Deficit Spending

The Selling of the American Dream

 

 What is it with the national debt? Is there a limit to spending or not? There are also states that are deep in debt. There is also a massive student loan debt. There are also a multitude of people defaulting on debt. All of this is being accelerated during the Covid-19 crisis and mass rioting across the country.

For years I have been pondering the seeming unconcerned attitude of most of the leadership of our Country. How can we continue to borrow at historic rates even during times of economic growth? Doesn’t simple math show us that eventually we will owe more in interest payments than we are taking in from taxes? Does government spending exist in a different reality than my personal finances?

Logically it seemed like we all should have been concerned as deficit spending was becoming the norm and we were entering the 21^st century. But indifference seemed to permeate our entire society. As the internet opened new avenues of commerce, borrowing became even more reckless. For a while the   economy seemed to booming, that is, until it crashed. But what was the answer to the crash? Well, we need to borrow more, and the bailouts began. Everyone who was anyone still got paid and it appeared like there were even rewards for failure.

Was the whole world going crazy or was it just me? Could it really be true that 2 + 2 was not necessarily 4? Is it really possible to borrow your way out of debt? First we were talking millions, then billions, and now trillions. When I raised the issue of a trillion dollar bailout in 2008 with a friend, I was corrected. “Bob”, he said, “I can’t believe you would exaggerate so much. The bailout was only 800 billion, you were exaggerating by two hundred billion.” I stood corrected, but the bailouts continued in spite of the growing national debt.

Since 2008 we have added to the national debt 1 trillion dollars a year. A trillion dollars is such a large number that it is hard for us to even grasp the size of this figure and the national debt is 26 trillion dollars and rapidly growing.

And then 2020 hit and the response to the Covid-19 crisis was to shut down the economy. So in addition to our stifled economy and enormous borrowing practices Congress borrowed an additional trillion dollars without a blink of an eye. And this was just the beginning because they are contemplating at least another trillion and Democrats are wondering why the Republicans are dragging their feet at even more extreme borrowing.

What if someone was to suggest that we need a reality check, we can’t continue this extreme deficit speeding, can we? No doubt the response will be, but it is necessary and it is working.

In the past there were restrictions on how much we could borrow. I can remember the battles and the partial government shutdowns, but eventually the restraints were removed and we moved on. Life continued and the debt ceiling kept getting raised. Disciplining congress to live within a budget that was based upon income seemed impossible. As a nation we simply could not limit spending because we are doing so much good. Is that right?

Why does it seem like deficit spending is working for our nation, but would not work for our personal finances? Why don’t we as a nation have to balance the budget based upon income? Why does deficit spending seem to be working?

The truth is that it is not working, that is if we are to consider life in the future. Let me attempt to explain why it seems to be working. To start with we need to understand the difference between my finances and those of this nation. Although I did not receive an inheritance of lands and money I did have an inheritance. For my first few years of life my parents provided everything I needed and made sure that I received an education and developed skills that would allow me to provide for myself as I became an adult. Growing up I had the advantage of many things that made life more comfortable than the environment my parent grew up in. Likewise my children had the use of many things that were not available when I grew up. And now my grandchildren are growing up in a world that is enhanced with many advances that were intended to make life more comfortable and provides a multitude of diverse opportunities.

Likewise if we are to analyze our nation’s wealth and finances we need to consider the accumulation of wealth that we have inherited. When we look at the span of history from the settling of the Pilgrims until now, we see the pattern similar to my own family history, only on a much larger scale. This land that the Pilgrims first encountered was rich in natural resources, but it was undeveloped wealth. The people that inhabited this land at this time seemed to have been living generation after generation with little or no change in their living conditions. As we are gradually, through archaeology, getting a glimpse of ancient societies, we are beginning to see that civilization had actually gone downhill in the Americas. The inhabitants of North America, when the Pilgrims landed, were for the most part living a basic subsistence life.

So what does all this have to do with our national indebtedness and the direction of our country? I want us to compare a snapshot of this country in 1600 to a snapshot of our country in 2020. If somehow we could assign a monetary value to our existing country compared to its value in 1600 we would realize how much wealth had been accrued over the last 400 years.

