Should Christians Support Donald Trump? (Part 3) - Huge Deficits, Low Interest Rates, Blatant Hypocrisy
Submitted by Pastor Chad Wagner on Wednesday, September 4, 2019.
Image from Newsweek.
IX. President Trump is not fiscally conservative. 1. President Trump is increasing the Federal debt at a rate closely approaching what Obama did in his first term as president when the deficit was over $1 Trillion per year in the depths of the Great Recession. 2. President Trump has increased the National Debt by $1Trillion each year of his presidency so far. A. The Federal Debt was $19.9 Trillion when Trump was sworn into office on January 20, 2017 (Trump and the National Debt, The Balance, 8-1-2019). B. The Federal Debt is now over $22.5 Trillion on 8-19-2019 (usdebtclock.org). C. That is in increase of $1Trillion per year (2.6T/2.583 years). 3. "With a new bipartisan budget deal that does nothing to cut federal spending, Trump is on track for another $1 trillion deficit this year. And there’s no reason to believe the following fiscal year will be any different, with ballooning deficits from higher spending, the 2017 tax cuts — Trump's signature legislative achievement, which slashed revenue — and none of the entitlement reforms long preached by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Candidate Trump bragged that he would pay off the entire federal debt in eight years, but President Trump is governing as if deficits don't matter. In fact, Trump is approaching the level of red ink from President Barack Obama’s first term, when Obama racked up trillion-dollar deficits four years in a row. Trump is on pace to do the same, starting with this year's yawning deficit of more than $1 trillion, according to budget estimates. But there are huge differences: Trump has a growing economy with historically low unemployment and a soaring stock market, while Obama was battling a brutal downturn in the economy during the worst recession in 80 years, making it much harder to curb federal spending." (Deficit Don? Red ink gushes in Trump era, Politico, 7-22-2019) 4. "Donald Trump: As projected in Table S-10 in the FY 2020 budget, Trump plans to add $5.088 trillion to the debt in his first term. That's a 30 percent increase from the $20.245 trillion debt at the end of Obama's last budget for FY 2017. If he remains in office for a second term, he plans to add $9.1 trillion. Trump had promised to eliminate the debt during his campaign. "Barack Obama: Added $8.588 trillion, a 74 percent increase from the $11.657 trillion debt at the end of Bush’s last budget, FY 2009." (US Debt by President by Dollar and Percent, The Balance, 5-12-2019) 5. Those numbers don't factor in the considerable increase in government spending that will almost surely occur when the next recession hits (which has likely already begun). X. President Trump believes that he has unlimited power as president and jokes about being president for life. 1. President Trump publicly said the following: 2. "Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president, but I don't even talk about that." (Trump: 'I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president', The Week, 7-23-2019) (video in link) 3. "In the closed-door remarks, a recording of which was obtained by CNN, Trump also praised China's President Xi Jinping for recently consolidating power and extending his potential tenure, musing he wouldn't mind making such a maneuver himself. "He's now president for life. President for life. No, he's great," Trump said. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day."" (Trump on China's Xi consolidating power: 'Maybe we'll give that a shot some day', CNN Politics, 3-3-2018) 4. There is an audio recording of Trump making that remark on the video in the CNN article above. XI. President Trump is a hypocrite (Mat 23:28; 1Ti 4:2). 1. Candidate Trump said that the stock market was "a big fat ugly bubble" in 2016 when he was running for president. A. Here is what candidate Trump said during his campaign for president in 2015 and 2016. i. "Reduce our 18 trillion in debt because believe me, we're in a bubble. We have artificially low interest rates. We have a stock market that frankly has been good to me, but I still hate to see what's happening. We have a stock market that is so bloated. Be careful of a bubble, 'cause what you've seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful." (Trump Alludes to Stock Market Bubble, YouTube, 6-16-2015) ii. "The stock market now is starting to go down. We're sitting on a big, beautiful bubble." (Trump's shifting views on stock market highs, YouTube, 3-1-2016) iii. "We have the worst revival of an economy since the Great Depression; and believe me, we're in a bubble right now. And the only thing that looks good is the stock market, but if you raise interest rates even a little bit, that's gonna come crashing down. We are in a big, fat, ugly bubble, and we better be awfully careful. And we have a Fed that's doing political things - this Janet Yellen of the Fed. The Fed is doing political by keeping the interest rates at this level, and believe me the day Obama goes off and he leaves and he goes out to the golf course for the rest of his life to play golf, when they raise interest rates, you're gonna see some very bad things happen because the Fed is not doing their job. The Fed is being more political than Secretary Clinton." (Trump: We Are in a Big Fat Ugly Bubble, YouTube, 9-29-2016) B. Now President Trump says we have the greatest economy in the history of the country and he says the stock market is the barometer of his success. i. During President Trump's first 15 months after being elected he tweeted about how great the stock market was at least 60 times. a. "Since he won the presidency, Donald Trump has become Wall Street’s cheerleader in chief. As markets climbed at the end of 2016 and throughout 