“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen .... And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her... Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” (Revelation 18)
Isn’t it sad that as I read these words, I think of America? Once a beacon of freedom and a city on a hill, our great nation has indeed become “a dwelling place of demons” as the above passage says. A place where good things are now oftentimes called evil, and evil things good. Leading the way is our ever-growing, ever-spending federal government. Workers have lost their jobs over unconstitutional vaccine mandates. Marriage (a state issue, I might add) is no longer protected as such. Freedom of word, thought, and religion is trampled on regularly.
If you are still under the impression that the federal government are the “good guys”, please have an honest look at our latest 4000-page spending bill H.R.2617, or the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.” Congress had to pull off a classic sneaky-sneak right before Christmas to pass this bill (remember Obamacare?). Why? Because another whopping $1.7 trillion dollars will be spent on a wide array of useless things (see Senate Republicans Betray America for the details), right after 4.5 trillion dollars were spent on our national Covid-19 response. This bill will add even more fuel to the fire of our troublesome inflation, food shortages, and worker and supply chain issues. Because we simply don’t have this money – all we have is loans, treasuries, and a much overused printing press.
There was a time when large numbers that didn’t fit on your screen had to do with outlandish things like the number of molecules in a human body, or the size of the universe. But let’s have a look at the size of our federal government’s spending bill: $1.700,000,000,000.
In the mind of our ruling class it probably looks like a drop in the ocean, compared to our current national debt of $31 trillion plus $174 trillion in unfunded liabilities. But me, I’m just a small guy. And it makes me wonder. What could one actually do with that kind of money?
First, imagine how humongous that amount really is. It takes about 54.000 years to even count to 1.7 trillion (assuming you can say each of those really large numbers in a second). But wait! There’s more!
- Imagine you would receive $5,300 just like that. And so would your spouse, your mom and dad, your kids, your neighbors, your friends, and... yes... everybody else in America! (but don’t worry, it’s all going somewhere else!)
- The amount of this one single bill exceeds the entire national debt that accumulated from our Founding Fathers all the way through 1984
- The bill is also larger than Canada’s entire GDP
- It would pay off Michigan’s state debt over 21.000 times
- It would keep the entire USA pothole-free for almost 300 years
- We could have built 17.000 Mackinac Bridges using this money
- Or, we could have built a wall along the entire US-Mexican border over 50 times
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying all of the spending in this bill is unnecessary. Many categories and line items are necessary for a federal government of any size to exist and function. Think of our military, for example. But many expenses are either unnecessary or opposed to the priorities of Americans in every-day life. But most should not even fall under the purview of the federal government! Local law enforcement should be funded locally, as should city, county, and state roads, trails, parks, and community initiatives.
Why are we even sending money to Washington to begin with, if our representatives have to fight to get part of it back? How much is lost on the way? Why are we sending billions of dollars (we don’t have) to foreign countries, when we have working Americans living out of their cars and skipping meals? Why are we wasting billions of dollars on pet projects?
Some of the Michigan examples that caught my eye are close to $1 million for a splash pad in a public park, another $1 million to replace a municipal HVAC system, $10 million for the expansion of a privately owned museum, and $2.5 million to get Ann Arbor carbon-neutral by 2030. And I did not look all that closely. So please, go have a look for yourself.
Back to my scripture from Revelation. Yes, I do believe we are under judgement. We don’t need fires from heaven for that to happen. At least not right now. We can self-destruct on our own just fine.
So what can we do? Of course we need to do what God always calls us to do when we’re on the wrong track. We need to change our minds and change our course. We can change the course of our nation. We can rein in our federal government and get America back on a righteous track. We can call a Convention of States to amend our Constitution to (1) impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, (2) limit its power and jurisdiction, and (3) impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress.
The Convention of States application has already passed in 19 states, and legislative action is underway in 11 more. We are getting closer to the required 34 states to make the Convention of States a reality!
Please join our grassroots effort and sign this petition to your legislators!
