at the cumulative results until it was too late to change them.1
He’s basically saying you take a property for safekeeping so it isn’t disposed of or squandered inappropriately. The Deficit Reduction Act was designed to impose greater accountability, which every American person and company already is required to have, on a cocaine monetary addicted government. The automatic cuts are employed when the Administration and Congress won’t agree.
Sequestration is a series of automatic, across-the-board government cuts, totally $1.2 trillion over ten years. It would be primarily shared by defense and domestic discretionary spending. The attempt is to initiate steps dealing with national debt, which exploded in 2007 and continues to increase by over a trillion dollars for the last four years. Let’s be realistic, cutting $1.2 trillion over ten years is peanuts when the budget deficit is equal to that annually!
The standoff started in 2011 when the Republican demanded spending cuts in exchange for Administration obligations. Supposedly one trillion was dealt with, but the second trillion became the fiscal cliff if Congress and the Administration couldn’t agree to spending reductions. Certain programs, like Social Security and certain Defense programs are exempted.
The Administration and the media have attempted to paint a bleak picture of an end-of-the-world scenario, yet many in America are not listening and don’t think it will affect them. The Administration has declared that hundreds of thousands will lose their jobs, will cripple education, will leave America unprepared and cause long lines at airports and shuttered American parks. The only urgent and significant concern is a weak military, for that engages the purpose of government. I’d rather deal with the pain now, than have a much bigger pain several years down the road. “It will be like a rolling ball,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, of the manner in which the cuts will impact the economy, in remarks to reporters this week. “It will keep growing.”2
What will happen on March 1? At 11:59pm, there will be an $85 billion federal cut for the remainder of 2013 and a slash of $1.1 trillion for the next decade. Most Americans have been doing that for the last five years personally, why can’t the American government do that? We’re addicted to a comfortable way of life. Yes, it will affect thousands and thousands of people, many I know personally. Practically,
according to the White House, that means “10,000 teacher jobs would be put at risk, and funding for up to 7,200 special education teachers, aides, and staff could be cut”; loans to small businesses would be reduced by up to $540 million; research and development would be stalled as thousands of researchers and scientists would be at risk of losing their jobs; and “up to 373,000 seriously mentally ill adults and seriously emotionally disturbed children could go untreated,” among other impacts.3
Republican plan A is for cuts to social spending, without revenue increases. The Administration won’t fold here, because it knows it can cut the defense rather than social programs to get many cuts and look like a hero to sheeple. Democrats want a new tax bill “on those making north of $1 million a year, close tax loopholes, end direct farm payments and delay defense cuts.”4Republicans agree taxes are bad, defense cuts are bad and certain entitlement cuts would be good. They are ready to accept sequestration rather than submit to a socialist agenda. They are both wrong.
God never intended for government to be our Savior. God never intended for government to intrude into the liberty of individuals. However, He did intend that government exist to maintain internal order and external protection. Every people decide what kind of government will rule over them so that God can be worshiped in holiness (Rom. 13:1-7). Each person has a say in what happens in their country. One voice may not change it, but a movement will. In the U.S.A. we vote to decide what kind of government we will have.
Instead of jockeying back and forth, the parties ought to humble themselves before Almighty God and draw people back into His presence, not in establishing a religion, but protecting the free Judeo-Christian expression of liberty in the original charters and writings of our founding fathers. People argue the founding fathers did not intend to create a governmental religion and that is true. The Judeo-Christian thread was clearly sewn through the fabric of American society, so they did not need to establish any clause. They did understand that the government they established would only work as long as the nation was moral and focused on the God of the Bible:
Instead of jockeying back and forth, the parties ought to humble themselves before Almighty God and draw people back into His presence, not in establishing a religion, but protecting the free Judeo-Christian expression of liberty in the original charters and writings of our founding fathers. People argue the founding fathers did not intend to create a governmental religion and that is true. The Judeo-Christian thread was clearly sewn through the fabric of American society, so they did not need to establish any clause. They did understand that the government they established would only work as long as the nation was moral and focused on the God of the Bible:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams (The Works of John Adams, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1851, 4:31)5
As America loses its spiritual moorings, the government will squander resources seeking to satisfy the cravings for comfort and security of the people. Hence, what we need is governmental restraint, actual budgets and protection from outside nations, not control over freedom-loving people. Hence our need of sequestration or some other form of governmental restraint. Human passions must be brought to order not addictive exploitation of precious resources. Ben Franklin understood this:
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” Benjamin Franklin
Modern US government has extreme power lust and seeks to control people with man-centered policies, orders and procedures and give a nod to God at best. Patrick Henry understood this danger of government’s power lust related to the constitution:
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Patrick Henry
Which is why Patrick Henry, the great freedom-loving attorney orator declared that a decadent people will become enslaved to the government:
“It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.” Patrick Henry
Too often sheeple today believe the lie of the “Savior government” rather than search back to the dust laden writings of the founding fathers:
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry
The foundation of the nation is clear. No Christian should ever be ashamed and give up an ounce of liberty to freely worship and spread their faith in Jesus Christ, which was clearly the belief of most of the founding fathers. Their blood was shed for that freedom. Christians today must be willing to shed their blood for continued liberty.
The problem today is not the debt. The debt is a problem, but not the real problem. That is only a symptom of the real problem. The real problem is a people hell-bent on pleasure, comfort and personal security. The real problem is that we have forsaken the Lord as a nation. We as a country are addicted to comfort and are not willing to give up what we have seized as a right. Instead of denying ourselves comforts for the sake of long-term growth, we become frightened of a “fiscal cliff.” We ought to be afraid for those who face eternal condemnation. If you have salvation in Jesus, nothing on earth can take away from the blessing of eternal life in Jesus Christ. We ought to be afraid and work toward a nation that is settled on one language, one gospel and one Lord. Fear not, “for I am with you, even to the end of the Age,” said Jesus. (Matt. 28:20). Where is your trust?
2http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57571722/sequestration-looms-but-when-will-the-hurt-feel-real/
3ibid
5The following foundling father quotes were obtained from http://www.cancertutor.com/Quotes/Quotes_Presidents.html
Shepherding Truth 