unPHILtered: The Way I See It (12 page)

After I heard their story, I turned to Miss Kay and told her, “Give those people some money.” I told her to give them three hundred dollars, but Miss Kay wrote them a check for a thousand dollars to help them get on their feet again. They didn’t come to our church asking for money, but they’d lost everything, and their insurance company turned its back on them. As a Christian and an American, I felt it was my duty to help them out.

I realize not everyone is financially able to put their neighbors to work when they need help, but we could do far more for them than what we’re currently doing. We ought to look after each other and love one another the best we can. We need to bring our neighbors to Jesus and help them out. If Americans would begin doing that, instead of relying on the government for handouts, it would be a much better place. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s what God wants us to do.

Miss Kay and I have tried to help as many people as we could over the years. Some of them slicked us and had ulterior
motives, but we never held it against them. You can’t let that slow you down. You just go forth, and they’ll have to answer to God. We’ve helped more people who appreciated it and benefited from it than those who didn’t. I live by a very important code that is found in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Remember, there was a day when welfare and other government assistance programs didn’t even exist in America. Families and Christians helped one another. It’s not too late to go back there. Governments do not make great individuals, but great individuals make great governments. The answer to our problems is simple: love God and love your neighbors. Will you?

D
o you know what the United States government and lottery winners have in common? Neither one of them got their money by working for it, both rejoice when the cash pours in, and then both squander it about as fast as they receive it. I’ve noticed over the years that it’s a lot easier to spend somebody else’s money than your own because you didn’t have to work for it. My boys never had any problems spending my money when they were young. You should try to squeeze a dollar out of them nowadays!

How many stories have we heard or read about lottery winners who strike it big in Powerball or Mega Millions, winning millions of dollars instantly by nothing but dumb luck, only to squander their money on luxurious mansions, extravagant sports cars, and vacations around the world? The money consumes them,
and they fall into a life of despair, plagued by sex, drugs, alcohol, and divorce. They’re some of the saddest stories you’ll ever read because they were ruined by their own greed and, worse, the greed of their families and friends. As the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not for every man’s greed.” Boy, wasn’t he right?

In 1988, William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery. His brother, of all people, hired a hit man to try to kill him, and Post squandered his fortune in only a few short years. He was living off Social Security when he died in 2006. Billie Bob Harrell Jr. won $31 million in the Texas Lotto in 1997. He divorced his wife and committed suicide less than two years later. Harrell told his financial adviser shortly before his death that winning the lottery was “the worst thing that ever happened to” him. Evelyn Adams, who had the unbelievable fortune of winning the New Jersey Lottery twice, in 1985 and 1986, for a total of $5.4 million, gave away her money and lost the rest gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She was broke and living in a trailer by 2001. I guess what they say is right—money can’t buy happiness. But it sure can cause misery.

In many ways, the U.S. government is like a lotto winner who won big—really, really big. The federal government doesn’t actually earn its money—it only takes it from you and me—and it has so many methods at its disposal to blow it through fiscal irresponsibility. And like many of the now-broke lottery winners, government officials always seem to say it’s someone else’s
fault when things go wrong. Lottery winners often blame their kinfolk or friends when things go south, and it’s always convenient for our politicians to point their fingers at someone else—usually somebody from the other political party—as the reason for their pitiful stewardship.

The U.S. government, as we know it today, is grossly bloated, inefficient, and ineffective at its current size. In 2013, the federal government spent $3.45 trillion while collecting $2.77 trillion in revenues (i.e. taxes), resulting in a deficit of about $680 billion. That probably seems like a pretty big hole, but it was actually an improvement following four consecutive years of trillion-dollar deficits. At the current rate, America is never going to pay off its debt. We’re a superpower with a third-world checkbook. We can’t even balance it! We owe about $1.3 trillion to China and $1.1 trillion to Japan. How did we become so financially irresponsible and become so indebted to foreign powers? I think it diminishes our standing in the world. As it says in Proverbs 22:7,
“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”
In a word, our government is
greedy
!

The federal government can’t slow down when it comes to spending our money. Total U.S. government spending has increased by 40 percent since 2002, even after inflation, and the costs of many mandatory-spending programs (the politicians’ fancy term for entitlements) are increasing even more rapidly. Here’s the really bad part: it’s only going to get worse. Economists predict Obamacare, the federal health care program initiated
by President Barack Obama, will add $1.8 trillion to federal health care spending by 2023. So much for what Benjamin Franklin said about a penny saved being a penny earned. Money burns holes in our government’s pockets! You know what they say about Washington, DC—it’s the only place in the world where your money will leave your pockets faster than it does in Las Vegas.

At its current size, the U.S. government is too big for federal auditors, private citizens, and congressional oversight committees to serve as watchdogs. There is no oversight or accountability when it comes to government spending. If you or I were the CEO of a corporation and operated that way, with so many cost overruns and misallocated funds, our shareholders would run us out of office. If I ran a private business the way we run our government, it would go bankrupt! Duck Commander would have never gotten off the ground if I were so fiscally irresponsible. There is no bottom line in Washington. Our government agencies go on spending sprees at the end of each fiscal year for fear that their budgets will be cut the following year. There’s no motivation to save in our government. I guess the American public has become immune to what’s going on. When was the last time a politician was run out of office for misspending? It seems the only way a politician loses his or her job anymore is because of a scandalous
affair. When a politician is caught exposing his private parts via a cell phone, one tends to get a clear picture of why we have ended up where we are as a nation.

