This advent I've focused on the Light---light of Genesis 1, light of angels to the shepherds, light of the Star to the Magi, and the Light of the world, born for us. I stand in awe of the nuances God shows us in the same story so that every year we learn something new.
The media spent a year calling you guys Hitler and Hitler’s enablers. Who cares what they say now?...
A year? 9 years, and before that 40 years of bigot, racist, homophobic, transphobic, haters of the environment, haters of the poor, etc. etc. etc.
The secular and the Left in particular engage in no-forgiveness masked as transactional-forgiveness.
They demand atonement for your sins, heresy, and blasphemy with the promise you can achieve a relationship with them. It's a lie. You are either a true believer, a useful idiot, or an enemy that must be bullied, silenced, or destroyed.
Honestly- once again Trump is asking for an increase in the debt limit. when comes to credit cards, cardholders can't ask for an increase on the limit on credit card. To be honest, there should not be any increase in the debt limit for the federal government
I believe the social security bill provides benifits to individuals not covered by Social Security because they were covered by state and local retirement plans. These individuals earned beneifts from these state and local plans by contributing to them or earning credit for years in service.
These individuals did not pay a penny into the social security system during the time they were covered by these state and local retirment plans. So now we are going to spend $200 billion to give them coverage when everyone else currently earning social security benefits had social security taxes withheld from their paychecks?
Social security will exhaust the accrual account built up after the early 1980 social security refrom legislation (rasied tax rates and extend age limits). This will occur in about 10 years. When this occurs, everyone will receive a 20% reduction in their social security benefit check. Politically this will never happen.
The Republicans, lead by Trump, must make this abundantly clear and that we need a solution.
The only reason I can imagine for passing this bill is simple. Senators, serving 6 year terms, believes that giving state teacher unions and city and county first responders access to social security benefits will earn them a 5% bump in voters, enough to preserve their reelection.
I am mystified by this nations stumbling into fiscal disaster. Trump needs to recognize this train barreling towards his final year in office. JD Vance has to also see this coming. If he gets the next Republican nomination and wins the Presdiency, he will have to lead the nation through the difficult process of replacing/reforming Soicial Security.
once again, the can gets punted. as a member of Generation X, I am not expecting a penny from the Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. I honestly still do not think that Trump realizes the political problems of once again of kicking the can of not reforming these three programs that now almost take up 80% of federal budget.
Dear Gen X'er: Contact your reps and demand a self-funded private alternative to government SS. The idea has been floated repeatedly over the years, complete with spreadsheets showing how even at low rates of return, a self-directed plan's assets will > your government plan's lifetime benefits ... plus you control the plan's investments and can thus virtually guarantee your plan's reserves will not be exhausted during your lifetime.
Sad to say that the Social Security Fairness Act means a lot to me. I was one of those people that was mishandled and misinformed by the Social Security folks, and got a bill for over $44,000, and a huge reduction in my check each month.
Yes, it should restore more if not all of the benefits that were earned by me or my late husband. The explanation of how I was misinformed is in my response to Southern Planter.
When I retired in 2021, the best I could get was a phone appointment with a Social Security retirement specialist. Even though I asked several times about the WEP provision, he told me that I was still entitled to a portion of my benefits from other jobs and a portion of my late husbands earnings. When I got a confirmation letter, although I was very pleased, I did call Social Security again to check. When I questioned the amount the representative I spoke to told me it was correct and I had to understand that rules change all the time.
2 1/2 years later I got a letter from Social Security stating that I hadn't submitted the appropriate paperwork and therefore had been overpaid by more than $44,000.
Fortunately, I was able to get a face-to-face appointment with somebody in a local office who checked my paperwork. He said they had been "sitting on my paperwork" all that time. He explained to me how to request a waiver which I did get, however it cut my benefits by 2/3. Something I still don't understand is why they suspended my husband's benefits and are taking away that portion from my somewhat smaller Social Security benefits.
That’s awful. The SS Administration didn’t have any trouble identifying me as coming under WEP as a retired firefighter. Ironically, if the U.S. government hadn’t started (during my time) taking SS out of my National Guard pay, I wouldn’t have the 40 quarters to get any SS.
