Author: Mike Bond

To Label is to Libel

God calls us to change the way we look at people.  Not to see them as Gentiles or Jews, insiders or outsiders, liberals or conservatives.  Not to label.  To label is to libel….Let’s view people differently; let’s view them as we do ourselves.  Blemished, perhaps.  Unfinished, for certain.  Yet once rescued and restored, we may shed light.

-Max Lucado, from his soon-to-be released book Outlive Your Life

Pride is the Worst Sin of All

“Pride is the worst viper in the heart; it is the first sin that ever entered into the universe, lies lowest of all in the foundation of the whole building of sin.  Of all lusts, it is the most secret, deceitful, and unsearchable in its ways of working.  It is ready to mix with everything.  Nothing is so hateful to God, contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, or of so dangerous consequence.  There’s not one sin that does so much to let the devil into the hearts of the saints and expose them to his delusions.”

-Jonathan Edwards

Obama, Social Security and Galveston County, Texas

I just watched President Obama’s weekly address given on the 75th anniversary of Social Security.  Of course, anything implemented or done by President Franklin D. Roosevelt is praised, admired and drooled over by any Democrat; but I digress.

President Obama said, “One thing we can’t afford to do though is privatize Social Security.  An ill-conceived idea that would add trillions of dollars to our budget deficit.”

That’s confusing to me.  Certainly President Obama has heard of Galveston County in Texas pulling out of Social Security back in 1980.  (Sorry, no other counties can opt out thanks to Congress passing a law in 1983.)  What were the results?  How did those people do?  Read about Galveston County’s smart move.

I appreciate President Obama’s concern about adding trillions of dollars to the budget deficit.  But that seems a little half-hearted coming from him as he’s had the largest annual budget deficits of any president EVER.

Further, President Obama must also know that Galveston County invested the taxes (which would ordinarily have gone to FICA) in Fixed Rate Guaranteed Annuities.  There are no ups and downs of the market.  There are no potential losses (annuities have strict regulation guidelines).  Any investor that has dabbled a little in the market knows how secure these are.

So claiming market instability as evidence of the ridiculousness of privatizing Social Security is simply put: foolish.