WHY THE RUSH TO PASS THE STIMULUS BILL?

Why is there is a rush to pass the “economic stimulus bill”?   Why do we have a crisis?   Is it possible we have all kinds of sneaky stuff going into that “economic stimulus bill”?  You don’t think so.  Then consider this article by Newt Gingrich.

Obama’s Stimulus Discriminates Against Christians

By Newt Gingrich

President Obama’s stimulus bill discriminates against Christians and people of faith. The stimulus bans universities and colleges from using funds to renovate buildings where students engage in “religious worship.”

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint made the following statement after Democrats voted 43-54 against his amendment to strike from the economic stimulus bill language that discriminates against people of faith. Senator DeMint’s amendment would have eliminated a provision that bans any university or college receiving restoration funds, from allowing “sectarian instruction” or “religious worship” within the facility. This would in effect bar use of campus buildings for groups like Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Campus Crusade for Christ, Catholic Student Ministries, Hillel and other religious organizations.

“This is a direct attack on students of faith, and I’m outraged Democrats are using an economic stimulus bill to promote discrimination,” said Sen. DeMint. “Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for siding with the ACLU over millions of students of faith. These students simply want equal access to public facilities, which is their constitutional right. This hostility toward religion must end. Those who voted for this discrimination are standing in the schoolhouse door to keep people of faith from entering any campus building renov ated by this bill.

“This is now an ACLU stimulus designed to trigger lawsuits designed to intimidate religious organizations across the nation. This language is so vague, it’s not clear if students can even pray in a dorm room renovated with this funding since that is a form of ‘religious worship.’ If this provision remains in the bill, it will have a chilling effect on students of faith in America” he continued.

“Our culture cannot survive without faith and our nation cannot survive without freedom. This provision is an assault against both. It’s un-American and it’s unconstitutional. Intolerant and it’s intolerable.”

This funding restriction is unconstitutional. In the 2001 Good News Club v. Milford Central School Supreme Court decision, the court ruled that restricting religious speech within the context of public shared-use facilities (or schools) is unconstitutional.

Pages 164-165 of the stimulus contain the following prohibitions on the use of $3.5 billion available for renovation of public or private college and university facilities.

• (2) PROHIBITED USES OF FUNDS. No funds awarded under this section may be used for – (C) modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities (i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity; or (ii) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission; or construction of new facilities.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich urges Christian activists and other conservatives to e-mail and call their representative and senators demanding that the language discriminating against people of faith be removed.

Gingrich feels that if Christian activists would have enough courage and holy anger to e-mail and call their representatives and senators, a number of Democrats would vote no on final passage. We should demand that this anti-religious provision be removed.

Christians have not expressed enough outrage focused on the concept that people of faith are being taken advantage of by the stimulus bill during a time of crisis. They are being stolen from them when they are down and out and looking in good faith to the government for help. Instead of the stimulus we need, the liberals are getting the pork that they want — for themselves, their families, and their friends. They are pickpockets and thieves preying on the down and out.

It’s as if the Good Samaritan had come over to the man who was robbed and left for dead, bent over, and reached for his wallet and ran on his way instead of helping. It’s like the looter who takes advantage of a natural disaster to steal.”

• The liberals are taking advantage of a crisis, just like Rahm Emanuel said. His quote: “‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,’ Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s new chief of staff, told a Wall Street Journal conference of top corporate chief executives this week.” – WSJ, Nov. 21, 2008.

America is in crisis, and the liberals are looting America’s future to pay off their special interests. This is corruption of the highest order.

E-mail and call your representative and two senators today! The phone number where you can reach both your representative and two senators is 202-224-3121. (from here)

You think I am kidding?  You think Gingrich is just making it up.  Then consider the nature of the “crisis.”  Ask yourself some questions

• What caused the recession?
• What broke the economy?

We have this stupid notion that there is something mystical about the economy, but what actually happens is quite simple.  We each buy and sell.  We work to produce good and services, and we use money to barter with each other.  The miracle that makes this all work is honesty.  We trust each other, and we verify that trust.  With occasional verification, we take each other’s word that the food we buy is safe to eat, the cars we buy are not defective, the computers we use calculate accurately, and so forth. We even trust each other not to steal.  Think of all the valuables we leave about here and there.  We leave our homes empty and go to work each day.  Some things do get stolen, more lately perhaps than in the past.  Yet when all is said and done, relatively little does get stolen.

What does the government do?  We trust our government to maintain the value of the currency we use in trade and to punish the dishonest.

Now step back and ask another question.  Which party in our economy requires the most trust and tends to be the hardest to trust?  Is it not our political leadership?  Who in his right mind really wants to trust a politician?  Don’t too many of these people constantly make the most outrageous promises?  How often can we trust a politician to keep their word?  Do we not most admire the politicians who promised the least and delivered the most?  Is not George Washington most admired because he did not abuse the trust our nation gave him?

Can we trust the people who lead us now?  When government does not make the things we produce or the services we sell, how can it fix the recession?  How could an “economic stimulus” fix the recession?  Does not everything the government “owns” come from us?  If government taxes and spends our money, does that not  deprive each of us of our own money to spend and invest?  If government just prints and spends money, does that not inflate our currency and make it less worthy of our trust?

What does the government do?  It spends our money.  Think of the waste that results when government encourages careless spending and wastes untold sums itself.  If government just caused less waste, would that not be the greatest stimulus to the economy?  Instead, however, we have an “economic stimulus bill.”

If the pretext for the “economic stimulus bill” is fraud, does it not follow that what it contains is fraudulent?   Don’t you think you ought to know what else is in that bill before Congress passes it?

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