God did not hand down from Mount Sinai either the present funding level of entitlements and discretionary spending revered by Democrats or the present tax rates worshipped by Republicans. The First Commandment, which did come from Mount Sinai and which many of our representatives extol, states, "You shall have no other gods before Me." That includes tax rates and spending levels.
Most people agree we need to bring our spending levels more in line with our revenues. Yet too many Representatives and Senators believe his or her program or tax position is sacrosanct. As though it came from God. Many of our elected officials claim to be religious. Whether we practice religion or not, when we take an extreme position, we are making our position equivalent to a deity. Elected officials give lip service to the Pledge of Allegiance, but in practice they recite the Pledge to Grover Norquist on taxes or the pledge to seniors on Social Security or Medicare.
Andy is spot on, as usual.
ReplyDeletePolitics is the art of the possible, hopefully in the interests of the greatest possible number of the governed, not an exercise in religious dogmatism.
Moderation and civility, both in tone and substantive policy objectives, are big parts of what this blog is all about.
And the Krauthammer column is excellent - A good recommended read and I suggest we all review it.