Too true, that conservatism lost its principled grip on the Republicans, especially George W. Bush. He permitted every spending venture, no matter how stupid, to get his signature. If he was going to permit spending it, he should have helped Congress make efforts to secure taxes to pay for it. One reason John McCain was against the tax cuts was because he could not foresee corresponding spending cuts.

And, though I sincerely appreciate the Medicare D provisions, it will cost producing Americans for generations. Then again, the fact of Med-D may just more forcefully drive acceptability of euthanasia for serious(-ly expensive) cases.

If all this government was at more local levels, it would get more serious voter attention and greater probability of reducing government. But, the states have long been more ‘in on the take’ than conservative of either their own powers and constituent tax moneys.

Warren, an excellent analysis, although I think Republicans have been complicit in this mess too. Too much govt intervention all around.

One of the reasons I read CE is for the Catholic analyses of current events. I appreciate the “involvement” in politics.

Lucky

Good citizenship may not have its patron saint, though probably Saint Thomas More demonstrated that good citizenship must place God first as King of kings, or all our kings are but chaff off in the wind. Where does that leave us?

But, as well, I cannot think to carry on my Christian Catholicism outside that public square that marks our discourses on governance. For one thing, the culture of death has verily chosen most greatly and all too effectively the governace of our various communities in which to rear its ugly head against the culture of life. The ancient heretical sect from the bosom of Moloch has always been as secular – political – as it has been spiritual.

Father Sirico and the Acton Institute speak about our great ‘secular’ virtue, liberty, in relation to our religious lives. Relatedly, Christ tells us that ‘Truth will make you free’; I have to believe that we can understand and bear the more spiritual virtue of freedom as the partner-idea to liberty.

And, then, we seek liberty in truth, and we cannot get away from the how our political lives are affected by and have effects on our search for truth.

God bless,

NoelFitz.
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In necessariis, unitas; in dubiis, libertas; in omnibus, caritas.
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From the CE Money and Economics article of November 22 titled Catholic Citizens of Illinois calls for Boycott of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development let us quote:

Mary Anne Hackett, President of Catholic Citizens, commented, “It is well know that ACORN played a major role in the current financial crisis by intimidating banks through public rallies, invasions of bank lobbies with large groups of ACORN activists and picketing bank executives homes. ACORN bullied banks into making loans to people who could not repay them. To avoid vilification as racist, local banks were forced to make loans to unqualified borrowers, even allowing them to use food stamps as collateral for the loans.” These practices have caused the failure of several major financial institutions and the damage continues to reverberate through the economy.

This, in complicity with the Democratic act that started with Jimmy Carter to help low-income families secure mortgages, and turned into a force of coercion under Clinton. Eventually, these low-value mortgages were packed as securities and sold to unaware buyers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were permitted (and as protected by especially Barney Frank, self-designated socialist Democrat, and Democratic senator Christopher Dodd) to buy up these mortgage securities and place the American taxpayer in jeopardy. Both President Bush and Senator McCain tried to make Fannie and Freddie more accountable, and Democrats fought them off.

‘Greedy banks’ were simply ‘greedy’, i.e., profit-securing, originally in doing their jobs of providing mortgage loans to persons responsible and able to repay. Yon Democrats, Carter to Dodd, gave us our great fall on sub-prime mortgages.