Cal Thomas: Theater of the absurd

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Today on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, Cohosts Kelsey Reed and Jonathan Boes talk with God’s WORLD News Managing Editor Rebecca Cochrane. They talk about writing the news for kids and building news literacy to better live out the gospel. We’ve got a short preview for you:

KELSEY REED: We need to consider this idea of what it means operate in the Lord’s world knowing it’s His world in its entirely. We are meant to go out and walk all over you know to claim this earth for the Lord. Cochrane: Habakkuk says tread on. Reed: That’s where it comes from. Tread on this earth. Go out. So also reminds me of another thing that was very influential from the days that my dad was training to be a pastor. This idea that a pastor should have a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. And some people need that to be unpacked a little bit more. It is still in keeping with that idea from Kuyper that we need to know about this world in order to bring the Gospel into it. And so we’re really taking that idea seriously with everything we do in this discipleship branch of World News Group. Cochrane: Our God told us about Himself through story. When you pick up the Bible and the very first page He’s telling the story of creation. The Gospel writers recorded the story of Jesus who also used stories, parables to help us understand what he is there for, who we are in his sight, and what our very good news for living is. So story is a thread that’s just important to humanity.

EICHER: Listen to the entire episode on the Concurrently feed wherever you get your podcasts. More info. at concurrentlypodcast.com.

REICHARD: All right, up next: WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas on the possibility of another government shutdown.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is the longest running show in the world. It opened in November 1952 at The Ambassadors Theatre in London. The second longest “play” appears to be the one we see with increased frequency in Washington. Call it the government shutdown. It’s less entertaining and costs far more to watch than a ticket to the thespian version.

If a shutdown occurs October 1, both parties will share the blame. Democrats usually force the issue, but now a few House Republicans are refusing to agree to appropriations bills unless they get their way on spending cuts. While their goal is noble, it is a fool’s errand because the votes aren’t there in the Senate and the president retains his veto power.

What aggravates is the refusal by members of both parties to address the whopping $33 trillion debt and the effect it will soon have on the country’s fiscal health. Social Security and Medicare have long been the main drivers of debt, along with other unfunded mandates, but politicians don’t want to reform these programs for fear it will hurt their prospects for re-election.

There are other less controversial ways to begin the process of reducing spending. The conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington came up with seven examples of outrageous earmarks in just the Senate spending package. While miniscule, it’s a start.

Heritage Policy Analyst David Ditch lists them:

1) New York Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand want to spend $1 million to the “WE ACT for Environmental Justice.” The program would link intersectionality to grievances based on race.

2) $35 million for balloons in Michigan.

3) $300 thousand for the NAACP’s Baltimore headquarters.

4) Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is sponsoring an earmark to give $4 million to the tiny city of Pelican, Alaska, which is home to just 98 people. That equals $40,816 per resident.

5) Pennsylvania Democratic Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman back a $1 million gift to the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia.

6) Senators Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine have earmarked $20.5 million for the tiny Presque Isle International Airport.

7) New Hampshire Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen wants $2.5 million for the small town of Franklin to create “in-river features for Olympic-style competition” for sports such as kayaking and slalom.

As David Ditch notes “While stopping one or all these absurd boondoggles would not make much of a dent in the national debt, it would mark a rare victory for common sense and fiscal sanity.”

Sanity is not the first word that comes to mind when dealing with congressional spending. They can’t help themselves because they aren’t spending their money. They’re spending our money and borrowing the rest. It’s a form of vote buying.

The Federal government takes in record amounts of revenue, so income isn’t the problem. Unrestrained spending is the problem. One can choose not to see a repeat performance of a stage play, but this seemingly perpetual scenario will only “close” when voters turn out the profligate spenders. That is unlikely to happen until more of us stop relying on government as a first resource, instead of a last resort.

Writing as Poor Richard, Benjamin Franklin said: “The second vice is lying; the first is running in debt.” If only more members of Congress would heed his warning.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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