Business Owners Battle Obamacare for Religious Freedom

(Originally published by morningbell@haritage.com on 7/30/2012)

Two days from now, employers across America will become vulnerable to crushing government penalties for exercising their religious freedom. This isn't exactly what lawmakers advertised when they pushed Obamacare, but it is part of the Obama Administration's agenda—forcing nearly all employers to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization services.

Beginning August 1, employers must amend their health insurance offerings to include these drugs and services. And if they don't? How about a fine of $100 per employee per day for non-compliance. This outrageous policy makes it impossible for employers to afford the fine—meaning they must change their insurance policies or stop offering health coverage to their workers.

But for many employers, offering the types of services required under the HHS mandate violates their consciences. It conflicts with their deeply held religious beliefs. And the government is telling them that doesn't matter—what's more, it's telling them that their beliefs are inconsequential, and they must pay.

Just last Friday, a judge in Colorado gave one business's owners the first glimmer of hope that their religious freedom may survive this attack. Heritage's John Malcolm and Dominique Ludvigson explained:

U.S. District Court Judge John Kane, a Carter appointee, granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of Hercules Industries, halting the government's ability to enforce its anti-conscience mandate against the company while the lawsuit challenging the mandate continues in court…The case is in its early stages and will proceed to a trial on the merits.

Hercules is a family-owned, for-profit company with a self-insured health plan for its 265 employees. Its owners see the Obama Administration's message as "either comply and desert our faith, or resist and be punished," said William Newland, one of the owners.

"We have a President, I think, that doesn't know much about building up a business, but he certainly has good ideas on how to tear one down," Newland said.

Judge Kane concluded that the harm to the government from not enforcing the mandate "pales in comparison to the possible infringement upon Plaintiffs' constitutional and statutory rights" to operate their business consistent with their convictions. Judge Kane concluded that the government's interests in enforcing the mandate were undercut by the numerous exceptions to the mandate that the Administration has already created for other entities. "These interests are countered, and indeed, outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion," he stated.

According to the Obama Administration, however, the free exercise of religion is something done only one day a week in a house of worship. It argued that the "Plaintiffs' free exercise claim fails at the outset because for-profit, secular employers generally do not engage in any exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment."

Operating on this belief, Obamacare brings nothing but punishment for business owners who believe otherwise. Heritage's Jennifer Marshall and Dominique Ludvigson break down the monetary cost:

With 265 employees, Hercules' fine would have amounted to $800,000 per month—almost $10 million per year. If Hercules were to take the more likely action of dropping health care coverage to avoid facilitating the mandate, thereby forcing its employees into government-run exchanges, it would face a fine on faith of approximately $2,000 per employee per year, for a total of $530,000 per year.

Those would be the monetary costs, but the cost to freedom would be much greater. Marshall and Ludvigson note:

While the court order is limited to Hercules and does not relieve other family businesses or the many religious non-profits with moral objections from having to comply with the mandate's burden, Judge Kane's analysis offers hope that their pleas for the restoration of their religious liberty will get a fair hearing.

How did it come to this? During the legislative battle over Obamacare, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) famously said that Congress would need to pass the law to see what was in it. She was right about one thing: Obamacare as it passed was not fully formed. The law gave unprecedented new powers to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fill in countless details, directing the ways Obamacare would affect all Americans. With this law, Congress handed over immeasurable authority to HHS. And Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been hard at work trying to convince Americans that this is all in their best interest.

There is no reason to believe it will end here, which is why it is vital to halt this attack on religious freedom as quickly as possible. As Ludvigson explains, this first HHS mandate "raises significant questions about what more Obamacare will require on other matters of deeply personal religious and moral significance, such as prenatal care, end-of-life issues, and parental authority for minors' health decisions."

More than 50 plaintiffs—for-profit and non-profit alike—have gone to court against the HHS mandate. In winning an injunction that prevents the mandate's enforcement on its business while the case goes to trial, Hercules has demonstrated the strength of the religious liberty challenge to Obamacare.



The End Of Welfare Reform

The Obama Administration made yet another end run around Congress last week—this time, to gut the successful welfare reform law of 1996. If this is allowed to stand, it will mean rewinding years of progress that lifted millions out of poverty.

