Make Corporations Pay Their Own Bills

British Petroleum has spent $35.5 billion cleaning up the mess it made with its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  But BP also was allowed to write off that cost as an expense of doing business, and so it got back more than $10 billion.  In other words, you and I paid British Petroleum $10 billion to clean up its own mess.

It’s not just BP.  Bankers who helped drive our economy to its knees in 2008 were forced to pay off some of the people they had cheated, but then they were allowed to write off those payments, just as BP was.  Same result: you and I paid Big Banks billions to clean up their own mess. 

There must be countless other Big Businesses that charge you and me for the Big Mistakes they make.  Add that to the billions of dollars we pay in corporate welfare to some of the nation’s biggest Big Businesses, a significant bite has been taken out of our nation’s spending.

As Everett Dirksen said, “A billion here and a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

Hey, I have an idea.  Our federal government really does need to cut spending, so why don’t we start by eliminating those generous gifts?  And why don’t we also eliminate the billions we pay in corporate welfare to some of the nation’s biggest Big Businesses?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to make corporations pay for their own messes, and eliminate welfare to the rich, than to take the money from old folks (Social Security) and old sick folks (Medicare)?  Both those programs are called entitlements, but they’re really not because we pay for them.  Must we pay for the corporations, too?

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On Catholic Priests and Millstones

Whenever I read of Catholic priests sexually abusing children, I can’t help but wonder if they’ve ever seen a millstone.

The reason I wonder is that priests, as professional Christians, know very well one of Jesus’ most famous sayings:  “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.  If any of  you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.”  (Matt. 18:5-6, NRSV)

Have you ever seen a millstone?

I saw one several years ago when I was researching The Gospel of Yeshua.  It was a wheel cut from a single block of granite, and as I recall it was at least eight feet tall and made a track about five feet wide.  

Picture yourself with that thing tied to your neck and tossed into the ocean.  Think about it. 

Can anyone explain to me how it is even remotely possible that so many Christ-believing priests can preach that passage every day and still do what they do?

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If drugs were legal...

By now we all recognize that the so-called "War on Drugs" has failed.  It's over.  Now it's time to move on and replace it with something else.  But what?

I vote that we legalize all drugs such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana (especially marijuana) for adults, regulate them the way we do other addictive drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, and tax them heavily.

What would happen if we did?

Drug cimes at all levels would drop overnight, because where there is no profit motive there is no crime. Drug dealers who infest our nation's schools would evaporate, making it much harder for teenagers to obtain drugs.  Drugs-related turf wars and other street crimes in our neighborhoods would end. International terrorism, which illegal drugs help finance, would suffer a crushing blow.

Law enforcement agents could spend their time chasing real criminals -- yes, real criminals, people who endanger society, not people we're just mad at.

Clogged court dockets would clear. The problem of overcrowded prisons everywhere would vanish as countless nonviolent inmates -- the ones we're just mad at -- go free.  And taxpayers would save a bare minimum of $15,000 per prisoner per year.

Drug addicts would be treated as alcohol addicts are -- as sick people who need our help, not criminals who need to be imprisoned.

Legalizing drugs also would create jobs, guarantee users a clean and safe supply, reduce illness, restore some of our lost civil rights -- much more, but I promised to keep this blog under 300 words.

Just one more thing. Legalizing drugs would not cause drug use to rise. The sad fact is that anyone who wants to use drugs is using drugs.  To a drug user, the law is alamost irrelevant.

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