I wish they would have done a better job. I think in-person appointments really help. The husband of a friend of mine, who also works for the same county from which I retired, just got his letter asking for repayment. Unfortunately, their only option is over the phone appointments. I really think that does add to the confusion, and it makes the submission of documents more complicated.
Hi Frank. Was not aware of the nuanced nature of names in Genesis 3 & 4. Interesting twist in potential ways to read hidden allegory into narrative. Not really confused, myself, just fascinated by the subtleties I miss that, in this case, Erick brought forth.
Erick points out that a handful (all it takes) of Republican Congress members will not vote for any spending bill unless it cuts actual spending. Enough other Republicans and the Senate will never pass that. So, what is our putative ideal Speaker to do?
someone who will tell the democrats to go shove it. We dont need another John Boehner that got a coalition of dems and RHINOS to essentially pass a progressive agenda.
Put forth a bill that gives what those 6 or so republicans want and let the rhinos come out and vote against it.
As a physician, I have to disagree on the CR. The compromise legislation had the first tiny raise for physicians from Medicare after several years of cuts at the height of inflation. Without this bill, doctors face another devastating cut Jan 1st. Very disappointed in my party for killing a bipartisan compromise.
so then cut another bloated program like the one to investigate the investigators. 25 million. Im sure that can be spread out to cover the cost of raising wages for the Medicare professionals.
If each of these provisions was presented as a stand-alone bill, and voted up/down on its merits, your problem likely would not exist.
As long as legitimate issues continue to be dumped into the punchbowl along with pork and funds for absurd entitlements, "NAY" is the only permissible vote on compromise legislation packages. We do not budget for our businesses nor our households that way.
SO TRUE! Government wouldn’t be so bloated and corrupt if they would do stand alone bills.
Social Security wouldn’t be in the fix it is if these shisters would quit robbing from peter to pay paul with Social Security funds!
Medicare is not cheap but again it isn’t a level playing field when it comes to medications or care in general - it’s all about negotiations and which insurance company does a better job.
Different subject but Congress continues to look at limiting Supreme Court Justices terms; they need to look at limiting their own terms and ages! These decrepit old fogies need to go!!
I fully agree that you should get your raise, BUT if it was signed and on its way, Millions of other that served this Nation would have done without NO raise and some even with cuts. We have nothing but a bunch of rich people at the head of a Nation that WAS for the people, by the people, BUT NO MORE. IF!!!!! we can ever get this Nation back to where it was close to back in the 1950's and thru the 1970's, we may be heading back to what this Nation was originally set up to be.
Blessings to all this Christmas and Happy New Year.
I have lived through the 30's to now and we had some very hard times in the 40's and 50's on the farms and through out a lot of other things. But it was in the early to mid 50's that things really turned around and got better until we started getting people in WASHINGTON that were there for just for them. Not us. And today it is worst than I have ever seen it.
Mike Johnson is a good man but may never be a good speaker. That’s because the whole world knows that he is driven by a sense of duty and that duty requires keeping the government open and funded no matter what. Since the Dems know this he only gets bad deals.
Erick: Regarding your statement about the MSM calling Trump "Hitler," do you (or anyone who comments here) have any actual examples of them doing that? I did read several opinion pieces that compared some of the populist political techniques used by Trump and his team during his rise to those used by Hitler during his, which is obvious to any student of the history of Nazism, but I do not recall any claiming he was similarly evil in any other way. There's big difference. I am just trying to figure out if the accusation that "they called him Hitler" is just out of context hyperbole being voiced by those on the right, or if there is any actual substance to it.
Since April 2017, I've been a never-Trumper (after voting for him in November 2016). What initiated this change was my reading of Eric Metaxis's book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. (BTW, a movie adaptation of the book was released last month.)
The book's synopsis - "Who better to face the greatest evil of the 20th-century than a humble man of faith?
As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and author. In his blockbuster, New York Times bestselling biography, Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer’s life—the theologian and the spy—and draws them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. Metaxas presents the fullest accounting of Bonhoeffer’s heart-wrenching decision to leave the safe haven of America to return to Hitler’s Germany and sheds new light on Bonhoeffer’s involvement in the famous Valkyrie plot and in “Operation 7,” the effort to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland. In a deeply moving narrative, Metaxas uses previously unavailable documents including personal letters, detailed journal entries, and firsthand personal accounts to reveal dimensions of Bonhoeffer's life and theology never before seen."
