Fiscal Cliff Follies

All this talk about the fiscal cliff has gotten the attention of more Americans than any economic question in recent months. A problem like this is made more quantifiable when a date is attached, January 1^st. It is like a cheap alien flick where the invading space ships have been detected, their speed calculated, and their date of descent fixed. Do what you can to get ready before the disaster is upon you. At least, as a Christian man, I know that there are answers to this, and any other similar conundrums, within the framework of Biblical thought. We know right where to go to find answers that work.

Americans have been instructed of course, that the cliff is not really a cliff, and that the fiscal aspect is as political as it is economic. That is when all the mumbo jumbo begins: there is no real cliff just a start of potential problems, congress will fix it (they always have), rules can be made that will change everything, America always pulls through, and the president would not let the worst happen to us! We try to accept the comfort, but are suspicious we are being played.

The sad truth is, that behind all the political drama, the fibs, and the obfuscation, lays a financial wasteland created over decades of imprudent, nay morally debauched, borrowing and spending. We are not rushing toward the edge of the fiscal cliff. Rather, we long ago went over that precipice. We are already plummeting into the unimaginable darkness of an exceedingly deep pit. The events of the fiscal cliff drama are merely the inevitable result of our former actions. As a nation, we are already so far in debt we have no mathematical possibility of climbing out. The federal budget deficit is at 16 trillion. Yet, that enormous number is dwarfed by our off budget, unfunded liabilities, estimated between 100 trillion – 200 trillion, maybe more, depending on whose numbers you believe. Unfunded liabilities include things like pensions and social security. This is money that should already be saved aside in untouchable accounts, invested for when it is needed. That money has not been saved. Our government geniuses have squandered it all.

We now face a confluence of at least four policies that are likely to make matters worse. The fiscal cliff includes, the expiration of tax cuts put in place under George Bush, a tax payroll holiday expiration put in place under president Obama, the implementation of taxes to cover Obama’s new health mandates, and the beginning of major, forced spending cuts agreed to in the Budget Control Act of 2011. All of these will affect the state of the economy, most likely negatively. Yet, here we are as citizens feeling relatively helpless in the face of all this, wondering how such mismanagement can happen. How on earth did we get to this place?

I understand that under the Constitution for the United States, or more accurately, under what has become its normal interpretation, we have severed Christian thought and doctrine from public life. We think we can separate church and state as they say, meaning really to separate God and state, the Bible and state, Biblical thought and action from civil government’s thoughts and actions. The nefarious result is that our national policies have taken on the look of humanist, man-driven enterprises. The morals and practices of this humanist government now display with increasing exactitude, the heart and soul of lost sinners racing from redemption. The mad cattle stampede away from our wiser heritage has charged us over cliff after cliff, reducing our once strong nation to the pitiable amassing of fools we have become. Even as we tumble through space, the ragged edge of the fiscal cliff far above, we imagine we will land safely, though we lack the integrity to stand and do any righteous act. The strength that once was ours is only a sleepless dream fading at the edge of our memories.

It is from this that our minds begin to wrench, to shake, to examine, and retrench. The Scriptures of our forefathers taught, not ambiguously, that, “the borrower becomes the lender’s slave” (Proverbs 22:7) and that, “the soul that sins, it shall die.” We have borrowed and become slaves. Our death as a culture may not be assured, but it is purchasing its own coffin by its behavior. We taught our children they could eat without working. Our God instructed, “He who does not work, also shall not eat.” We borrow and spend and eat, but we do not earn our provender. We desire the blessing of the plow, but will not put our shoulder to the yoke. We violate the immutable laws of the Lord but expect His every provision. He instructs (Isaiah 1) that we must maintain honest money as a consideration for the widow and the orphan. We, in our national rebellion, debauch the currency, inflating it in an endless cycle of thefts from those who cannot defend themselves. Our brains, perhaps on a winding path back, are beginning to rediscover what our more righteous Christian founders understood so long ago. I believe a return to greater wisdom is beginning. God is starting to turn us toward home.

With every rotation of this planet comes a new day. Every era of history spreads before us fresh opportunities for life or for death, for success or for failure. We have been promised (Psalm 35:26, 70:2, 109:29), with history confirming, that the enemies of God will be put to confusion. We are alive at a time when His firm promise is being poured out in full measure.

The folly of the fiscal cliff, in the quiet of our longest fall, may be the very voice of God. In the tumult, in the silence, in the chattering and the realization of human promises falsely given, we may, by His grace, awaken from our dreamy state. I am praying this may be so. I am praying that the rushing wind of the Father will sweep open our nation’s eyes and hearts. Nothing will save us but a return to His law. The impetus for that mighty work will come from heaven as the remnant of His saints pour out their souls in repentance and petition. The hearts of men are transformed by the word preached. May we be faithful, may I be faithful, to preach the word once given. May our nation repent. With faith we give thanks for what the Lord is doing.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach

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