One thing I have told Pat over the years is that we can't spend money twice. Meaning that we can't buy two different things with the same money. We have to make a choice.
This week we're seeing the beginnings of the budget battle on Capital Hill. I've been getting emails from some of my fb friends about the rumored budget cuts for NPR and PBS. "Save public broadcasting". Today I saw Secretarys Clinton and Gates saying that if the military budget gets cut like they are proposing it will harm our nation's security. I can just hear my right wing friends crying over that one. "Save the military".
What is this world coming to? Reality. None of us can overspend our budgets for long. The housing crisis has made that clear. Too many people overcommitted for the house of their "dreams" and they became nightmares. Others lived high on the hog as we used to say in the south and the chicken has come home to roost. Even Pat and I are feeling the tightening income because we didn't save what we should have for a cushion.
Our government, on the other hand, has continued to overspend its budget for years...and that includes Democrat and Republican presidents, House and Senate. As a management gifted person I see lots of fat that could be trimmed out of the budget and lots of areas where we could be more conservative in our spending on all levels.
Let's take unemployment for an example. And I'm talking about me right now. I am being supported by the government because I don't have a job. I can take 5 minutes every two weeks, fill out the forms and get money deposited into my account to the tune of $996. We can live on that...without health care, that is. The government is not asking me to do anything for the next 26-99 weeks except fill out the online questionaire and collect my money. Our economy can't support that.
Again, on a personal level I don't want to be unemployed. I want to work so I am actively looking for employment so I can become a contributing citizen again.
We've got welfare programs that are feeding people, caring for them physically, supporting their life styles and encouraging them to continue to look to the government for what they are due. We've got government leaders who are slipping in programs to study why groundhogs eat grass (not really, but some just as crazy). Or to build bridges to nowhere. I just went under an overpass yesterday that was build over 20 years ago for a road that was never finished. Sheep graze where the lanes of traffic were supposed to be. And when or if that road ever gets built the bridge will have to be rebuilt because it is too low according to today's standards and it is deteriorating while being unused. That's not just fat; that's waste. Somewhere it has to stop.
What if the government didn't have welfare or medicaid or social security? Who would step in to take their place? If I read my Bible correctly, it is our responsibility to care for the poor, the orphans and the widows. We are to take care of each other...and the others around us. Is there fat in the budgets of most churches? I would guess there is.
For example, how about the many congregations who are holding on by a shoestring with fewer members than they need to support their physical plant (the church building). Should that building be turned over to others to use to minister to the poor? Should those members be merged into another body of Christ where their resources can be shared? What about all the church facilities that sit idle for most of the week? Could they be put to better use serving others?
Our son Ben recently helped a local soup kitchen in Chicago turn an unused side lot to their building into a garden plot. This spring they are going to plant vegetables to be used in the soup kitchen to feed others. That space was just growing weeds and some semblance of grass that needed to be mowed, etc.
We are the government...or more pointedly...we are the church and we have a responsibility as members of the Kingdom of God to do our share. We are not supposed to just leave it up to the government and let them take care of it. I was encouraged this week when I saw the Egyptian people out cleaning up Tahrir Square of all the debris from their protests. They didn't wait for the "government" to take care of it. They are the government in a democracy.
Will we have to see NPR and PBS disappear to balance the budget? Will we need to see welfare, social security, medicaid and medicare cut to balance the budget? Will we need to do without all the multitude of police and firemen that are being cut from city budgets to balance them? Can we all afford for the government to support us in our oversized homes? Something has to change. Will it be you and I as followers of Christ?