While I don't equate Trump to Hitler per se, I do recognize parallels in behavior. Never forget that everything Hitler did was "legal" as he used his sycophants in the German legislative body 'Greater German Reichstag' to rubber-stamp everything he wanted to do. History has given us the gift of knowing the consequences of that failed experiment.
As a country, working across the aisle, we can find common ground to chart the effective use of our taxes as investments in the health and welfare of us all. The us/them, from both sides, needs to end so that we can govern through common-sense investments.
Currently listening to the book and am fascinated by the complexities of Bonhoeffer's mind! (And completely annoyed by the narrator who pronounces the name Bon-hoofer. I get that the umlaut is challenging for native American speakers, but "hoofer?")
When you started this post I thought I knew where you were going. When you mentioned Cain and Abel again I thought I knew where you were going. Thanks for surprising me with a fun insight. Friday should be fun. Merry Christmas.
I’m glad it’s dead. I called my congressman. Why can’t they learn that we are not a credit card with no limits? When you are on a budget you go to the store to buy the necessities. And if Obamacare is so wonderful why isn’t absolutely every federal employee on it already.
But the angel said to them “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, “ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord.”
That is a good insight Erick - never thought of it before. Here’s my own extension - Jacob was a shepherd, Moses and David. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Joseph told his brothers to tell the Egyptians they were shepherds because shepherds were despised by the ruling class.
While DNC democrats are in an uproar over the very idea that Biden was one brick short of a load on Day One.
While they are fessing up to his dementia they might as well fess up to the Climate lie. Cleansing the soul might keep them out of Hell.
This advent I've focused on the Light---light of Genesis 1, light of angels to the shepherds, light of the Star to the Magi, and the Light of the world, born for us. I stand in awe of the nuances God shows us in the same story so that every year we learn something new.
The deal is dead, as it should be. The dems are going on mic trying to score a political goal, wont work either.
The people know who is at fault.
Now as to Mike Johnson. Talk about someone I wouldn't want to be right now.
The media spent a year calling you guys Hitler and Hitler’s enablers. Who cares what they say now?...
A year? 9 years, and before that 40 years of bigot, racist, homophobic, transphobic, haters of the environment, haters of the poor, etc. etc. etc.
The secular and the Left in particular engage in no-forgiveness masked as transactional-forgiveness.
They demand atonement for your sins, heresy, and blasphemy with the promise you can achieve a relationship with them. It's a lie. You are either a true believer, a useful idiot, or an enemy that must be bullied, silenced, or destroyed.
Honestly- once again Trump is asking for an increase in the debt limit. when comes to credit cards, cardholders can't ask for an increase on the limit on credit card. To be honest, there should not be any increase in the debt limit for the federal government
I may be mistaken.
I believe the social security bill provides benifits to individuals not covered by Social Security because they were covered by state and local retirement plans. These individuals earned beneifts from these state and local plans by contributing to them or earning credit for years in service.
These individuals did not pay a penny into the social security system during the time they were covered by these state and local retirment plans. So now we are going to spend $200 billion to give them coverage when everyone else currently earning social security benefits had social security taxes withheld from their paychecks?
Social security will exhaust the accrual account built up after the early 1980 social security refrom legislation (rasied tax rates and extend age limits). This will occur in about 10 years. When this occurs, everyone will receive a 20% reduction in their social security benefit check. Politically this will never happen.
The Republicans, lead by Trump, must make this abundantly clear and that we need a solution.
The only reason I can imagine for passing this bill is simple. Senators, serving 6 year terms, believes that giving state teacher unions and city and county first responders access to social security benefits will earn them a 5% bump in voters, enough to preserve their reelection.
I am mystified by this nations stumbling into fiscal disaster. Trump needs to recognize this train barreling towards his final year in office. JD Vance has to also see this coming. If he gets the next Republican nomination and wins the Presdiency, he will have to lead the nation through the difficult process of replacing/reforming Soicial Security.
once again, the can gets punted. as a member of Generation X, I am not expecting a penny from the Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. I honestly still do not think that Trump realizes the political problems of once again of kicking the can of not reforming these three programs that now almost take up 80% of federal budget.