2017, the president promoted a string of new milestones or records. He explicitly tied the rally to his policies and optimism about the economy’s prospects during his administration. Presidents have typically tried to limit talk about stock market success because equities can just as easily slide. But Trump has embraced the stock market run since Election Day 2016, tweeting about stocks at least 60 times and highlighting markets during numerous public appearances." (Wall Street’s cheerleader in chief: Trump has tweeted about the stock market at least 60 times since he was elected, CNBC, 2-6-2018) ii. Without any sense of hypocrisy, President Trump, who just over a month before the election warned that the stock market was "a big, fat, ugly bubble", began to boast about the level of the market less than two months after being elected. a. "The world was gloomy before I won - there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 12-26-2016) b. "Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism - even before tax plan rollout!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 2-16-2017) c. "We're doing tremendously well. Our stock market just hit an all-time high." (Trump's shifting views on stock market highs, YouTube, 7-6-2017) d. "Stock Market hit another all-time high yesterday - despite the Russian hoax story! Also, jobs numbers are starting to look very good!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 7-15-2017) e. "Stock market hit yet another all-time record high yesterday. There is great confidence in the moves that my Administration...is making. Working very hard on TAX CUTS for the middle class, companies and jobs!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 11-7-2017) f. "If the Dems (Crooked Hillary) got elected, your stocks would be down 50% from values on Election Day. Now they have a great future - and just beginning!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 12-31-2017) g. "Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 11-5-2018) iii. This is going to come back to bite him very badly when this bubble economy bursts and comes crashing down to earth. iv. There has been no change in the trajectory of the stock market in the last 10 years which includes nearly all of President Obama's tenure. a. Look at this chart of the stock market over the last 10 years, and please point out to me where the election of Donald Trump is based on this chart. v. 2. Candidate Trump said that the unemployment numbers and other statistics on the economy were fake numbers that were hiding a bad economy. A. Candidate Trump said that the economy was in terrible shape during Obama's presidency, which he was right about. i. "We have the worst revival of an economy since the Great Depression; and believe me, we're in a bubble right now. And the only thing that looks good is the stock market, but if you raise interest rates even a little bit, that's gonna come crashing down. We are in a big, fat, ugly bubble, and we better be awfully careful. And we have a Fed that's doing political things - this Janet Yellen of the Fed. The Fed is doing political by keeping the interest rates at this level, and believe me the day Obama goes off and he leaves and he goes out to the golf course for the rest of his life to play golf, when they raise interest rates, you're gonna see some very bad things happen because the Fed is not doing their job. The Fed is being more political than Secretary Clinton." (Trump: We Are in a Big Fat Ugly Bubble, YouTube, 9-29-2016) B. He said that the unemployment numbers were not showing the real state of the economy, which he was right about. i. "It's not a question of unfair, ah, you know, it's a false, it's a false economy that we're living in. We're in a bubble. And more importantly, when you look at unemployment in this country, we have close to 100 million people that are out of work, and yet we have a 5.3% unemployment rate which is a total joke. I think the real number is probably into the 30s. Somebody I actually read the other day, they said it's actually 42%. And that's the real number. You know when you go out there you see tremendously unhappy people, and then you read, oh the jobs numbers. Well, it's a phony number because when you stop looking for a job you're no longer in that statistic. So if you're looking for a job and you stop, you're no longer in the statistic, John. And then they say it's a 5.2, 5.3%; it's not 5.3%, it's in the 20s, 30s, it could even be in the 40s. And there are a lot of unhappy people out there. And it's just - this was made up by the politicians for the politicians, the accounting method, so that they could look good. But let me tell you something, the Obama administration - we have tremendous unemployment in this country." (Donald Trump: We're living in a "false economy", YouTube, 9-14-2015) ii. "At the core of my contract is my plan to bring back our jobs - about time. The terrible jobs report that just came out shows the number of people not in the work force increased by another 425,000 people last month. That's why you see these phony numbers about 5% unemployed - people are stopping, they're not looking for work anymore because they can't get a job and they take them off the roles. These numbers are an absolute disaster. Labor force participation has fallen to it's lowest level in nearly 40 years. That's what's happened. Nearly one in four people in their prime working years are not working. They wanna work, they're not working. After eight years, Obama is the first president in modern history not to have a single year of 3% growth. We're growing at an average of probably 1-2%, nobody even knows. Nobody believes the numbers anyway; the numbers they put out are phony as far as I'm concerned. For millions of Americans it's an economic nightmare." (Donald Trump: Jobs Numbers an "Absolute Disaster", YouTube, 11-4-2016) C. Now President Trump says we have the greatest economy in the history of the country and brags about how low unemployment is. i. "This is my 500th. Day in Office and we have accomplished a lot - many believe more than any President in his first 500 days. Massive Tax & Regulation Cuts, Military & Vets, Lower Crime & Illegal Immigration, Stronger Borders, Judgeships, Best Economy & Jobs EVER, and much more..." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 6-4-2018) ii. "The Economy is the BEST IT HAS EVER BEEN! Even much of the Fake News is giving me credit for that!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 7-2-2019) iii. "Stock Market at all time high, unemployment at lowest level in years (wages will start going up) and our base has never been stronger!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 7-2-2017) iv. "JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! “Jobs surge in April, unemployment rate falls to the lowest since 1969”" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 5-3-2019) D. Less than two months after assuming office, President Trump said that the numbers used to be phony, but they aren't anymore. i. The following is from a press conference with Press Secretary Sean Spicer at the White House on March 10, 2017. a. Spicer: "Obviously we're very pleased to see the jobs report that came out this morning; it's great news for American workers. During the first full month of the Trump presidency the economy added 235,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.7%. Notably we also saw significant growth in the construction, manufacturing, and mining sectors. The unemployment rate ticked down and labor force participation rate ticked up." Journalist: "In the past the president has referred to particular job reports as phony or totally fiction. Does the president believe that this jobs report was accurate and a fair way to measure the economy? Spicer: "Yeah, I talked to the president prior to this. And he said to quote him very clearly, 'they may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.'" (Spicer: Trump says jobs reports aren't phony anymore, YouTube, 3-10-2017) E. The fundamentals of the economy did not change under President Trump's tenure. F. There has been no change in the trajectory of the unemployment in the last 10 years which includes nearly all of President Obama's tenure. i. Look at this chart of the unemployment over the last 10 years, and please point out to me where the election of Donald Trump is based on this chart. ii. G. President Trump was right about the unemployment numbers being misleading under President Obama. H. The whole time that unemployment number was going down (meaning that there were supposed to be more people employed), the labor force participation rate was also steadily falling, meaning that there were fewer people in the labor market (see the chart below). I. J. The unemployment figures were going down because of people leaving the labor market and not collecting unemployment anymore (just like Trump said before he was elected), and because of people's full time jobs before the recession being replaced by low paying part time jobs after it. K. As the above chart shows, the labor force participation rate bottomed out and began to increase in November, 2015, one whole year before the election of Donald Trump. L. After rising slightly from November 2015 until March 2016 (8 months before Trump's election), it has pretty much flattened out until now. M. Remember what Candidate Trump said about the Labor Force Participation number just before the election when it was about the same as it is now 2.5 years into his presidency. i. "These numbers are an absolute disaster. Labor force participation has fallen to it's lowest level in nearly 40 years. That's what's happened. Nearly one in four people in their prime working years are not working. They wanna work, they're not working." (Donald Trump: Jobs Numbers an "Absolute Disaster", YouTube, 11-4-2016) 3. Candidate Trump rightly criticized President Obama for never reaching 3% GDP growth during any year of his presidency. A. "After eight years, Obama is the first president in modern history not to have a single year of 3% growth. We're growing at an average of probably 1-2%, nobody even knows. Nobody believes the numbers anyway; the numbers they put out are phony as far as I'm concerned. For millions of Americans it's an economic nightmare." (Ibid) B. Trump has not achieved 3% GDP growth for either of his first two years in office. See this chart. i. C. Obama had four quarters with higher GDP growth than Trump's highest quarter so far. See this chart. i. D. Trump nevertheless says we have the greatest economy in the history of the country. 4. Candidate Trump rightly criticized President Obama for the size of the national debt. A. Here are tweets from Trump repeatedly condemning Obama during his presidency for the size of the national debt. i. "@BarackObama inherited $10.6 Trillion in National Debt---will leave after his first term with the Debt at over $17.6 Trillion." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 8-25-2011) ii. "Our national debt has grown by 30% and a gallon of gas has doubled so far under @BarackObama. He is a disaster." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 10-4-2011) iii. "@BarackObama has already added $5 Trillion to the national debt in less than 3 years. We must defeat him in 2012. #TimeToGetTough" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 11-15-2011) iv. "With our national debt passing $16T during the @DNC convention, @BarackObama has amassed more debt than the first 42 presidents. Scary." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-4-2012) v. "Our $16T national debt is now bigger than our $15T GDP. If Obama is re-elected watch for an economic meltdown in 2013." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-12-2012) vi. "Concerns over the national debt are stopping businesses from hiring and expanding http://onforb.es/RyZx2O Obama's policies are unsustainable" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 11-2-2012) vii. "Our $17T national debt and $1T yearly budget deficits are a national security risk of the highest order." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 11-13-2012) viii. "Yesterday our national debt topped a record $18T. Over 44% has accrued under Obama. A real mess." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 12-2-2014) B. Candidate Trump said he would pay off the national debt in 8 years. i. "Donald Trump insists he would be able to wipe out the United States’s debt in eight years. The Republican presidential front-runner said in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post that he’d be able to get rid of the more than $19 trillion debt “over a period of eight years.”" (Trump: I will eliminate U.S. debt in 8 years, The Hill, 4-2-2016) C. Once President Trump was elected, he started to increase the national debt faster than President Obama did in his last few years in office. i. "President Donald Trump has blasted bipartisan politicians for failing to address the federal debt and repeatedly vowed to eliminate it within eight years. On his watch, it has exploded to more than $22 trillion. The country was already headed for a $1 trillion deficit this year. Yet, the president has made clear his support for the federal budget deal reached Monday, which would increase spending by billions against a backdrop of lower tax receipts. "House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets," the president said Thursday of the bill, which would lift the debt ceiling until July 2021 and permanently end a series of automatic spending cuts. "I am totally with you!"" (Trump vowed to pay off the national debt in 8 years. But he’s touting a budget deal that would raise spending by more than $300 billion., Business Insider, 7-25-2019) ii. The following charts show that President Trump has run bigger deficits than President Obama did in his last few years in office, and the official on-budget deficit for the years 2019-2022 are projected to be over $1 Trillion per year. iii. iv. Source: https://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_deficit v. vi. Source: https://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_deficit D. Look at the following chart and see that President Trump is spending out of control just like President Obama did. E. 5. Candidate Trump rightly condemned the Fed for keeping interest rates so low for so long and for doing quantitative easing (QE) (money printing). A. Trump condemned the Fed's low interest rates before he was president. i. "The Fed's reckless policies of low interest and flooding the market with dollars needs to be stopped or we will face record inflation." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-29-2011) B. Trump said the following in September 2016 about the Fed keeping interest rates low which kills savers. i. "And you know the people who are hurt the most are people that saved all their lives, and thought they were going to live off the interest. Those people are getting absolutely creamed." (Trump: Low Interest Rates Are Great For Rich People Like Me, Bad For The Country, RealClear Politics, 9-12-2016) ii. "Trump said that for his own business is [sic] real estate, he "loves low interest rates," but average Americans are hurt by it. "The ones who did it right — they saved their money [and] they cut down on their mortgages, ... and now they're practically getting zero interest on the money," Trump said. "Those people have really been -- you could almost say discriminated against."" (Ibid) C. During Obama's presidency Trump condemned the Fed for destroying the dollar through inflation (quantitative easing, i.e. money printing). i. "The Fed's reckless monetary policy is going to create record inflation." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 10-11-2011) ii. "Printing money is neither a short or long term solution to our country's economic woes. The Fed is destroyin… (cont)" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 10-25-2011) iii. "The Fed is destroying the dollar. When inflation hits the economy then even more jobs will go overseas." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 2-9-2012) iv. "The Fed should not do QE3. Neither the economy nor the dollar can withstand another round of artificial liquidity." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 4-11-2012) v. "My @SquawkCNBC interview discussing why the Fed shouldn't do a QE3, @BarackObama's college records & 2012 election" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 7-17-2012) vi. "QE3 is going to further sink the dollar into oblivion. Creates artificial numbers for short term market gains. There will be a big price to pay in the future." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-14-2012) vii. "QE3, a political favor for Obama, will cause record inflation on food and fuel. This hits low income families the hardest. Big mistake." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-19-2012) D. Now that he's in office, he condemns the Fed for raising interest rates and he calls for lowering of rates and quantitative easing. i. "President Donald Trump has let loose again on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for raising interest rates while Powell indicated that further increases in 2019 are not a certainty. In an interview with the Washington Post the president added to comments he made in October that expressed disapproval of Powell: “So far, I’m not even a little bit happy with my selection of Jay. Not even a little bit. And I’m not blaming anybody, but I’m just telling you I think that the Fed is way off-base with what they’re doing.”" (Trump slams Fed chair again, but rate increases in 2019 are uncertain, Bankrate, 11-28-2018) ii. "China is adding great stimulus to its economy while at the same time keeping interest rates low. Our Federal Reserve has incessantly lifted interest rates, even though inflation is very low, and instituted a very big dose of quantitative tightening. We have the potential to go.......up like a rocket if we did some lowering of rates, like one point, and some quantitative easing. Yes, we are doing very well at 3.2% GDP, but with our wonderfully low inflation, we could be setting major records &, at the same time, make our National Debt start to look small!