Young people that are citizens of this country are recipients of this tremendous accumulated wealth that is the result of generations of toil and hard work. Their levels of comfort far exceed the comforts that King Solomon had with all his wealth and wisdom. And all of this they have simply inherited without any effort on their part. It is their ignorance of our history and how the United States became a world leader that is allowing people to accept the foolish mismanagement of our wealth. For the most part, the present living generations are totally ignorant of the blessing of God on this nation and the efforts of past generations that built this nation. The result is a people that are arrogant, unthankful, ungrateful, self-centered, and ignorantly self-destructive.

Let’s get back to my beginning question of how we can continue to operate this country with deficit spending that continues to increase. Understanding the vast accumulated wealth of this country helps us to begin to understand. My “ah ha” moment came one day while I was listening to Tom Selleck. As Tom was sharing the plight of a widow whose husband had died, he described how the plight of this widow created a reason for the creation of a reverse mortgage. For individuals who are unable to earn enough money to continue to live in their own home a reverse mortgage would make it possible that they could use the equity that is already accrued to buy whatever they needed. Since they are old and don’t have many more years to live there is enough accrued equity in their house to keep them comfortably living in their own home until they die.

As you can see a reverse mortgage actually seems to make sense for old people that are simply living out the last years of their life. But if you want to keep the home in the family and use this home as foundational to building a community for an expanding family, then this type of mortgage is not for you.

If you expand the concept of a reverse mortgage to the vast holdings of the United States you can see how so many people can become comfortable with the United States’ deficit spending. It is in essence a reverse mortgage. When we were young nation, concerned about future generations, we only borrowed money for things like our national defense (defensive wars), building infrastructure (railroads, roads, bridges, etc), and research. We not only were concerned about our posterity, but from our earliest days many of our citizens saw a greater purpose for this fledgling nation. We were to be as a city on a hill, a light to bring the gospel to every nation on earth. We were an example of what could be accomplished when people were free, and our example transformed the way the nations of the world were governed.

Somewhere along the line that vision was lost for many people and we have produced the most ungrateful generation that has ever existed. Without the vision and an understanding of history our purpose has been lost or perverted. We are seen by many in this nation as a dying nation, a nation whose ideas are outdated. Without an understanding of the unchanging truths that were foundational in forming this nation there is no incentive invest in our future or care about keeping this nation’s ideals alive. So let us eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

No generation in the history of the world has had such an opportunity for such a large reverse mortgage. What other country has been able to tell their people to just stay home and we will send you a check for not working. So we spend a trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there. Are you in pain? We have a pill for that too. How about those in countries that don’t have as large an inheritance as ours, we can help there too. Money is no object, because our enemies are willing to lend us money to give to you. Isn’t a reverse mortgage just great? We can live in our own house, enjoy all the comforts this world can produce, without worrying about how to pay for it. Of course this only works because our posterity will not inherit a free nation, but will be slaves.

Does this remind you of a story in the Bible? It should because it is the story of the prodigal son. If you will remember he had a lot of friends until he ran out of money and then he was the lowest of inhabitants in the land. It was in the saddest state of affairs that the prodigal finally woke up.

Our nation can be likened to the prodigal, because it has forgotten that our wealth is the result of the blessing that have come from our Father in Heaven. We no longer have our Father’s blessing and are expending the blessings of past generations. A reverse mortgage only makes sense for a nation if it does not intend to live very long, and that is the reality in America today. Our nation is dying. Our only salvation is that we come back to our senses and return to our Father and beg to be as one of his servants. If we would do that, our loving Father would restore us to our previous position. Until that happens we will continue to witness the insanity going on all around us.

 

It should also remind us about the attitudes of the two brothers, Jacob and Esau. Esau was willing to trade his inheritance for one meal to satisfy his immediate hunger. Jacob, on the other hand, recognized the value of the birthright. This birthright was linked to much more than sheep and goats, but also included the blessings of God and the promise of the fulfilled purpose of God to bless the world. The promise of God to Abraham was at stake here. Likewise, the inherited wealth of this nation is linked to its foundational purpose to bless the whole world. The United States is more than just the wealth in its assets. Those assets, if used properly enable us to impact the whole world for good. This was the vision of its founders as they strove to create a nation built upon the principle laid down in God’s Holy Word.

