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Volume 10 Issue 52
In This Issue:
December 25, 2019
* Page 2 * Page 4
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Christmas - A Time to Remember Pope Francis says church must adapt
National Debt Disappears as 2020 Campaign Issue – but it Keeps Growing By Fred Lucas | Fox News Almost a decade after out-of-control spending and borrowing fueled the Tea Party revolution in a historic midterm election, no major presidential candidates from either party seem interested in the national debt that now stands at more than $23 trillion, leaving every American citizen owing almost $70,000. Meanwhile, the federal deficit—or the annual budget shortfall—is more than $1 trillion. With Democrats proposing ever-more spending in the form of massive governmentfunded benefit programs, and the Trump administration endorsing spending packages that further swell the deficit, budget hawks aren’t sure when and whether the situation could stabilize. “Democrats don’t care about budget deficits and the national debt, and it’s an incredibly frightening problem,” said Jason Pye, vice president for legislative affairs at FreedomWorks, a major player in rallying the Tea Party movement of the 2010 election. “The president has said it’s a fifth-year priority, but that’s assuming he’s re-elected. He’s already signed two budgets that increase discretionary spending. Republicans have abandoned any pretense of fiscal responsibility. Not being the Democrats is not good enough.” In a June report, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that by the end of 2019, debt held by the public would be 78 percent of the gross domestic product—the highest level since right after World War II. Within 15 years, the debt will be larger than the economy and, by 2049, will almost double to 144 percent of the GDP—with entitlements projected to make up about three-fourths of the debt in 30 years, ac-
cording to the CBO. Interest on the debt is the fastest-growing part of the federal budget and will total more than $6 trillion over the next decade, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan group advocating fiscal restraint. The foundation projects that interest on the debt will crowd out future spending on education, highway spending, and research and development. “Unless Congress acts, with some presidential buy-in, we are going to be growing at the rate of a European welfare state,” Pye told Fox News. “Trump has been great on the deregulation and tax side, but spending is the ultimate issue.” Pye added the Tea Party election of 2010 had some positive results, with about 65 to 70 House members persistently voting against big-spending budgets, aided by senators like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. But, he added, Republicans gave away their major victory from the Budget Control Act of 2011. Democrats generally blame the Trump tax cuts for the rising budget deficit. But both parties have gone along with more spending. Just last week, Congress passed and Trump signed a $1.4 trillion budget package that boosts spending levels and is expected to add hundreds of billions to the debt over the next decade. In July, the Democratic House and Republican Senate passed, and Trump signed, a budget to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and hike federal spending by $300 million. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, in a longshot challenge to Trump for the Republican nomination, has attacked Trump’s fiscal record. Weld backs “zero baseline budgeting,” meaning that Congress wouldn’t automatically fund every federal program at or above the same level as the previous year, requiring each program to justify its budget. Weld noted he was on the campaign trail talking about fiscal responsibility back in 2010. “In 2010, Republicans fought against spending. I was campaigning for [former Massachusetts Sen.] Scott Brown that year when he won,” Weld told Fox News. “Both parties are asleep on the issue. The national debt is a generational issue, just like climate change. I’ve been talking to millennials about it and they get it. I’ve told them unless you take action now, you can forget about Social Security.” “Change has to come to Washington. Republicans have to get their act together,” Weld said. “I’m the opposite of most Democrats that are just proposing throwing more money at everything.” On the Democratic side, debt and deficits rarely are mentioned on the debate stage or on the stump. Instead, candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are pitching sprawling programs like “Medicare-for-all” and free college. Democratic support for budget-busting plans like the Green New Deal marks a departure from a decade ago when Democrats at least acknowledged the problem of deficits, said Jenny Beth Martin, founder of the Tea Party Patriots, one of the key organizations in the 2010 elections. “By and large, Democrats have abdicated even a pretense of caring about fiscal responsibility,” Martin told Fox News. “At the same time, the reason Democratic candidates like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg have attacked Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders is because Medicare for All would add $20 trillion to the national debt.” Cont. on Page 2, See National Debt
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T H E T R I B U TA R Y
National Debt Disappears as 2020 Campaign Issue – but it Keeps Growing
Cont. from Page 1 Those candidates technically have plans to fund “Medicare-for-all,” though Warren has faced skepticism in claiming she could do so without raising middle-class taxes. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, the only place where the deficit is regularly discussed is among the diminishing field of low-key primary challengers. Perhaps no moment better illustrated the dying issue of the debt than former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford showing up in New Hampshire to suspend his GOP presidential campaign, while carrying an oversized $1 trillion check representing the 2019 deficit and made out to “Burden of Future Generations.” Since the Tea Party revolution, Martin has learned that it’s tough to get politicians to talk about spending. She sees some promMark Sanford holds up a fake check as he bows out ise from the Trump administration, arguof the presidential race, in New Hampshire. ing that protecting the border will mean less (Paul Steinhauser) spending in the long term. Further, she said there is broad support behind the “penny plan,” which would take out one cent of every $1 in federal spending. Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget proposal includes a version of the penny plan. “What President Trump has done in his first term is reform government and cut regulation. He has begun to reduce the size and scope of government and his policies are also growing the economy,” Martin told Fox News. “The only way to get a balanced budget is to cut spending and grow the economy. He has proposed budgets that balance to Congress. Congress under Obama and Trump have ignored presidential proposed budgets.”