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, Twitter, 4-30-2019) iii. "Because of the faulty thought process we have going for us at the Federal Reserve, we pay much higher interest rates than countries that are no match for us economically. In other words, our interest costs are much higher than other countries, when they should be lower. Correct!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 7-19-2019) iv. "The E.U. and China will further lower interest rates and pump money into their systems, making it much easier for their manufacturers to sell product. In the meantime, and with very low inflation, our Fed does nothing - and probably will do very little by comparison. Too bad!" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 7-29-2019) v. "Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said he wanted “a large cut” from the central bank. He also said he wants the Fed to immediately halt shrinking its balance sheet, a process dubbed “quantitative tightening.”" (Trump keeps up drumbeat for significant Fed easing, MarketWatch, 7-30-2019) vi. "For them to have done quantitative tightening and also higher interest rates simultaneously, I think was a big mistake," (Ibid) E. This is blatant hypocrisy. 6. Candidate Trump condemned Obama for how much golfing he did while in office. A. The following are a litany of tweets wherein Donald Trump condemned President Obama for how much he golfed while in office. i. "@BarackObama played golf yesterday. Now he heads to a 10 day vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Nice work ethic." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-15-2011) ii. "I play golf to relax. My company is in great shape. @BarackObama plays golf to escape work while America goes down the drain." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 12-30-2011) iii. "Too busy playing golf? @BarackObama sends form letters with an electronic signature to the parents of fallen SEALs" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 8-30-2012) iv. ""@gretawire: PresObama is not busy talking to Congress about Syria..he is playing golf ...go figure"" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 9-7-2013) v. ""@BackOnTrackUSA: @realDonaldTrump While Obama vacations,golfs, attends parties & jazz concerts, ISIS is chopping heads off of journalists."" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 8-19-2014) vi. "Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter" (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 10-13-2014) vii. "We pay for Obama's travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf." (Donald J. Trump, Twitter, 10-14-2014) B. President Obama golfed 306 times during his eight years in office. i. "Obama played 306 rounds while in office, a healthy amount, but well short of the estimated 1,200 rounds Woodrow Wilson played during his term, or the 800 rounds that Dwight Eisenhower played as POTUS. Still, it's more than his immediate predecessors George W. Bush or Bill Clinton, both of whom were golfers as well." (We've crunched the numbers, and it's official: President Obama played A LOT of golf while in office, Golf Digest, 1-19-2017) ii. That's a lot of golf, but it doesn't hold a candle to President Trump. C. President Trump golfed 220 times in his 2.5 years in office and is on pace to spend 745 days on the golf course during his eight years as president if he is reelected. i. "How many times has Trump played golf as President of the United States? Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2017, Mr. Trump has reportedly been on the grounds of his golf courses or played golf elsewhere 220 times since becoming President, and that's as of Aug. 12, 2019. The cost of Trump's golf rounds to the American taxpayer varies by round and course, but it has totaled so far in the tens of millions of dollars. He previously was on pace to visit his golf clubs more than 650 times in an eight-year presidency. However, his pace as of Aug. 6, 2018 now indicates Trump would spend as much as 745 days of his presidency at a golf course if he wins a second term and serves both terms to completion." (How many times has President Donald Trump played golf while in office?, Golf News Net, 8-13-2019) D. Can you say, hypocrite? XII. Despite all of this evidence, as candidate Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." (Donald Trump BAD WORDS! Compilation, YouTube, 1-18-2018) XIII. Showing partiality is sinful (1Ti 5:21; Jam 3:17). 1. Christians would have (and did) condemned Barack Obama for doing the same things that they either tolerate in Donald Trump or praise him for. 2. This is shameful (Pro 24:23). 3. Because they think President Trump is going to make them wealthy, they hypocritically support him (Pro 28:21). 4. Christians should be better than that (Jam 2:1). XIV. President Trump is part of God's judgment on this nation. 1. God gives wicked nations wicked leaders (Dan 4:17 c/w Act 17:5). 2. Just look at the wicked kings that God gave the wicked nation of Israel. 3. We are being made to eat of the fruit of our own ways (Pro 1:29-32) by being ruled by presidents we have chosen who are taking away our liberties and bankrupting us morally and financially.