Before the 1996 reform, welfare was a one-way handout: Government mailed checks to recipients who did nothing in return. The new program the reform law established, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), changed all that. It required able-bodied welfare recipients to work, prepare for work, or at least look for work as a condition of receiving aid. Welfare reform turned "welfare" into "workfare."

At the time, liberals denounced the new law and predicted dire consequences for America's needy. They said the reform would do "serious injury to American children" and "substantially increase poverty and destitution."

There was "absolutely no evidence that this radical idea has even the slightest chance of success," they said, crying that "No piece of legislation in U.S. history has increased the severity of poverty so sharply."

In reality, the exact opposite turned out to be true.

After reform, the welfare caseload promptly dropped by 50 percent. As the caseload plummeted, employment and earnings among recipients experienced an unprecedented surge upward. As Heritage's Robert Rector reported:

As welfare dependence fell and employment increased, child poverty among the affected groups fell dramatically. For a quarter-century before the reform, poverty among black children and single mothers had remained frozen at high levels. Immediately after the reform, poverty for both groups experienced dramatic and unprecedented drops, quickly reaching all-time lows.

Still, the left fought the work requirements. But after legislative attempts to do away with them failed over the years, the Obama Administration decided to rescind the reforms without Congressional approval. This Administration has had no problem acting in an imperial way, rewriting law on its own, whether its new dictates are legal or not. In fact, Heritage legal scholars have determined this latest move is indeed illegal.

What did they hate so much? The reform simply reflected Americans' willingness to help their neighbors in need, on the condition that welfare recipients do what they can to help themselves as well.

Under the law, some 40 percent of adult TANF recipients in a state were required to engage in "work activities," defined as unsubsidized employment, subsidized employment, on-the-job training, attending high school or a GED program, vocational education, community service work, job search, or job readiness training. Participation was part-time, 20 hours per week for mothers with children under six and 30 hours for mothers with older children.

In the past, state welfare bureaucrats have attempted to define "personal care activities," "massage," "motivational reading," "journaling," attending Weight Watchers, and "helping a friend or relative with household tasks" as work activities. Expect far more of this in the future as no-strings-attached handouts again displace workfare.

Instead of helping people get back on their feet—from job training to obtaining employment—welfare will now go back to locking them in a cycle of dependence on the government.

President Obama has made no secret about his plans to expand the welfare state permanently. He has increased spending on federal means-tested welfare ("means-tested" benefits are doled out according to the recipients' income levels) by a third since taking office. And he plans to increase this even further after the current recession ends, calling for a permanent increase in annual means-tested spending from 4.5 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product. Overall, President Obama plans to spend $12.7 trillion on means-tested welfare over the next decade.

The welfare-to-work provisions of the TANF law were a real bipartisan success story—which is rare in a federal government with more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to poor and low-income people.

At the beginning of last week, only two of these programs had active work requirements. With Obama's latest order, the list is now down to one.


(Originally published July 18,2012 by morningbell@heritage.org)



Five Reasons to Repeal Obamacare

The House is scheduled to vote today on full repeal of Obamacare. Although many reports are circulating that Congress has already voted on this numerous times, this is only the second time the House will have voted to fully repeal the law.

Heritage has laid out the impacts of Obamacare on the American people—and according to a poll released this week, a majority of Americans agree that Obamacare should be repealed. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took to the pages of The Washington Post this week to re-argue the Administration's positions, claiming basically the opposite of the havoc Obamacare is wreaking on the U.S. economy and health care system.

As Congress takes up the issue, we present the Top 5 Reasons to Repeal Obamacare:

5. To stop adding to the U.S. deficit and debt.

Medicare and Medicaid is pushing the federal budget to the breaking point. Obamacare makes the problem much worse by adding to the entitlement crisis in the form of a massive Medicaid expansion and a new entitlement subsidy for households with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. These two spending entitlement programs will add at least 35 million Americans to the government rolls at an expense of more than $200 billion annually by the end of the decade.