If I were ever elected U.S. president—and, hey, you never know—I would slash government agencies by 50 to 75 percent. The current federal government would be a shell of itself by the time I was done. For starters, I would restructure and drastically downsize the Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, and the Department of Education. They would be unrecognizable compared to what they are today. I’d put Bibles and prayer back in schools so our children could be taught morals and the difference between right and wrong. I’d return control of the schools back to the states and local communities, where it belongs and can be properly managed. We wouldn’t need the EPA because if we learned to love God we wouldn’t pollute the earth anymore because He made it. We’d love Him so much we would never destroy His creation.

I’d do away with federal programs in health care, law enforcement, corporate welfare, and foreign aid. I’d eliminate most of the rules and regulations in this country, and we’d learn how to make do with less. I’d do away with welfare and we’d all get back to work. If I were in charge, the federal government would never bail out another corporation again. Hey, suck it up. If you tried something and it didn’t work, it’s not my job to bail you out. You took the risk, so let it go. I’d get our outsourced jobs back to
America (there were more than 2.6 million U.S. jobs outsourced to foreign countries in 2013)—or the companies doing it would pay severe penalties. Under my watch, we’d quit buying so much of our stuff from China and Japan and take pride in American-made goods again. Consumers would only buy American products, or they’d pay a very hefty price for foreign goods.

Now, to make some serious dents in the federal deficit and make significant changes and reductions in our government, I think you’d have to have a spiritual giant in charge and have the House of Representatives and Senate behind him. The current political ideologies are clashing daily. It’s not healthy for anyone. Look at the federal government shutdown of 2013. The politicians in Congress couldn’t even agree on appropriations bills to fund the government, so they let it shut down for two weeks. It was a complete stalemate, and that’s how it’s going to continue down the road. The dialogue in Washington needs to change. It needs to become more spiritual as we move ahead. Look, I’m not antigovernment. I’m only saying we need to do some work on our government and the way it operates.

There’s certainly plenty to trim in our federal government. Heck, there’s less fat on the backside of a Boston butt than there is in Washington. In 2013, there were 2.7 million federal government employees in civilian jobs and another 1.4 million uniformed soldiers in the military. Now, that’s actually the lowest
number of employees on the U.S. government’s payroll since 1966, but you’re telling me it can’t be cut even more? Hey, I love each and every one of our soldiers, and I certainly appreciate the sacrifices they make for our country, but would our military have to be so big if we kept our nose out of foreign countries’ business? I understand the war on terror, but do we really have to intercede in every foreign crisis?

Have you ever seen the list of government agencies? There are more than four hundred and fifty federal agencies, and most of them are divisions in larger agencies’ hierarchies. For instance, the U.S. Department of Justice includes eight divisions, six law enforcement agencies, and another twenty-eight offices. In 2012, the U.S. government spent $29 billion on law enforcement and $8.3 billion on federal prisons. Besides counterterrorism and border patrol, law enforcement needs to be handled at the state and local levels. The feds don’t need to be policing our communities; we need to be doing it. And guess what? If we learned to love God and love our neighbor, we wouldn’t need so much law enforcement policing the streets! The crime rate is always high when the love rate is low.

There is plenty of other wasteful spending in our government. A lot of it leaves me scratching my head. Have you ever heard of the National Wild Horse and Burro Program? You’re paying for it. It’s part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. How about the Healthy Marriage and
Responsible Fatherhood program? It’s part of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. You’re paying for that, too. But how about pastoring? Why don’t we let the churches counsel young couples and newlyweds? The government doesn’t need to be doing it. There seems to be a lot of wasted money and manpower in our government.

According to the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank, the costs of operating the various federal agencies for each American family are staggering. Their research says the Department of Health and Human Services spent $908 billion in 2013, costing every U.S. household about $7,500. The Social Security Administration spent $873 billion (about $7,300 per household) and the Department of Defense spent $633 billion ($5,200 for every family). Just think if American families could put that money back in their pockets. They could be investing in American-made products and services, and then maybe our economy would turn around. Or, even better, they could be saving their money for financial security in the future. Instead, a lot of the money is being spent to take care of people who don’t want to work or given to foreign countries that don’t even like us.

If you really want to become angry, take a closer look at how our government is actually spending our money. In 2013, the Interior Department spent nearly $100,000 to install an outhouse on a hiking trail in Alaska. It was an outhouse with one toilet and no internal plumbing! NASA spent nearly $125,000 to try to develop a 3D food printer that would create mini pizzas—I’ve had more than a few that tasted like cardboard—and the Department of Health and Human Services spent more than $325,000 to fund a study that revealed couples are happier when the woman calms down after an argument. Now, that’s groundbreaking stuff! They should have saved their money and called me. My marriage is much happier when Miss Kay isn’t bending my ear!