It is the understanding of these principles that make this issue so important to those who have insight into the purpose of God. Just as Esau despised his birthright, there are many in our country today that are more interested in their immediate comfort than the future of this nation. These people despise their inheritance and are willing easily dispense with it. This nation was not founded based upon a particular piece of real-estate, or an ethnic people group. This nation was founded upon a vision based upon the Word of God. That vision, even in its earliest state, saw more than just the creation of a nation, but they foresaw this nation as becoming an example for the entire world. And this nation has been a blessing to the whole world, both politically and spiritually.

Again I remind you that many in our present generations have been deprived of the true history of the United States.  Also when they look around at what this nation has become they are confronted with the corruption that has defiled our Constitution. Government corruption has been revealed. Unjust judges are dictating from their benches. Rioting is going on in the streets and our cities are being trashed and burned. Deprived of the wisdom that comes from our creator they are left with a very cynical concept of who were as and nation and what we have become.

In spite of all this the vast majority of people are still securely in their own homes and view these things as through a window. The effects of a reverse mortgage have a numbing effect on their view of reality, because they are still living a comfortable life as they are expending the wealth of their inheritance. There are not many pioneers left and many in the older generations don’t seem to be as concerned with their posterity as the pioneering generations. They are comfortable with the benefits that a reverse mortgage holds for them.

Reverse mortgages exist because there are people that are benefiting from them. The old and dying that are not concerned about leaving an inheritance are benefiting. The lender also is going to benefit as they are the recipient of a lifetime of labor and will receive the inheritance. Granted the inheritance will now be of lesser value, but those who would have inherited the house are now your slaves and you will be the recipient of their future labor. Viewing this from a national perspective, the lender will control the nation.

Logically you would think that the people that would most concerned would be the younger generations. But they have been brain-washed. Their parents have neglected to make sure that they learned history. They have lost their identity and are floundering trying to find it. They don’t understand where they have come from or where they are going. They have been raised separated from the real world. The accumulated wealth of past generations has been handed to them with little or no effort on their part. Their education has for the most part been a pack of lies. They have been allowed to live in a world of their imaginations inspired by the illusions presented through the internet, movies, and government education. Truly they have lived in a world up-side-down, as good is presented as evil, and evil is presented as good.

So when they see cities being torn apart and burned it doesn’t affect them as it should. They have no concept of the effort that has gone into building this country with its entire infrastructure. They have no concept of what it takes to unify a nation or the principles that make a good society. They can watch businesses burning, because in their imagination, they can just start over with a clean slate as simply as starting a new video game. Their heroes are community organizers, protesters, and criminals. Their heroes are good at tearing things down, but are worthless when it comes to building something up. The terms of a reverse mortgage will affect them the most, but they are clueless. They have received everything they have with little or no effort and cannot imagine that this would change when the equity of their nation is gone.

The reverse mortgage our nation is borrowing on is much more complicated than a simple reverse mortgage a person takes out on their house. Even in our nation today there are still builders and people with vision for the future. The problem is that there is a growing number of people living a parasitic life drawing from our inheritance. The complexity of a nation our size makes it almost impossible to calculate when exactly our nation will collapse. Never-the-less if we don’t see a dramatic change in direction our nation is destined to collapse and great will be the fall of it.

Sadly the principles I have just presented are also true in the church too. The present generations are recipients of the grace of God and the prayers of past generations.  The patterns we see in the history of Israel are being played out in the unfolding history of the United States. The prayers of past generations are only going to take us so far and then we will have to give answer for how we handled our inheritance. Without a personal relationship with God and the development of righteous living we will end up destitute and separated from God for eternity. Reverse mortgages are only good for those who are dying. For those who desire life, we must be building on the foundation that God has given us through Christ Jesus. This is an inheritance that we did not work for, but we must not despise it. Rather it was meant to be our foundation on which God intended to build us up on.

 

Lamentation from,

Bob Gunderson