4. To help stop Taxmageddon.

In addition to being a massive federal power grab, Obamacare contains a massive tax increase on the American economy—at a time when job growth should be the nation's number one priority. In total, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the Obamacare tax hikes would raise about $800 billion in new revenue over a decade. Taxmageddon—the unprecedented, $494 billion tax hike scheduled to hit Americans on January 1, 2013 —includes just five of Obamacare's 18 new taxes.

3. To preserve freedom, including religious freedom, for all Americans.

Obamacare tramples on individual freedom and religious liberty. One of the first examples is the especially controversial provision of the HHS preventive services mandate that takes effect in a few short weeks on August 1. After that, as employers renew their health plans in the coming year, they will have to comply with the HHS mandate's coercive requirement to cover abortion-related drugs, contraception and sterilization—regardless of religious or moral objections. This is one of the first chilling examples in Obamacare that shows how Americans will lose their individual liberties.

2. To keep health care decisions where they belong—with patients and their doctors.

Obamacare is a massive intrusion in the doctor-patient relationship, micromanaging how health care should be delivered to patients. When the government is given this much authority and discretion, it does not result in higher-quality care for patients. Rather, it leads to price controls and one-size-fits-all regulations that misallocate resources and will lead to headaches for doctors and problems for patients trying to access health care.

1. To make way for real, patient-centered, market-based health care reform.

Health care reform that preserves American liberty is possible and is direly needed. The Heritage Foundation's Saving the American Dream provides such a plan and would put us on a course toward a truly consumer-based health care system. A starting point should be setting commonsense insurance rules for those who buy their own insurance—individuals and small businesses outside the large group market. Congress should combine sensible individual health insurance market reforms with appropriate tax and Medicaid reforms for a fair and fiscally sound strategy to expand coverage to the currently uninsured.

Is Repeal Possible?

As research by Heritage's Bob Moffit concludes, "Based on Washington's record of health policymaking, ending or rolling back Obamacare is hardly implausible." Moffit points to examples from history: the repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 and President Bill Clinton's failed attempts at reform in 1994. Moffit notes that the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 was originally enacted with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, but repealed one year later. The reason? Plain and simple: it was the disapproval of the American people that drove the law's removal.

The failure of Obamacare is not only a matter of the public's continued opposition to it; the law is also a major policy failure. It is based on the false premise that more government, more regulations, and more mandates are the right solution to America's health care problems. Obamacare falls short of genuine reform because its alleged benefits increase not only government spending, but also the cost of private health insurance—on the backs of taxpayers.

To achieve a health care system where patients come first, Congress must not embrace the flawed and failed policies in Obamacare. Instead, Congress must use this opportunity to offer an alternative vision for the future of health care—a future where individuals get better care at lower cost without government controlling the dollars and decisions.

(First puiblished by morningbell@heritage.org)

US To Use China Bankrupt Railroad Plan For US Trains

China's attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model.

LaHood told The Cable last week: "The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million. In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don't do it that way in America."

His comments are stunning. Yes, that's how Communists do it: A few people make decisions for the country and control the money, land, resources, and workers. And how has that worked out?

"Rather than demonstrating the advantages of centrally planned long-term investment, as its foreign admirers sometimes suggested, China's bullet-train experience shows what can go wrong when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states." That sounds like a direct rebuttal to LaHood, but Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane wrote that back in April 2011.

The Telegraph (U.K.) reported in February that 70 percent of China's railway projects had been suspended, as its railways ministry attempted to continue deficit financing while facing slow ticket sales. Last year, a deadly train crash brought safety concerns and corruption at the highest levels of the railway to light.

The bottom line is that high-speed rail is like pouring money down a hole. China's official institutions aren't known for transparency, but according to the Voice of America, "Even the [Chinese] national research institution, the Academy of Science, reported last year that at current investment and estimated passenger numbers, the trains will never collect enough in fares to repay construction loans."

LaHood—and President Obama—advocate high-speed rail in America by evoking the image of thousands of workers on the project. It's part of their stimulus-funded plan to get America back to work. But once again, China's experience demonstrates that government spending on infrastructure has not helped the Chinese economy.

