Quick Thought: A Succinct Comparison — Reagan vs. Obama

Then —> Reagan: Tear down this wall.   Now —> Obama: Tear down this country.

President Reagan’s Vision

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.
Ronald Reagan

In the course of our lives, we have the choice to live free or to live confined.  That goes for all areas of life.

If we love our jobs and enjoy them, we live free.  If we, everyday, struggle to find pleasure in our work, it’s confining and restricting.  BUT, we have the choice to embark on a new career.

If we are in a relationship that seems to be going nowhere quickly.  It’s very confining and constricting. We have the choice to be involved in relationships that help us grow; that enrich our lives.

If we are in spiritual burnout or complacency, it’s confining and debilitating. We have the choice to come to Jesus and seek renewal and fulfillment.

President Reagan’s vision was that we live lives that were full.  In that fullness, he recognized that we had a choices to make. Our choices lead to freedom or entrapment.  His suggestion is that we live our lives that allow men to remain free for, not only our present times, but well into the future.

Aside from any spiritual context and deeper sets of meaning we could draw from this quote, we can at least appreciate the simple political and cultural implications.  President Reagan knew that we had to do all that we could to insure our freedoms, liberties, and well-being moved on for future generations.

Our present day demands us to step up and be heard.  Our perilous times request payment for the “much that is given.” Our political environment, which treads very often into the spiritual world, has called out those who love liberty and freedom. It beckons those, who like President Reagan, must now pick up and run the race, keep the course, and keep the faith.

Our country, inspired into existence by Judeo-Christian precepts, must return to the day when Christ reigned in the hearts of men. When the Bible wasn’t questioned as fact or fiction but was the centerpiece of life.  When God wasn’t viewed as a convenience, but rather, He had preeminence in the lives of men.

Reagan’s vision here goes much deeper than just a political posturing.  This is about life. It’s about all things good and fruitful.  It’s about men and women having the opportunity to make choices.  It’s about boys and girls growing up believing in themselves and their God.  It’s about a society turning to God and sincerely being engrossed in living out that message of freedom.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s time to stand for our freedoms.  It’s time to put on the whole armor and confront the enemy at the gates.  To engage the enemies of our freedoms.  To go head-to-head with the evil around us.  To face-off the against those that would have us come under enslavement.  To openly challenge those systems that would attempt to eliminate our liberties.

God has given us much and now much is required.

Former President Reagan knew that freedom was a passing phase if men and women didn’t step up to the plate and demand it and defend it.  We must, in our time, become a driving force in society that our God might be glorified and that we might have a future clothed in freedom, both spiritually through Christ and politically for the our country and for the world.

Lifewarrior

Tax Reduction – A Thought From JFK

Tax reduction thus sets off a process that can bring gains for everyone, gains won by marshalling resources that would otherwise stand idle—workers without jobs and farm and factory capacity without markets. Yet many taxpayers seemed prepared to deny the nation the fruits of tax reduction because they question the financial soundness of reducing taxes when the federal budget is already in deficit. Let me make clear why, in today’s economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarged the federal deficit—why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues.

—President John F. Kennedy, Economic Report of the President,  January 1963

The discussion of taxation is an interesting one.  Yes, there are taxes that are necessary for some basic necessities that we all need and share.  For instance, our military is a much needed entity.   But, when the government can, for the sake of simply bringing more money into the coffers, tax as it wishes, then we have an issue.

Why does a government raise taxes?  One, it seems, for funding of programs it deems necessary.  The other reason taxes are increased is to compensate for over-the-top, out-of-control, and unfettered spending.  It’s called lack of budgeting properly.

We need our government to be held accountable for the dollars it wastes!  Don’t you think? Think failed stimulus…think government bailouts…think failing social security!  Completely misdirected funds due to over zealous, incompetent fools engaging in mismanagement of the taxpayers money.

When our government gets out-of-hand with its spending, and there seems to be no end in sight, how do we then expect that any amount of taxation will do the trick?  When does the bleeding stop? Seriously, if government is spending tax money faster than it comes in and operates haphazardly, how then can we trust it to do the essentials, like fund those key elements necessary for a vital nation?  We can’t!

John F. Kennedy states this thought brilliantly!

Wake up Washington!  Taxation must decrease if we are to increase.  How difficult is it to get that concept?

Lifewarrior

Great Quotes – Welfare State

“We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”

-President Ronald Reagan-

This is a subject near to my heart.  Not because I’ve ever had the need for welfare, but because my mother’s family, as she grew up, did need welfare.  My mother grew up one of six siblings.  Her mother was divorced when she was ten years old.

My grandmother, as a single mom, did what she could do to work to support her family.  With no child support coming in, at least not routinely or consistently, my grandmother turned to welfare.  My mother, even today, nearly 45 years later, recalls as if it was yesterday, the embarrassment she felt when people would find out.

As time passed, my grandmother worked her way off of the welfare system.  In just a few short years after her divorce, my grandmother, a single mother to six children with no ex-spousal support, removed herself from the system.  She just needed a hand-up.  She didn’t need a hand-out!

This is what Ronald Reagan was suggesting.  Welfare’s success is based on serving a purpose for a moment in one’s life.  It’s not designed to be full-time opportunity.  It’s for a season…not for a lifetime.

Yet, too many people have the cradle-to-grave mentality.  They believe the government’s role is to give them food, cell phones, houses, cars, money to shop,and anything they deem a “right.”  This mentality is what keeps people feeling constantly behind the eight ball.

It’s also the same mentality that leads people to believe that the distribution of wealth is okay, even necessary, so that we may support those who want to be on welfare.  Notice I say “want” rather that “need” to be on welfare.

Of course, the distribution of wealth is another topic for another day, however, it’s tough to discuss welfare without getting to the heart of the matter concerning continued or additional social programs. They are often related, sometimes ever-so-slightly, to the distribution of one’s hard earned financial wealth to these programs via extra, often excessive taxation, or as we’ve seen more recently, the government’s takeover of wealth.

This current batch of democrats and RINO’s, have seemingly nothing better to do than promote more welfare state status. There’s no end in sight.  And, there’s no initiative to help those utilizing welfare to get off of the system.  No, they continue to add more “rights” and more “needs” and more “must haves” to the list.  It’s an attempt, not to give a hand-up, but to give a hand-out.  It keeps people enslaved to the system.  And you thought the democrats were anti-slavery?

President Ronald Reagan, arguably the best president our country has ever had, understood that in order for the human spirit to be free, and for our country to truly live up to its potential, depended on how many people we groomed off of the welfare system.  It’s like the rising of the phoenix from the ashes…or just like my grandmother.

Lifewarrior