Dear Gen X'er: Contact your reps and demand a self-funded private alternative to government SS. The idea has been floated repeatedly over the years, complete with spreadsheets showing how even at low rates of return, a self-directed plan's assets will > your government plan's lifetime benefits ... plus you control the plan's investments and can thus virtually guarantee your plan's reserves will not be exhausted during your lifetime.
Sad to say that the Social Security Fairness Act means a lot to me. I was one of those people that was mishandled and misinformed by the Social Security folks, and got a bill for over $44,000, and a huge reduction in my check each month.
How were you misinformed? How does the Social Security Fairness Act restore beneifits you earned by contributing taxes into the system?
Yes, it should restore more if not all of the benefits that were earned by me or my late husband. The explanation of how I was misinformed is in my response to Southern Planter.
That's terrible. I would love to hear some details of your situation that resulted in a bill for $44,000.
When I retired in 2021, the best I could get was a phone appointment with a Social Security retirement specialist. Even though I asked several times about the WEP provision, he told me that I was still entitled to a portion of my benefits from other jobs and a portion of my late husbands earnings. When I got a confirmation letter, although I was very pleased, I did call Social Security again to check. When I questioned the amount the representative I spoke to told me it was correct and I had to understand that rules change all the time.
2 1/2 years later I got a letter from Social Security stating that I hadn't submitted the appropriate paperwork and therefore had been overpaid by more than $44,000.
Fortunately, I was able to get a face-to-face appointment with somebody in a local office who checked my paperwork. He said they had been "sitting on my paperwork" all that time. He explained to me how to request a waiver which I did get, however it cut my benefits by 2/3. Something I still don't understand is why they suspended my husband's benefits and are taking away that portion from my somewhat smaller Social Security benefits.
Thank you for responding. Terrible situation. Hope you can get a better explanation from them some time soon.
That’s awful. The SS Administration didn’t have any trouble identifying me as coming under WEP as a retired firefighter. Ironically, if the U.S. government hadn’t started (during my time) taking SS out of my National Guard pay, I wouldn’t have the 40 quarters to get any SS.
I wish they would have done a better job. I think in-person appointments really help. The husband of a friend of mine, who also works for the same county from which I retired, just got his letter asking for repayment. Unfortunately, their only option is over the phone appointments. I really think that does add to the confusion, and it makes the submission of documents more complicated.
Good luck. Maybe the current bill will solve your issue.
Good. Morning I wasn’t confused about the Bible I sure am now Thanks Erick
Hi Frank. Was not aware of the nuanced nature of names in Genesis 3 & 4. Interesting twist in potential ways to read hidden allegory into narrative. Not really confused, myself, just fascinated by the subtleties I miss that, in this case, Erick brought forth.
Erick points out that a handful (all it takes) of Republican Congress members will not vote for any spending bill unless it cuts actual spending. Enough other Republicans and the Senate will never pass that. So, what is our putative ideal Speaker to do?
someone who will tell the democrats to go shove it. We dont need another John Boehner that got a coalition of dems and RHINOS to essentially pass a progressive agenda.
Put forth a bill that gives what those 6 or so republicans want and let the rhinos come out and vote against it.
As a physician, I have to disagree on the CR. The compromise legislation had the first tiny raise for physicians from Medicare after several years of cuts at the height of inflation. Without this bill, doctors face another devastating cut Jan 1st. Very disappointed in my party for killing a bipartisan compromise.
so then cut another bloated program like the one to investigate the investigators. 25 million. Im sure that can be spread out to cover the cost of raising wages for the Medicare professionals.
If each of these provisions was presented as a stand-alone bill, and voted up/down on its merits, your problem likely would not exist.
As long as legitimate issues continue to be dumped into the punchbowl along with pork and funds for absurd entitlements, "NAY" is the only permissible vote on compromise legislation packages. We do not budget for our businesses nor our households that way.
SO TRUE! Government wouldn’t be so bloated and corrupt if they would do stand alone bills.
Social Security wouldn’t be in the fix it is if these shisters would quit robbing from peter to pay paul with Social Security funds!
Medicare is not cheap but again it isn’t a level playing field when it comes to medications or care in general - it’s all about negotiations and which insurance company does a better job.
Different subject but Congress continues to look at limiting Supreme Court Justices terms; they need to look at limiting their own terms and ages! These decrepit old fogies need to go!!