The Obama Administration has an ally in California Governor Jerry Brown (D), however. On Friday, Democrats in the California state Senate narrowly approved funding for the first stage of a high-speed rail line there. They faced a deadline for getting $3.3 billion in federal stimulus money, which drove the timing of the vote. The state is now authorized to start selling $4.5 billion in bonds. The key is that this first stage is barely a beginning, as CBS Sacramento columnist Aaron McLear explained:

The plan sold to voters cost $46 billion; now the state says it will cost $68 billion, hoping that the federal government and private investors make up the bulk of the cost. But as the non-partisan research group California Common Sense pointed out this week, when one factors in typical large infrastructure project overruns, the cost is closer to $99 billion, with $82 billion of that funding unsecured. If the Feds don't pick up half the tab the cost soars to $203 billion.

That's a pretty big "if"—"if" the funding comes in. One Democratic state senator who voted against the project exposed this reasoning: "Is there additional commitment of federal funds? There is not. Is there additional commitment of private funding? There is not. Is there a dedicated funding source that we can look to in the coming years? There is not."

Basically, California lawmakers are just hoping it works out. And they're ready to tax Californians—and the rest of America—to make that happen. Californians are wise to their situation, and they're not too keen on diverting endless amounts of money into this hole. Polls show public support for the rail plan has dropped below 40 percent.

Despite public opinion, LaHood declares that the opposite is true, like a character out of Orwell: "There's no turning back on this. We're not going to turn back. And you know why? Because that's what the people want. That's why... there's no stopping high speed rail."

But as the suspension of Chinese railway projects shows, there is stopping it when bullet trains collide with fiscal reality. The states of Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio actually turned down federal money for similar projects, declining to tie their state budgets to the money pit of high-speed rail. They realize that their taxpayers would be on the hook subsidizing the rail line long after the initial infusion of federal cash.

We need less centralized control of transportation, not more. Congress should give states more control over the transportation dollars their drivers already pay in federal gas taxes. States can identify their transportation problems and priorities much better than Washington. Secretary LaHood could not be more wrong.


(Origionally published on July 9, 2012, by morningbell@heritage.org)

Jobs, Employment Stuck

(Origionaly published by morningbell@heritage.org, July 6, 2012)

Today's jobs report is a broken record, with the unemployment rate stuck at 8.2 percent. The Department of Labor reports that only 80,000 jobs were added in June—consistent with other data revealing the economy has downshifted from slow to slower. This picture is starkly different from the economy President Obama promised of a strong recovery and millions of "saved or created" jobs a few years ago.

In 2009, the President promised that his "recovery plan" composed almost entirely of government spending was the only way to stave off rising unemployment. The White House even drafted a chart showing projected unemployment with the economic stimulus plan and without it—to scare lawmakers into voting for it. According to their projections, by now, unemployment should be at 5.5 percent. Instead, of course, it's 8.2 percent—and has been above 8 percent for 41 straight months.

This jobs drought is the result of counterproductive policies, many of which could be reversed immediately. But in the meantime, employers aren't hiring because they are suffering from prolonged uncertainty, as economists readily admit.

"When we get an increase in general uncertainty, employers tend to postpone investment and hiring decisions," Michael Gapen, senior U.S. economist with Barclays, told CNNMoney.

That uncertainty, which is now made worse by the impending implementation of Obamacare, the economic meltdown in Europe, and slower growth in Asia, stems primarily from America's date with Taxmageddon on January 1, 2013. The largest tax increase in U.S. history—$494 billion in one year—will hit on that day, as a host of tax cuts expire and new tax hikes (including some of Obamacare's new taxes) take effect.

Taxmageddon falls primarily on middle- and low-income Americans. Heritage research shows that families will see an average tax increase of $4,138. Visit the new Taxmageddon page to see the impact of these tax hikes on individuals. It includes an interactive map where you can click on your state to see what the average tax increase will be.

Though it doesn't officially hit until January 1, Taxmageddon is having a real effect on job creation right now. Small business owners cite taxes as their single greatest problem, even ahead of poor sales.

