A new video of Rep. Nancy Pelosi is making the rounds in cyberspace, featuring the House Speaker’s claim that “every month [we don't] have an economic recovery package, five hundred million Americans lose their jobs.” By her calculation, six billion Americans will be out of work by the end of 2009. That’s quite a remarkable feat considering that the entire population of the United States is roughly 303 million. Pelosi’s math skills must be contagious, since President Obama and congressional Democrats have failed to explain how their bloated legislation would create new jobs.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed out that Democrats continue to insert amendments that add to the bill’s $1.1 trillion total. “What people don’t realize is how much it costs to create some of these jobs,” McConnell said. “Here’s what [analysts] found: $524 million for a program at the State Department that promises to create 388 jobs here at home. That amounts to $1.35 million per job. [Another] $125 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. That comes to $480,000 per job. Surely there are more efficient ways to create jobs with taxpayer dollars than this.”
According to yesterday’s Rasmussen poll, only 37% of Americans favor the legislation–a decline of more than 10% since the bill passed the House. Families, who deal with real-world finances, have a better grasp of economics than our leaders. They realize that throwing tax money at bureaucracy accomplishes little if it does not help to businesses who do the actual hiring.
Additional Resources
McConnell: ‘There’s plenty of room to cut wasteful spending’
Faith-Based Office Politics
Half
way through his remarks at this morning’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama made a stunning, pro-life statement. “Some of our beliefs will never be the same,” he said. “…but no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that… [t]here is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being.” In that instant, many of us were struck by how powerful Barack Obama’s voice could be if he moved beyond rhetoric and harnessed all his hope, eloquence, and enthusiasm to lead this nation toward a culture of life.
Perhaps one opening for Christians to soften the administration’s heart on life is the continuation of the White House faith-based office. Fittingly on the day of the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama announced that the agency President Bush created would continue. The department’s name has changed to include Neighborhood Partnerships, as has its director, 26-year-old Josh DuBois. Apart from the diverse list of members, there is much about the council that is still uncertain.
On the campaign trail, Obama insisted that groups who seek government grants couldn’t disqualify an applicant for a social service role if their beliefs are incompatible with the organization’s tenants. Of equal concern is what the office will mean for domestic policy. It has been widely reported that DuBois’s team will help to shape Obama’s agenda on health care and “family planning.” The faith-based office could become yet another vehicle to push socialized medicine and abortion on the poor. While FRC is skeptical about the President’s plans, we are encouraged that he saw fit to maintain a partnership with religious groups, which provide valuable services to the nation.
Additional Resources
CBN News: President Obama’s Faith Speech
Hoekman No Spokesman for Global Family
President Obama has made clear his intention to finance the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), against the advice of social conservatives. Arie Hoekman, a UNFPA representative, provides the President with all the reasons he needs to reconsider his support of this organization and instead distance himself from it. Hoekman says the global breakdown of the family is not a crisis, but a victory of “human rights” against “patriarchy.”
Though he is regarded within the U.N. as an expert on social and economic issues, he ignores the basic facts of human development. A child from an intact married family fares best, and the country with the greatest proportion of intact married families will have the most human and social capital. Hoekman instead responds to the skyrocketing divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births with pure Marxism, which was intent on destroying both marriage and religion. Furthermore, Hoekman is undermining the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N.’s founding document, which embraces the natural family. In his presentation, Hoekman stated that “knowledge for development relies on openness to information and willingness to change.” The truth is that the advantages of the natural family never change.
Additional Resources
UN: Hoekman’s Presentation
