God and the Candidates

Some of the Republican candidates for U. S. President—Bachman, Perry, and Santorum come to mind—would have it that they prayed, and that God told them He wanted them to run for president.    Each seems to have taken that to mean that God wanted h/h to be king president.  But clearly they can’t all be right.    Did they consider that perhaps He wanted them to run in order to add some levity to the race?  Or because He wanted to see millions of dollars wasted?    Or because He wanted to keep people guessing as to who His real candidate was?  Or were some of them mistaken?  Or were some praying to the wrong god?*  
Because we know He does pick the president, does He not?   As in 2000, when the race in Florida wasn’t going the way He intended, He just told His judges to appoint George W Bush, and they did.  Funny, though, one wonders if He is against Democracy—if not, He would have let the democratic process take its course; He would have trusted the election to reflect the will of the American people.  If He is really so in control, why couldn’t He have just turned a few more minds to vote the ‘right’ way, to reflect his will?   
Anyway, why should God care who rules a given nation?  And does he?  Some nations have kings, ruling by the “divine right of kings,” as do England and North Korea.  Some have dictators, benevolent or malign, but very, very rich, as have been some of our very own presidents.   And some of our own presidents have acted as though they thought they were ruling by “divine right,” sometimes referred to as “mandate,” or “political capital.”
There is, of course, precedent for judges to select a nation’s ruler.  Consider the story in the book of Samuel.  About 3200 years ago, the Israelites, who had been governed for generations by judges, had started agitating to have a king.  Other nations had kings, why shouldn’t they?  (They seem to have been worried that one of Samuel’s sons would rule when he died, and his sons had “turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.”  Hmmm…we don’t know anyone like that, do we?)  Samuel, the old, wise, current judge, said, “no, no, no…” but they said “yes, yes, yes…”  So Samuel  went to God with their request and God said, “Tell them I say no, no, no…and also show them just what a king would do to them” and so Samuel did, and he warned them:  “This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:  He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.  And he will take your daughters to be confectionaires, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.  And he will take your fields and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.  And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers and to his servants.  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.  He will take the tenth of your sheep:  and ye shall be his servants.  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”  (I Samuel 8:11-18, the lofty King James version)  But again the people cried to have a king, that they might be like other nations, and that the king might judge them, and fight their battles.  So Samuel returned to God, and this time God shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh, well, what the…” or words to that effect, “Let them have their king, I will even pick one out for them.”  So Samuel promised the people they could have their king, and told them to return home.  And God chose a very tall and comely young man by the name of Saul, and Samuel anointed him, with oil, to be king, and we all know how that turned out.  Or if you don’t, read the rest of the Book of Samuel for yourself, or google him.   (Now it is not recorded whether George W Bush was anointed with oil by one of the judges, although we do know that John Ashcroft,  Bush’s Attorney General  and later aspirant to the presidency, anointed himself, with vegetable oil.  Didn’t help though.)
Perhaps instead of thinking of themselves as chosen by God, they should think of how they should live as president if they should happen to achieve that goal, however that is done.  “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”  (Micah 6:8)  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.”  (II Timothy 2:5)
[An aside, but not unpertinent.  Just watched Countdown on Current tv, David Shuster hosting, and he interviewed a comedian, Jamie Filstein, about the phenomenon of Tim Tebow, the Xtian football player, and displayed a poll that showed  54% of  Republicans think God helps Tebow and helps the Broncos to win.   You can catch it here http://current.com/shows/countdown/   Pretty funny and true.
*Do you suppose that Jesus is circumventing His Father in this political event?  Consider, He was the one who chased money-changers out of the temple, he is the one who said it would be difficult for rich men to get to Heaven, now he must be very disturbed  about the devastation wrought by the financial class, and, despairing of the Democrats ever taking on that issue, manipulated this whole Republican campaign in order to get them, in the person of Gingrich and aided by Perry, to expose the whole rotten system.  Do you think?