"Companies and households won't know what their tax liabilities are going to look like in 2013, what the regulatory or spending backdrop is. It's going to be an uncertainty which weighs on people's ability to make plans," Julia Coronado, chief North America economist at BNP Paribas in New York, told Reuters.

The President should be leading the country in the opposite direction—giving employers and individuals the assurance that these tax hikes will be prevented. Instead, in his 2013 budget submission, the President called for $2 trillion in tax increases, and he has showed no signs of saving Americans from Taxmageddon. Indeed, he's been almost silent on the impending avalanche of taxes, except to endorse higher rates for investors and business owners.

Last year, Congress prevented some tax increases just in the nick of time. The longer Congress waits to prevent Taxmageddon, the more uncertainty there will be for workers and businesses. This is an element of the economy that is actually in the complete control of American policymakers. They should act quickly to increase certainty and stability at a time when the economy greatly needs it. If the President will not lead, Congress should step up and show the public that at least one branch of government cares about creating jobs and growing the economy.

Obituary for July Fourth

July 4, 2012. What a day to remember. It’s a birthday. A birthday which should be celebrated with all the pageantry, joy, parties, and excitement befitting 236 years of the most amazing nation ever known to man. One loved, revered, a helper to others, freely giving to others without a desire to gain personally. But this year, it is a day of sadness.

For 236 years the United States of America has been the hope of the world. It was the refuge of the oppressed, the liberator of slaves, the feeder of the world, the example of man’s best efforts to provide life, liberty, happiness to all who entered. Immigrants were welcomed with the greeting “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

They came because of hope and confidence that they could build a better life in a country free of imperialism, dictatorship, socialism, oppression, and slavery. They came because the law of the land, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, guaranteed their liberty to make a life for themselves and the freedom to become a success or failure through their own efforts.

But in the year 2012, 236 years after its birth, the United States of America died from an internal cancer which ate out its heart and soul. It was a great nation. The cancer of corruption by elected officials finally reached the heart of the nation. After 50 years the lack of public will to find a cure, the United States died this year, and along with it so died the hopes and dreams of the people who lived and died to make her great.

Today, Independence Day means nothing more to the majority of people other than a day off, a holiday, if you will. The glories of what the United States once stood for will be buried along with the freedom and liberty which have been stolen by Obama, the Congress, and alas, the Supreme Court.. The life blood of our heritage, the law of the land, has been taken from the people, not for a while but forever. Our freedom has been stolen by the actions of a president of questionable background, but an undeniable ambition, for a dictatorship in a once great republic with himself at the helm.

Obama was aided and abetted by a Congress, both Senate and House of Representatives, which turned their backs on the electorate and passed legislation which was designed to take power away from the citizen and replace it with a government controlled by an egomaniac the likes of which have not been seen since the rise of Adolph Hitler. The similarities are frightening. The takeover of the German parliament in the 1930s could have been a plan stolen by Obama for the last four years. Bypassing the Congress, ruling by proclamation, detaining citizens over long periods of time without an indictment, illegal search and entry, are becoming commonplace. The control of newspapers, radio, and television to prevent publication of views in opposition to Obama’s is so rampant that it goes almost without comment. Though the names have changed, the results are the same. The specters of Hitler, Himmler, Bormann, Goebbels, Goering, haunt the halls of government in Washington.

It is sad, but the United States of America died last week with the Supreme Court decisions on Obamacare and Arizona. The Justices of the Supreme Court did the final act by defying their oaths, redesigning the Declaration of Independence, and disregarding the Constitution of the United States.

Yes, it is the Fourth of July, but not the Fourth of July of celebration. For those who care it is a day of remembrance of times gone by. It is a lesson to be remembered by an older generation who lived the glory that once was the United States. Sadly the younger generation will never know what the old country was, will never know what freedom was, or liberty for that matter. They will never know what they missed.

Happy Independence Day.

God And State Of The Union

The sun is dropping in the west for the United States. What began 520 years ago when Christopher Columbus stumbled upon, or bumped into, the Bahamas and Caribbean Islands made this country great. He didn’t know what he had found, but when he stepped ashore, he gave thanks to a Christian God for a journey safely completed. From that day forward, the history of the United States of America, its growth, prosperity, and traditions, were based on the teachings, ethics, and belief in Christianity and the strength of Jesus Christ.

