Saturday, February 19, 2011

Evangelicals ‘Get Religion’ on Debt

Well it seems that the followers of Jesus have gotten religion in a whole new way: Debt is immoral.

Yes, it’s true. When George W. Bush took a Clinton budget surplus and turned it into a multi-trillion dollar deficit, and when two unnecessary and unfunded wars were waged so that we wouldn’t have to “fight them over here,” these very selfsame people looked the other way at the former, and wildly applauded the latter.

But debt, they now realize, something that happens when you subsidize corporations and wage costly wars, debt is immoral. It’s ungodly. Jesus hates debt.

So now we have Ralph Reed, you know, the guy who bilked Native Americans out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, singing sweet syrupy syllables at the Tea Party for exposing the federal government for their unholy indebtedness. 
“You can't give the Tea Party enough credit in terms of raising the consciousness about this issue.”
I swear it’s true. Ralph Reed actually said that.

And just you wait and see how these characters plan to attack this heresy, this unholy indebted blight on our society. They’ll start by defunding “Obamacare.” Then there’s that whole Medicare/Medicaid social experiment that we can ill afford. And all of that big pile of money set aside for Social Security is just going to waste in the federal coffers. They would much rather put it to work by privatizing it and letting the proceeds pay down the debt. And no more taxpayer dollars to support Planned Parenthood and pay for some silly woman’s abortion.

That’s how you end debt. Not by taking away the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy. The very wealthy need that money so they can build more McDonald’s franchises and pay minimum wage to an ever increasing supply of high school dropouts.

I have always thought it was remarkable how conservatives have made the Christian religion their own, and use it against whatever and whoever they politically oppose. But in this they have truly outdone themselves.

And hopefully, undone themselves.

1 comment:

JJR said...

The Presbyterian version of the Lord's prayer I learned growing up stated:

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors..."

I'm a godless heathen now, but I always liked that version.