Crowley Star (Crowley, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 10, 2013 Page: 4 of 10
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Page 4 ★ Crowley Star ★ Thursday January 10, 2013
www.crowleystar.net
COMMENTARY
DEVOTIONAL
Dark clouds and silver linings:
The ‘fiscal cliff* resolved
The inability of Americans to step away from breathing
the rarified air of a “pure party line”—even for a minute,
even to the pass the “fiscal cliff’ legislation so vital to the
nation—scares me. It should scare you.
There doesn’t seem to be much com-
promise left in the body politic. That’s a
shame, because both parties have more
than their share of arrogance.
In all the fighting of the past few
weeks, our lawmakers passed the dead-
line by one day and did manage to do a
few good things. It would be nice if they
could build on that.
The passage of the so-called “fis-
cal cliff’ legislation adds certainty
to tax policy, which is good business
for America. The deficit was not ad-
dressed by Congress, and much work
is still needed to get our fiscal house in
order. I’m not looking forward to that conversation with
my grandchildren in a few years, to answer the question:
“Why did you do this to us, Paw Paw?” Most have con-
cluded that we need to tax some more, and I won’t argue
the point. I do know we’re going to have to spend less, a
lot less. And so far, we are nowhere with that.
There is a little good news in the package according
to Texas Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke: "...
restoration of the $5 million exemption level for the estate
tax, which was in danger of falling to $1 million.”
This permanency and the fact that the estate tax is now
indexed for inflation are positive for agriculture and small
businesses. Most family farms can now be passed on to
subsequent generations.
Extending the farm bill another few months stops the
permanent farm law of 1949 from kicking in automati-
cally, which would have created major price problems for
agriculture and consumers. Dierschke say farmers would
have preferred a new five-year farm bill, but the extension
allows farmers, ranchers and their bankers to plan for the
2013 crop.
There’s an old story of a boy reaching into ajar for a
snack of filberts. His hand was so full he could not with-
draw it from the jar. Unwilling to part with a single nut, he
stood there for a long time before he realized he could not
have them all. This time, Congress and the President left a
few filberts for the other guy. Next time, I hope they don’t
decide to break the jar. It’s not easy, but it doesn’t have to
be this hard!
Gene Hall is the public relations director for the Texas
Farm Bureau.
Gene
Hall
Texas Farm
Bureau
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Volume 26, Number 36
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(ISSN-1092-4965)
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Focus on results in order to reach goals
There is something amaz-
ing that happens when you
see your first grandchild. It is
something
you have
to experi-
ence.
It kind
of feels
like that
first time
you ride
the Texas
Troy Giant at
Brewer Six Flags
-and you
Fresh From look over
The Brewer the edge
at that
first giant hill down. You
think things and its comes
out of your mouth like, “Oh
my gosh! No way! You’ve got
to be kidding me!”
You really have no way to
express the wonder, joy and
terror you are feeling all at
the same time. All you know,
as you slowly tip over the big
edge before the drop off, is
that this is what you came
here for and you are totally
committed to something that
is impossible to back out of.
So, my first grandchild
got our new year off to a
good start. I got my first born
grand baby boy from my first
born son and both of them
have the same birthday - 22
years apart to the day. I have
been tormenting people with
pictures and stories of things
they don’t want to see or hear
about and I intend on driving
everybody around me crazy
for some time to come.
That ride at Six Flags?
Well, your new year is some-
thing like that too. There are
things you can do that God
put you here for and you can
be totally committed in a
way that there is no way you
can back out.
I hear people bashing the
idea of making resolutions. I
am not one of those people. I
am never going to cuss any-
body for having a vision and
wanting to change things for
the better. America has not
only lost the skill of accom-
plishing vision, but is actu-
ally becoming hostile against
visionaries.
According to Univer-
sity of Scranton’s Journal of
Clinical Psychology, 55 per-
cent of all adult Americans
are not trying to accomplish
anything at all. They have no
vision for anything. They are
not trying to better them-
selves in anyway. They are
not trying to accomplish any-
thing and they really have no
intention on accomplishing
any great vision, because
they have no idea how and
they assume somebody,
probably from the govern-
ment, will give them the
things they need.
Only 45 percent of Ameri-
cans are trying in any way to
accomplish a dream and out
of those few people, only 8
percent actually accomplish
what they set out to do. What
this means is that some-
where around 3-4 percent of
adults in the United States
are working hard to make
things better. By the way, we
are intent on taxing those
people to death now and
shutting them down.
You, I, our children and
our grandchildren will really
stand out if we are people
who are skilled at accom-
plishing goals. Here are some
tips I give you on this subject.
Set achievable goals.
This is all about vision. You
are called by God to be a
visionary. The goals you set
should be an upgrade from
where you are right now. A big
enemy that henders people is
fuzzy thinking, and I encour-
age you to focus on what your
next level should be in every
part of your life. I think God
loves it when we do this. Don’t
worry about messing up
Put together a strat-
egy and a plan. This is all
about sound counsel. If you
are surrounded by knuckle
heads, you will never get a
good plan. Sound counsel
is everything when it comes
to formulating an affective
plan. The Bible says in Prov-
erbs 15:22, plans fail for lack
of counsel, but with many
advisers they succeed.