At this point I can imagine the number of readers who have, or are, switching out of this writing. God no longer holds the place of esteem He once did in the United States. As a matter of fact while people claim to believe in God, few will admit to a belief in, or the existence of, Jesus. Our leaders, president, members of congress, state and local officials, have by their actions in recent years, have turned away from God, for whatever reason, and replaced him with pacts made with the Devil. If you think not, look around.

Abortions occur at a rate of more than 1.2 million a year.

Adultery and homosexuality are taught in public schools.

Perjury, lying, and falsification of records is rampant in government as well as in private life.

Theft, tax evasion, stealing from businesses and government is common place and little is done to curtail it.

Personal liberty has been curtailed and now restricts free movement throughout the country.

Personal property is being taken without justification.

Freedom to practice religion has been restricted.

And the list goes on.

If these offenses sound familiar they should as they are all included in God’s commandments handed down to us with mosaic law. And this is the problem.

We have ticked God off.

You think I’m wrong? Then consider this. From the 1607 settlement of Jamestown, God has played a major part in the success of the United States. The major reason for the immigration to the English colonies was the desire to enjoy the free practice of religion. There was also the desire to build fortunes, which provided the incentive for European speculators to invest large sums of money into transporting immigrants to the New World. The colonies were the land of opportunity for everyone who came, rich or poor. Everybody had a chance. Not all were successful, but all had one common cause, the ability to worship Jesus Christ and God almighty on their terms, not on, nor by, the edicts of others. The colonies flourished.

In the mid-1700s the king of England, George III, overstepped his bounds, raised taxes, enacted punitive laws against the colonials, and generally made life uneasy for them. On July 4, 1776, the colonies revolted, took up arms, and eventually kicked the British out of what is now the United States. They sent a letter to George, the Declaration of Independence, stating that he had breached the rights of the people living in the colonies. In short they said “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” They knew that God was involved in their prosperity, success, and lives.  Churches of the time, regardless of denomination, knew the same thing. Sermons were preached about freedom and liberty, which were considered to be gifts from God.

People had no question as to the influence and importance of God and Jesus to their well being. Based on that premise, the 13 colonies rose from a wilderness to what became the most prosperous and mighty nation which ever existed in the world.

Consider what followed. The United States fed the world, was victorious in two world wars, helped nations recover from disasters, provided protection and comfort to all who required it, believed in God and Jesus and prospered like no other nation which ever existed. We prospered because we believed. We prospered because we believed in God, and God was pleased of what we did.

But then came liberalism. Homosexuality, abortion, drugs, the decline of individual responsibility, welfare payments for non-working able-bodied people, free and open sex, openly corrupt politicians, were accepted as the new morality. Working within God’s laws was discarded.

Churches turned their backs to sin and corruption. Government threats increased. Freedom of speech from the pulpit declined, not only because of government pressure, but from fear of intimidation by preachers by a government which held tax laws as threats. The clergy, not wanting to be hassled, not willing to taking a stand for God and Christ in public where they may be held responsible, backed off. Sermons became non-confrontational. The church as a watcher of the public good, as a bell-weather of morality, ceased to exist. It became in short, neutered.

Today as a nation the United States is not the Christian, morally responsible country it once was. It has left its passionate Christianity behind. Jesus Christ no longer fills the hearts and lives of its citizens. God knows what has happened. And God also knows that man, self-centered, selfish, sinful, doesn’t really care.

Check your history. You will learn one thing. Believe in God and things are good. Desert God and things turn sour. God has no patience with those who turn against him. God has no place for those who defy him. God will hand out judgment to those who do not follow his ways. And when nations leave his bidding, they shall suffer as well.

Our future lies with God, good times or bad. Jesus gave His life so that no matter how bad our life on earth becomes, we can still be accepted to a better life after this one. But without the acceptance of Jesus Christ’s teachings as a nation, the United States will not return to the land of liberty, freedom, and prosperity it once was.

If you think I’m wrong, then you explain to me how we ended up in the mess we are in.