Meet Billy Joe-Bob

I wrote the following article for Turning Point USA.  It goes into a little bit more depth on the subject that I broached in the video.

Desperate Measures

For a long time, the abolishment of the Department of Education was an outspoken part of the Republican party platform. ( http://www.cato.org/research/articles/gryphon-040211.html ) Today, such a suggestion seems absurd, but is it really such a far-fetched idea? In a nation where the federal government is $16,000,000,000,000 in the red, is a real remedy going to be easy to swallow? Is it possible that a true solution, by the very nature of the immense problem, must itself be far-reaching; that the serious reformation of a gargantuan error must surpass the political bandages of recent years; that, perhaps, the deep economic ditch that America finds herself in can only be escaped by a solution that appears radical?

Scripture leaves no ambiguity about the dangers of debt. Repeatedly God tells the children of Israel that if they would only walk in obedience to Him, they would lend to many nations. The prophesied consequences of disobedience to God's commands, on the other hand, regularly include debt. Scripture says that "the borrower becomes the lender's slave." Is it not a sorry irony that the nation which stands as an unparalleled icon of liberty among all the nations of the world should have enslaved herself to other nations in $16,000,000,000,000 shackles? It is more than ironic; it is sickening. Ten years ago a debt-free nation was clearly in sight, a prize within arm's reach; now, it appears to be an impossibility.

In fact, if America continues down the path that she is currently treading glibly, it will shortly become an impossibility. The issue has been avoided for long enough, buried under rhetoric, danced around with false promises and good but fruitless intentions. A nation can only walk in defiance of the laws of nature and of nature's God for so long before she reaps the fruit that she has sown. It is high time that America woke up, stepped back, and took an honest look at what steps must be taken to bring about a serious reconstruction of America's economic infrastructure. This nation cannot afford to continue with the semantical dances of politics-as-usual. She is fast approaching the point of no return. It has happened to many nations both ancient and modern. To think that America is exempt from the law of sowing and reaping is absurd.

It is time for America to fight for her liberty again; not just in the political sphere, but also in the economic. This nation is built on the foundation of freedom, and she is selling her birthright for the porridge that is temporary pleasure. She has marched down this path too far to be turned back by half-measures.

Are the people of America prepared to make these sacrifices? Are Americans ready to consider eliminating government agencies and overreaching beauracracies that never should have existed in the first place? Or are the people of this once-great nation too enraptured with their comforts and their food stamps and the great facadé that is American prosperity today to make these crucial decisions? Only time will tell.

As Americans, we inherit a legacy of sacrifice. It is because of that sacrifice that we enjoy the legacy of freedom. If we are to perpetuate that legacy, we must choose freedom over free stuff. We must be prepared to bite the bullet and cauterize the cancer that is a bloated federal government. Agencies and programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Department of Education, the USDA, the EPA, and the rest, are all beyond the pale of Scripture and contrary to the intent of the Constitution.

It's time to reject the free stuff. Of course, the truth is that one way or another the free stuff will end. Eventually, as Margaret Thatcher said, we will run out of other people's money. Let us not deceive ourselves. We like to think that we are spending our children's inheritance (and we are), but really we are destroying ourselves. So the choice is ours. We can go down in the history books as the generation that finally said “NO.” Or we can hand our children the broken remnants of a once-great nation and go down in the history books as another sad page in the annals of the world; just another generation that said “sorry.”

The choice is ours. Let's stop pretending. America is sick. Is the disease terminal? Time will tell, but one thing is certain- band-aids are not the solution.

"My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, if you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.” - Proverbs 6:1-5