The Economy Stupid!!

As a Christian, this issue is probably the least consequential to my Christianity, though my Christianity informs my views on this issue.

In order for the economy to thrive you must have certain ingredients. Here are the most important elements that must be present for a strong economy:

1. Capitalism- Individuals must be able to own property and goods, and to develop them to sell for profit. The process of production, buying and selling must be free and regulated by the market itself.

2. A non-oppressive tax system- The taxes on income and capital gains must be relatively low compared to the rest of the world, otherwise you will drive businesses out of the country in our mobile and portable world. There must also be a disparity between capital gains and income taxes (if you have an income tax as we do). If there is no tax-incentive for capital investment, this will discourage economic activity and will slow our economy.

Like many other issues in this race, the economic plans and philosophies of the candidates are very different.

Democrats want more government regulation on industry and wants the government to get into more businesses such as insurance, and health care. They also are in favor of progressive income tax systems which are oppressive and counter productive. The Democrats are for income redistribution to some degree because "what's the big deal? The rich people can afford it." As Obama told O'Reilly on his show.

Republicans for the most part are for less government regulation (not counting the recent real estate bailouts) in business, and seek to let the markets regulate themselves. They are also for lower taxes and a disparity between capital gains and ordinary income taxes. They don't seek to punish success, and believe in the power of free markets to create wealth and prosperity for all, even the lower classes of society.

This is another reason that I vote for Republicans most of the time, because I believe (in general) that their economic policies are more favorable to a strong economy, and they are more likely to keep tax rates reasonable.

The Role of the Government

This topic is logically prior to my first couple posts on abortion. I wanted to emphasize the most important issue of our day which I believe is abortion, and the issues surrounding the sanctity of life before this issue.

Government is not man's idea it is God's. According to the Bible the reason government exists is to limit evil (Romans 13). There are not many prescriptions in Scripture for government, but it is pretty clear that it should identify evil and restrict it. Therefore, the Bible does not prescribe any certain form of government, and Christianity can flourish in many different forms of government.

Here are the responsibilities that government has to it's citizens:
1. Protection- The government "bears the sword" which is the unique ability to carry out punishment on crime (hopefully that fits the offense). The government does this to restrict evil, and suffering. That means that it should protect the citizens of our country from countries and individuals that would want to harm us, and protect its citizens from other citizens that would seek to do them harm (prison system, justice system of the courts etc.) In our country the government puts together a military and gives them the right to defend us by use of force if necessary. Because of our unique position in the world, we must have the best trained troops, the best weapons and counter weapons in the world. I want our President's primary responsibility to be that of protector.

2. The second responsibility of the government flows from this primary responsibility and that is to create the opportunity for success. It should not give handouts and cause people to become reliant on the government (this is counterproductive, causing poverty and government reliance), but gives people incentive to work hard and be successful.
Functions under this responsibility include: Infrastructure- We must have good means of transportation in order for the the people to be successful. Ensure a free market- Encourage competition and substitutes, allow the free market to regulate itself as much as possible and prevent monopolies. Low taxes- Ensure that the government does not impose unreasonable and oppressive taxes on it's people.

Here again, the Democratic party tends to be lighter on military and instead seeks to reallocate those resources to give handouts to its people. We saw the reduction of our military under Clinton, which is one reason we have had to invest so much in our military since that time. To Clinton's credit however we did make some strides to reform welfare, so in that area he deserves some credit. Obama on the other hand plans to shift the tax burden more on the rich and institute an even more progressive tax system. He wants to do this to create a more "socialized" health system, and to give further handouts to the poorest in society- a worthy goal, but ultimately unhelpful both for the ones who pay and the ones who receive. When politicians begin doing this, it is a very effective way of getting into office. Lowering taxes on the poor and middle class (which is the vast majority of the citizens) and shifting the tax burden more to the rich wins (buys) votes, but is a wealth redistribution method that has never worked in the history of the world. We don't have to try this in America, we know what happens- see Russia, China, and other communist countries. This illustrates the main difference between the Democrats and Republicans. Democrats think that government is the answer to our problems, and seek to make it bigger and touch more areas of our lives.

The Republicans on the other hand are more concerned with having a strong military and less concerned with giving people handouts, but instead creating an environment in which people can succeed if they work hard or fail if they are lazy (This is biblical by the way- "If anyone is unwilling to work [which presupposes he can], let him not eat." II Thessalonians 3:10). I realize that there are people who truly need help, and the church has a responsibility to help those people. Granted, the church has failed in recent times, and the burden for taking care of people has fallen on the government. That burden needs to be shifted back to the people in churches, ministries and other organizations that can have oversight on it's efforts to relieve those who truly need help. The Republicans don't think that government is the answer to our problems, and seek to make it smaller (for the most part).

As I have said before and will continue to say. We don't need to become beholden to a party, but need to hold the people in our respective party responsible to be not just conservative in name, but also in practice.