Hope, Change, and 99% View 685 20110728

 

View 685 Thursday, July 28, 2011

· Hope and Change

· Sowing the wind

· A penny saved is a penny earned

·

The Land of Hope and Glory

I am as weary of the phony Deficit Debate as everyone else is. The President says we must compromise: we must raise the debt ceiling to accommodate the perpetual increases in the size of government and deficit; the term must extend past the next election; and he will generously compromise by allowing the perpetual increases to add to the deficit without requiring that we give him more tax revenue in exchange for his indulgence.

Welcome to Hope and Change.

Sowing the wind.

We don’t do breaking news, but it isn’t so much news as settling “when”: there has been another plot by a Muslim soldier to kill his comrades in protest against being “forced” to participate in the unjust wars in the Middle East.

U.S. officials told ABC News an AWOL serviceman, identified by the FBI as a Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo, was arrested Wednesday after making a purchase at Guns Galore in Killeen, Texas, the same ammunition store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased the weapons he allegedly used to gun down 13 people and wound 32 others on Nov. 5, 2009.

As to why it isn’t news:

Abdo told ABC News in 2010 he was Muslim and should not have to participate in what he called an "unjust war" in the Middle East.

"Any Muslim who knows his religion or maybe takes into account what his religion says can find out very clearly why he should not participate in the U.S. military," Abdo said then.

Welcome to the joys of diversity and entitlement. America was not built as a society of entitlement and diversity. There was a founding culture. It was a culture of tolerance, but tolerance is not the same as the celebration of “diversity.” Immigrants were always encouraged to assimilate. They were not forced to do so, but the public system tolerated diversity; it didn’t force it. There were crèches in the public square at Christmas. Later we added the menorah. Almost all public ceremonies were opened by an invocation by a Protestant minister. Over time we added a Catholic priest (and of course some communities always had included Catholics, although most had not). Later we added a rabbi. All of this was to show some deference to the American culture. We would tolerate diversity as a monument to our liberty but we did not set the public hangman the task of destroying the crèche in the public square. We did not use the courts as an engine of destruction of our culture.

Then we began to sow the wind. All cultures are equal. There is no American culture as such.

We have coupled diversity with egality and added entitlements. We have sown the wind.

And we reap the whirlwind. Nidal Hasan and Naser Abdo are not the last of the pale riders.

Addenda

Please do not point out to me that the history of the United States is filled with stories of intolerance, and particularly regional intolerances. Yes: but we managed to hold things together. National unity is not a given. Patriotism is not free. For an example relevant to today’s story: imagine an Amish soldier who insists on his right to be part of the Army, but that the Courts prevent the Army from using motorized vehicles anywhere near him since the sight of them offends him; now imagine a court granting that, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding that decision.

We can endure regional diversity. The abortion issue is an example. There is no national consensus. Shall we send armed agents to enforce whatever happens to be the opinion of a majority at the time? Shall the Army insist that Mother Superior perform abortions in St. Joseph’s, or jail abortionists who perform them? Left to the states the issue is endurable.

The goal is a society that holds together, not one of some ideal perfection.

 

 

The 99% Solution

I have several comments on yesterday’s essay on the Deficit Dance pointing our that my 1% budget cut plan is part of a proposal sometimes known as “The Penny Plan” or the Mack One Percent Plan. I will have more on that in Mail. I will point out that I proposed this to Newt Gingrich when he became Speaker, and there was some discussion of it as a means to get us out of the automatic government growth that is built into the budget process.

It is important to understand that no Congress has the power to bind a future Congress. If this Congress cannot get us out of the automatic increases in entitlements, another can. It may require replacing every single Senator, Member of Congress, the President and Vice President, and every senior civil servant in Washington, but it is possible simply not to fund “non-discretionary entitlements” . The Constitution is very clear: tax and revenue bills have to originate in the House, and “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

A bill that appropriates $1.00 for all services pertinent to the enforcement of ObamaCare? But it need not be so drastic. A bill that says that this year’s appropriation for any agency shall not exceed 99% of the amounts appropriated in the previous year removes the “non discretionary” entitlement of 108% that is now built into the budgetary system.

Let the House pass such an Appropriate Bill, and stick to it. Insert that into every appropriation that is sent to the President. No exceptions.

This didn’t happen when I proposed it back in the last Millennium, but perhaps it is time?