On the Germans and financial responsibility

https://eloquentgushing.com/2kjzt993 The next German government is almost certain to crack down on spending and drastically raise taxes after the lower house of parliament yesterday adopted measures that come close to banning budget deficits beyond 2016.

https://udaan.org/i8zobbk.php

https://polyploid.net/blog/?p=kilfhur0l Fr. Orthoduck wishes to comment that Germany is not known to be a very conservative country. The other way to put it is that there are many of Germany’s social policies that would tend to make many Americans gasp. This is a country whose unions have a less than 40 hours work week. Their annual vacations are significantly longer than the annual vacations than most people have in the USA. They have health benefits that I would love to have.

But, guess what? They are beginning to get this odd idea in Germany. A country should not spend more than it takes in. And, so, they are thinking of trying out this very novel idea. They are thinking of actually passing a law that their country may not spend more than it takes in!

Can you remember that this idea was suggested in the 1980’s in the USA? It was proposed by President Ronald Reagan. At that time, the idea was attacked as though it were an asinine idea proposed by some crazy conservatives. In fact, the balanced budget amendment was attacked as being another example of conservative stupidity. When President Bill Clinton took office, however, he quickly took steps to balance the budget and even ended up with a budget surplus. This meant that this country should have been ready to fully pay off its debts when President George W. Bush took office. The mixture of a budget surplus plus the Reaganesque idea of a balanced budget amendment plus a Republican President should have been a mixture that should have led us into some significant financial stability.

https://aiohealthpro.com/sj75y1m9 As we all know, President George W. Bush was an utter financial failure. September 9/11 can neither excuse nor explain the massive overspending he allowed and did not try to control. Worse, he fully violated Reagan’s idea that this country should attempt to have a balanced budget year after year. If he had simply limited the budget deficit to the money needed to run the Afghanistan and Iraq operations, many people would have accepted that.

But, here is the interesting part. The current Chancellor of Germany is Angela Merkel. She is the head of the CHRISTIAN Democratic Union. Of course, we could always argue that she is not really a Christian, but that would be sidestepping the issue. She is running a country, claiming to be a Christian, putting together policies that would be called socialist in the USA, and wanting to have a balanced budget. Frankly, this sounds rather good to Father Orthoduck.

Will she do it perfectly? Of course not! But, at least she is talking about the financial issues in a serious fashion. And, she is doing so openly and without fear. Does Father Orthoduck agree with all her policies? Nope! He utterly dislikes some of her policies. Again, that is not the issue. She is talking about the issues in a serious fashion. That is the issue.ÂWhen will we begin to talk about those issues in a serious fashion? All Father Orthoduck sees so far, in the USA, by both parties, is talking about the issues in a purely political over-hyped fashion designed to produce sound-bites with little fear of solid action. Add that to the serious fear tactics being used in the debate, and Father Orthoduck can only hope that the looming collapse does not happen.

https://mandikaye.com/blog/qsjl5bk May God have mercy on this country!