First Baptist Church of Eustis: Giving Lip and Hand Service to Caesar (Gov.Scott)

Pastor Skip

Burning down the house, one state at a time. It's a sad day when churches become so connected to political parties and ideology that they can allow their mission to be compromised. In case you thought that a church's primary focus should be on sin, about following Christ, or about feeding the poor, not bearing false witness, and reaching out to those in need, you thought very wrong.

That leads us to a day like Monday, with Florida's new Republican governor announcing his budget cuts. Since cutting numerous employees off the state rolls is not enough, and since reducing spending on education and other services is not enough, he saw fit to throw in a tax cut for businesses and individuals as well. This bold shortsightedness, this hideous strength, was displayed inside First Baptist Church of Eustis. One wonders if the church will eventually realize the whore it has become in so closely aligning its pews with a vision of government so void of empathy or rational economics. That you can cut taxes and spending during the middle of a slow growth period is absurd. It's like trying to do bariatric surgery on an obese man on his way to the hospital for cardiac arrest.

The church, which seats 800, was filled to overflowing, and people waved miniature American flags and sang God Bless the USA and God Bless America. Warm-up speakers criticized President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, and praised Roger Vinson, the federal judge in Pensacola who last week struck down the Obama health plan as unconstitutional.

(Miami Herald)

It will be interesting to contrast Florida's efforts with that of Illinois, a state that opted instead for a small tax increase to meet budget needs and in combination with spending cuts. In both states, taxing did not go far enough, and in Florida's case, cutting taxes will only complicate their economic position without increasing business or revenues down the road.

If, as is obvious, many companies are sitting on profits and avoiding the hiring of people, it would hardly seem necessary for more tax cuts. In fact we expect and require so little of business these days, what with their desire to seek the lowest common cost denominator, that it falls on government to fill in the gaps and make sure certain basic functions continue to...function. That would include educating our young. That should include rightsizing the health care cost rubric by organizing the field a bit.

Not in Governor Scott's world. He states that he believes taxpayers will spend the money more wisely than government. This would be the same tax payers who had trouble avoiding the temptation or trickery of buying homes they couldn't afford. That wise taxpayer. This would be the taxpayers and businesses who did not organize the creation of roads and the internet and colleges and schools and space travel. Those taxpayers.

"Business groups lauded Scott’s proposal to cut corporate-income, property and unemployment compensation." (Miami Herald)

Yea no kidding.