Take action. This is
about having the courage not
just to take a step forward,
but to dedicate your life to
the steps you have to take.
When you dedicate your
whole life toward accom-
plishing something, it means
your life drastically changes
and you must have courage
to be OK with that.
Review your goals
and stay on track. I play my
guitar in at least four sets a
week in front of big crowds
of people and I have to con-
stantly retune. It is amazing
how fast we get off track and
when we are moving fast
we have to readjust quicker.
Living a life of dedicated
contemplation and healthy
reflection is essential to stay-
ing on track and completing
the thing you set out to do.
Troy Brewer is the
senior pastor ofOpenDoor
Church in Joshua and can
be contacted through www.
opendoorexperience.com.
M Afts-UUK
<§norb JwMfag@ool.cAMi
POLITICS
Spending won’t stop without shared sacrifice
Shelson
Richman
Future of
Freedom
Much of what govern-
ment does seems unfathom-
able until you remember
one thing
- the
politicians
think the
people are
morons.
Take
the latest
example
the effort
to avert
the “fiscal
cliff.” If,
as the
politicians
say they
believe, the country is in a
budgetary deficit and debt
crisis combined with an
anemic economic recovery,
why would they raise taxes
on everyone (don’t forget the
hike in the payroll tax and the
Obamacare taxes) and not
reduce spending? The anemic
recovery is explainable by the
burden of government, and
the budget crisis is explain-
able by runaway spending.
So Congress and President
Barack Obama have done
precisely the opposite of what
they needed to do, namely,
roll back government dra-
matically, nay, radically.
Former U.S. treasury of-
ficial David Malpass, writing
in the Wall Street Journal,
says, “The Congressional
Budget Office scores the Sen-
ate bill [passed by the House
and signed by the president]
as adding $4 trillion to the
national debt by 2022. That
assumes the sequester or
equivalent spending cuts are
fully implemented in March,
which seems unlikely.”
This is what the country
was on the edge of its seat
waiting for? Is Washington
full of fools? No. But it’s
full of men and women who
think we are fools.
America is smothered by
government, but the news
media are too busy to notice.
They’re far more interested
in picking political win-
ners and losers. That’s to be
expected. The Washington
media are little more than
the propaganda arm of the
ruling elite, and most report-
ers and pundits see things
through the eyes of the
governing class. Cable TV
programs are merely parades
of stale establishment types
who repeat the same old
cliches, while blithely toss-
ing off plans to spend other
people’s money. Fed a steady
diet of this gruel, most
people are lulled into a state
of semiconsciousness (at
most) or helplessness about
government policy.
The politicians have a
million ways to obscure what
they do, and they exploit
their options to the hilt. They
clearly are more comfortable
if they can work their will
beyond the scrutiny of out-
siders, namely, the people in
whose name they act. When
spending increases are called
cuts - and most of the media
help perpetrate the scam -
we are in trouble.
Washington has amassed
a debt that exceeds the dollar
value of all the goods and
services produced in a year
by the American economy. It
runs a trillion-dollar-a-year
budget deficit, borrowing
more than 40 cents out of
every dollar it spends. Its
central bank, the Federal
Reserve, creates money every
month to buy the govern-
ment’s debt, enabling Wash-
ington to borrow even more.
In a few years the federal
budget will be consumed
by interest on the debt and
so-called entitlements. The
American empire, all told,
costs well more than a trillion
dollars a year (not to men-
tion that it finances death and
mayhem in many countries).
This spending, along
with subsidies and regula-
tions that interfere with the
market process, is the source
of our economic woes. Noth-
ing short of a radical reduc-
tion can begin to address the
coming debacle.
The politicians, how-
ever, have no incentive to do
what’s necessary. Spending
keeps them in office because
it’s the largess that wins
them votes. The sheer size
of the debt and deficits, and
the burden on future gen-
erations, have lately worried
the people, but the popular
will to see spending drasti-
cally cut always fades when
it comes down to specifics.
Just as most folks want only
other people’s taxes raised,
so they want only other
people’s spending cut. The
politicians respond to such
incentives. So the govern-
ment burden grows, but the
illusion of austerity is cre-
ated. That, however, will not
fix the problem.
Now we prepare for the
next set of crises in March.
Sequestration, the post-
poned automatic and largely
bogus spending “cuts,” will
be back on the table, and
the Obama administration
will ask that the debt ceil-
ing be raised - again. Panic
will return to the airwaves
- although these are all
Washington-created crises.
Those who balk at raising the
debt limit will be accused of
not wanting the government
to pay bills already incurred.
For once someone should
ask, why is Congress allowed
to spend money it doesn’t
have?
Sheldon Richman is vice
president of The Future of
Freedom Foundation.
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Hinton, Jay. Crowley Star (Crowley, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 10, 2013, newspaper, January 10, 2013; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth808903/m1/4/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.