I fully agree that you should get your raise, BUT if it was signed and on its way, Millions of other that served this Nation would have done without NO raise and some even with cuts. We have nothing but a bunch of rich people at the head of a Nation that WAS for the people, by the people, BUT NO MORE. IF!!!!! we can ever get this Nation back to where it was close to back in the 1950's and thru the 1970's, we may be heading back to what this Nation was originally set up to be.
Blessings to all this Christmas and Happy New Year.
I lived through the 70's. Don't recall it being so great.
I have lived through the 30's to now and we had some very hard times in the 40's and 50's on the farms and through out a lot of other things. But it was in the early to mid 50's that things really turned around and got better until we started getting people in WASHINGTON that were there for just for them. Not us. And today it is worst than I have ever seen it.
Mike Johnson is a good man but may never be a good speaker. That’s because the whole world knows that he is driven by a sense of duty and that duty requires keeping the government open and funded no matter what. Since the Dems know this he only gets bad deals.
Probably true. Being a Republican with a sense of duty these days is a sure way to get primaried.
Erick: Regarding your statement about the MSM calling Trump "Hitler," do you (or anyone who comments here) have any actual examples of them doing that? I did read several opinion pieces that compared some of the populist political techniques used by Trump and his team during his rise to those used by Hitler during his, which is obvious to any student of the history of Nazism, but I do not recall any claiming he was similarly evil in any other way. There's big difference. I am just trying to figure out if the accusation that "they called him Hitler" is just out of context hyperbole being voiced by those on the right, or if there is any actual substance to it.
Since April 2017, I've been a never-Trumper (after voting for him in November 2016). What initiated this change was my reading of Eric Metaxis's book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. (BTW, a movie adaptation of the book was released last month.)
The book's synopsis - "Who better to face the greatest evil of the 20th-century than a humble man of faith?
As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and author. In his blockbuster, New York Times bestselling biography, Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer’s life—the theologian and the spy—and draws them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. Metaxas presents the fullest accounting of Bonhoeffer’s heart-wrenching decision to leave the safe haven of America to return to Hitler’s Germany and sheds new light on Bonhoeffer’s involvement in the famous Valkyrie plot and in “Operation 7,” the effort to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland. In a deeply moving narrative, Metaxas uses previously unavailable documents including personal letters, detailed journal entries, and firsthand personal accounts to reveal dimensions of Bonhoeffer's life and theology never before seen."
While I don't equate Trump to Hitler per se, I do recognize parallels in behavior. Never forget that everything Hitler did was "legal" as he used his sycophants in the German legislative body 'Greater German Reichstag' to rubber-stamp everything he wanted to do. History has given us the gift of knowing the consequences of that failed experiment.
As a country, working across the aisle, we can find common ground to chart the effective use of our taxes as investments in the health and welfare of us all. The us/them, from both sides, needs to end so that we can govern through common-sense investments.
Currently listening to the book and am fascinated by the complexities of Bonhoeffer's mind! (And completely annoyed by the narrator who pronounces the name Bon-hoofer. I get that the umlaut is challenging for native American speakers, but "hoofer?")
When you started this post I thought I knew where you were going. When you mentioned Cain and Abel again I thought I knew where you were going. Thanks for surprising me with a fun insight. Friday should be fun. Merry Christmas.
I’m glad it’s dead. I called my congressman. Why can’t they learn that we are not a credit card with no limits? When you are on a budget you go to the store to buy the necessities. And if Obamacare is so wonderful why isn’t absolutely every federal employee on it already.
But the angel said to them “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, “ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord.”
Merry Christmas everyone.
That is a fabulous insight I had not seen before regarding Abel and the Shepherds tending their flock at night.
That is a good insight Erick - never thought of it before. Here’s my own extension - Jacob was a shepherd, Moses and David. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Joseph told his brothers to tell the Egyptians they were shepherds because shepherds were despised by the ruling class.
All I want for Christmas is for both sides to act like adults and do what's right for the vast majority of Americans.
Alas, that's as unlikely as Santa Claus really existing.
Yes. Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
I liked it right up until you said Santa doesn’t exist. If you look hard enough Santa lives in all of us. Merry Christmas to you and yours.