9-9-9 plan and beyond

I began this post early in October, but because my internet was down for the month and beyond, have only just now been able to post it.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan

Early October

Ah, simplicity itself.  9-9-9. How could anything be better?  Easy to understand too.  Fewer pages to read.  9-9-9.  As long as you don’t read it upside down, as Michele Bachmann suggested.

No wonder Herman Cain has surged ahead in the polls.  He has a message, a plan, that everyone can understand.  Or at least, they think they can understand it; I wonder how many have actually read it and can tell you what the 9-9-9 stands for, or what the economists have to say about how it would work. 9% corporate income tax.  9% personal income tax.  9% national sales tax.  No payroll taxes, no medicare taxes.  No deductions or tax credits.  No capital gains tax.  Ah, yes, simple indeed.

Here’s how it would work, according to Center for American Progress.  Poor America would see their taxes increase by 900%.  That’s great.  It would help to make up for all those years that 43% of Americans paid no federal income taxes at all.  There would be a substantial increase on the middle class.   Two examples:  A family with an income of $50,000 who presently pays $3,515 in taxes would see their taxes double to $7,500, a 100% increase.   A family with an income of $120,000 presently paying $31,600 would see an increase of $800, to $32,400.  The richest 1% of the population would see their taxes fall from 28% to 11%.  Well, what could be more fair?  They have been carrying such a heavy burden of taxes all this time.    Social Security and Medicare would be abolished.  People in need would get help from their state and local systems, and from churches, charities, and neighbors. 

This is deemed by critics the greatest shift of taxes from wealthy to poor ever.  It would explode the deficit to the highest it’s been since WWII, and it would bankrupt the country.  So they say.

Now admittedly I have not done in-depth research on this, since my internet was down for the month of October, but I understand you can go to Herman Cain’s website and read it for yourself, and then to the above cited source, or any other you can access, and see what the results would be.   I understand that Rich Lowrie, not an economist but a bank manager and associate of Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, developed his plan.

Now we have just learned that the 9-9-9 plan appeared originally as the default plan in SimCity 4 video game.  But Cain says that whoever says that is lying.

Update Monday Oct 17

Sometime ago someone suggested that Herman Cain was being bankrolled by some entity that specifically wanted to keep him in the game to give the Republicans cred as being inclusive.  But that seemed like a wild guess.  Now it seems that a half-dozen or more current and former members of Cain’s staff were formerly associated with Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity.

Update Sunday Oct 23

Now Herman Cain has modified his 9-9-9 plan to a 9-0-9 plan for people below the poverty line.  They would pay no taxes.  And he is also considering an opportunity zone, where in order to improve job opportunities the minimum wage would be abolished.  Opportunity, indeed.  For whom?

NOTE:  The top 1% owns 40% of the wealth, gets 24% of the income, owns 50% of stocks.   The top 10% owns 90% of stocks, 75% of the wealth.  The top 400 families own as much wealth as the bottom 150 million people.

Who would benefit?  Last year Herman Cain had earned income of $800,000, on which he would have paid 9% income tax, which would have left him with just $692,000.  Although there is also that income from sale of stocks, etc., which brought him another $800,000, which, under his plan, would not have been taxed.  Oh, and of course, he would have had to pay sales taxes on merchandise purchased.

Monday October 31

Now Rick Perry has come out with his 20-20-0 plan.  Flat tax of 20% on everyone, 20% corporate tax, no sales tax.  No taxes on capital gains, dividends, investment.  When asked about the exorbitant benefit this would be to the rich, he says:  “I don’t care about that.  Just so they have more money to invest.”  Yeah, right.  His plan was devised by he of the flannel shirts, remember Steve Forbes?  Ran in ’96 on this plan.    Didn’t get him very far.

Now we hear that Mitt Romney will be presenting his own “flatter” tax scheme.  And, if I recall, Rick Santorum has his own 0-0-0 plan.