Christmas – A Time to Remember
By Daryl L. Meyers Soon another year will fade into memory, but before we say good-bye to the old and usher in the new, there’s one last tradition that families and communities across our nation will celebrate before the new year makes its debut. Through pageantry, poetry and song and in ways shaped by centuries of celebration, Christmas will once again enter our lives. Although short, this special time of year allows us a brief respite from our professions, our responsibilities, our cares and concerns. We enter a landscape overflowing with sights and sounds both mysterious and magical. Suddenly we’re children again, dancing and playing, singing and laughing, carefree and alive. Christmas is a time when the ordinary becomes extraordinary. It’s a time for giving and receiving, a time to forget and a time to remember, a time for playfulness and sharing, a time to allow our senses and imaginations to embrace the wonder and beauty of what is truly an enchanting, magical time of year. Above all it provides us the opportunity of breaking away from the stress and intensity of our lives, away from the superficial and artificial. It gives us a chance to remember and renew those relationships that have enriched and brought meaning to our lives. It reminds us too that no matter what our cultural or ethnic backgrounds, we share a common heritage. We are all members of the same family. As we reach out with compassion and understanding throughout this season and the new year ahead, removing whatever separates us from others, respecting and appreciating each others similarities as well differences, we become instruments of change, a unifying presence in our communities and in our world … a reflection of what the true spirit of this season is all about.
December 25, 2019
TRIVIA What kind of animal is Tibs, in the disney movie in 101 Dalmations? A CAT What part of the body contains the humerus bone? THE ARM What popular sandwich is made with what the French “beurre d’arachides” and “gelee de fraises”? THE PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH What English city boasted more than 7,000 tobacco shops in 1614? LONDON What song reports: “They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos”? SEVENTY-SIX TROMBONES Which is bigger - a wigwam or a wigwassawigamig? A WIGWASSAWIGAMIG Which of the Seven Dwarfs leads the charge up the mountain after the disguised Queen? GRUMPY How many letters are there on the bottom row of keys on a typewriter? SEVEN Which did Disneyland sell on opening day Coke, Pepsi, or Royal Crown Cola? PEPSI Which is closer to Milwaukee - Moscow or Rome? ROME What’s the Boy in the Box told to pull up? HIS SOCKS What Latin Amrican country awarded Walt Disney the Order of the Aztec Eagle? MEXICO Who’s bigger, in Disney’s The Fox and the Hounds - Boomer or Dinky? BOOMER How much mother’s milk does the infant blue whale drink a day - five, 15, or 50 gallons? FIFTY GALLONS
December 25, 2019
Also on This Day
INVENTIONS & SCIENCE 1880 Layne Hall is born in Mississippi. Some records indicate that he was actually born in 1884; either way, when he died in November 1990, Hall was the oldest licensed driver in the United States. ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY 1941 “White Christmas,” written by the formidable composer and lyricist Irving Berlin receives its world premiere on December 26, 1941 on Bing Crosby’s weekly NBC radio program, The Kraft Music Hall. RELIGION 6 Christ is born? Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. SPORTS 2002 The University of New Mexico junior place-kicker Katie Hnida attempts to kick an extra point in a game against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl. Though her kick was blocked by UCLA, Hnida became the first woman to play in a Division I football game. CRIME 1869 Angered over a card game dispute, 16-year-old John Wesley Hardin reveals a singular lack of Christmas spirit by shooting James Bradley dead in the street. ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird, a film based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee, opens in theaters. CRIME 1996 Six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is killed in her Boulder, Colorado, home. John and Patsy Ramsey, her parents, called police at 5:52 the following morning to report that their daughter was missing. COLD WAR 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev announces that he is resigning as president of the Soviet Union.
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This Day in History - December 25, 1914 The Christmas Truce
Just after midnight on Christmas morning, the majority of German troops engaged in World War I cease firing their guns and artillery and commence to sing Christmas carols. At certain points along the eastern and western fronts, the soldiers of Russia, France, and Britain even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing. At the first light of dawn, many of the German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer. The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. In 1915, the bloody conflict of World War I erupted in all its technological fury, and the concept of another Christmas Truce became unthinkable.
SUDOKU
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December 25, 2019
Pope Francis Warns of ‘Rigidity,’ says Church Must Adapt or it will Become Increasingly Irrelevant
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Pope Francis exchanges greetings with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, left, on the occasion of the pontiff’s Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican. (AP)
By Bradford Betz | Fox News Pope Francis, in a Saturday message delivered from the Vatican, took aim at conservative Catholics, warning that “rigidity” in living out the Christian faith was turning people away, and that the church must adapt to a post-Christian west. Francis called for Vatican bureaucrats to embrace change during his annual Christmas greeting Catholicism’s conservative wing has increasingly voiced opposition to Francis’ progressive-minded papacy. Their criticisms have accelerated in the past year, amid Vatican financial and sex abuse scandals. Francis acknowledged in his address that Christianity no longer holds the influence in society that it once did. He cited the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a leader of the progressive wing of the Catholic Church, who lamented before dying that the church found itself “200 years behind” because of its fear of change. “Today we are no longer the only ones that produce culture, no longer the first nor the most listened to,” Francis told the prelates. “The faith in Europe and in much of the West is no longer an obvious presumption but is often denied, derided, marginalized and ridiculed.” As a result, he urged the Catholic hierarchy to embrace the necessary pastoral reforms that will make the church attractive so that it can spread the faith. “Here we have to beware of the temptation of assuming a rigid outlook,” Francis said. “Rigidity that is born from fear of change and ends up disseminating stakes and obstacles in the ground of the common good, turning it into a minefield of misunderstanding and hatred.” Traditionalist Catholics have denounced Francis’ openness on issues such as sacraments for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. They have also sharply criticized his recent synod on the Amazon, which called for the ordination of married men as priests. Francis has defended his stance as a reflection of the Gospel, and the axiom that the true tradition of the church is one of a continuous, discerned path of change. “Tradition is not static, it’s dynamic,” he said Saturday. The Associated Press contributed to this report.