Friday, February 13, 2009

Poor Mike Huckabee: "Congress Doesn't Like Religion...Whine Whine Whine"

Old Proverb:
If Money Is The Root Of All Evil,
Why Do Churches Beg For It?

Even Older Proverb:


Poor Mike Huckabee. He thinks that Congress' stimulus bill is the Democrats' way of being anti-religion.

(From USA Today, By: Mark Memmott and Jill Lawrence)

“You would think the ACLU drafted this bill,” the former Arkansas governor writes.

He urges people to protest to their members of Congress in the short term. “In the long term, we need to kick the Democrats out of Congress,” he says.

His pitch: Make contributions, make phone calls, forward his e-mail to 10 supporters. "Let those on Capitol Hill know that we’re outraged that they would take such a cheap shot at people of faith," Huckabee concludes.

O.K. So what's the beef about?It bans the use of higher education construction grants to modernize, renovate or repair facilities "used for sectarian instruction, religious worship … or a school or department of divinity; or in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission." In other words, giving money to organized religion (churches which do not pay taxes!) is un-Constitutional.

What Huckabee's rant really means is that he's pissed that churches (of the Southern Baptist variety) aren't getting any of the stimulus money directly. Even though they've been staunch conservatives, it seems America's churches never did think much of "trickle down" economics. They want money, they want to be tax exempt, they want prayer in all schools. They want, they want, they want! Rather greedy lot, wouldn't you say? Hmmm.

Let's take a tiny look at how the stimulus bill actually gives money to education and training:

- $53.6 billion for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund... which can be used for preventing cutbacks, preventing layoffs, school modernization, or other purposes; $5 billion to states as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures in education; and $8.8 billion to states for high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education and for modernization, renovation and repairs of public school facilities and institutions of higher education facilities.

- $12.2 billion for Special Education/IDEA to improve educational outcomes for disabled children. This level of funding will increase the Federal share of special education services to its highest level ever.

- $15.6 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500. This aid will help 7 million students pursue postsecondary education.

- $3.95 billion for job training including State formula grants for adult, dislocated worker, and youth programs (including $1.2 billion to create up to one million summer jobs for youth).

(Hat Tip: Think Progress)

So it all comes down to money: who's giving it out and who's getting it. If over 7 million students are able to go to college as a result of the stimulus bill, it's worth every penny. If it prevents cutbacks and layoffs, and repairs the infrastructure of schools - it's priceless.

Mike Huckabee where is your soul?
Oh, I forgot. It's in the church bank vault.

Just a thought.



2 comments:

RGeorgeDunn said...

Some of the stimulus is much needed to feed the poor and house them, but the reason for the poor is not that they are lazy. It is due to lack of jobs. The spending of money at the rate our Federal Government has done, especially by feeding the top of the fiscal pyramid with trillions being paid out by the federal reserve, inflation will be extreme shortly. If the dollar does not collapse, it will be bread costing 10 bucks a loaf, etc..

Gov. Huckabee has his heart in the right place. He knows the effect on our liberty and freedom by the empowering of our Federal Government, all unconstitutional by the way.

The Governor also knows how we got to this point and finds both Parties at fault. It is our tax structure on manufacturing and all production that has chased our jobs overseas. He has as his center foundational plank the Fair Tax Plan which would shift all taxes over to consumption which will make a level playing field with imports and will bring jobs and investments back to America and provide substantially to the people of America, making us once again the most abundant Nation on Earth.

As to our Federal Government discriminating against religion , especially since 1963 when the actions of our Government prompted an article in the New York Times, 'God is dead'. By singling out Deity faith for exclusion, the faith of Atheist, secularism, has become the only allowed Faith of Government. GOD is not dead, but the spirit of America is headed there.

Note that the spending talked about by Gov. Huckabee is in reality unconstitutional by the Constitutions mandate of very limited power for the Federal Government. The Founding Fathers purposefully set up the Constitutions Federal Government as limited to prevent the natural character of tyranny that comes from such power manifested. Now as we watch our Government ignore the Constitution readily, we are now quickly slipping into the providence of such tyranny as stated in the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin, speaking very highly of the Constitution, stated that it should last a long time, until it is subverted. Welcome to the days of Constitutional subversion.

DFV said...

Your comment was extremely well thought out. Thank you. However, I don't think the government is "singling out Deity Faith for exclusion." And just because Atheists do not believe there is a God does not make them an "Allowed Faith." Ideally, government should not think of any faith at all, since it governs people with so very many ideologies. It must make rules for inclusion, not exclusion.

I have experienced many people of Faith who think it is not fair for someone like Huckabee to bulldoze faith into politics when churches don't pay taxes. He is extreme in saying people of faith should work to "kick the Democrats out of Congress." What would we have then? We'd have a theocracy according to Huckabee. He wants a Reconstructionist state. He doesn't want people to know this, but it's one of several conclusions we can draw from the unavailability of his sermons for a span of ten years.

This man blatantly dismisses other religions and creeds as unChristian and therefore unAmerican. Religious intolerance is his raison d'etre. He eats, sleeps and talks about only SBC-type lifestyle. He could never be capable of leading a nation that has so very many belief systems, nor could he discuss world-wide issues with heads of state simply because his views towards countries in terms of religion would always be condescending at best.