‘The SALT Plan’ addresses America’s economic enigma

The Fed has finally admitted what many who have been paying attention already knew: we’re heading for economic upheaval. This brief and passing moment of truth brought forth from the system of the Fed bowels made its way to the American public via CNBC on Tuesday. For readers who can stomach additional detail on this, two fed officials, Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed, and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said that tax increases and spending cuts will put the US at risk of careening toward a “fiscal cliff” by year’s end.

It what could be construed as additional proof that Obama and the rest of DC may be hiding the inevitable, Reuters reported last week that Yale economics professor Robert Shiller
believes that the housing market may take as much as an entire generation to rebound.

For those who are wondering what can possibly be done to prepare for and position their families for what’s beginning to look like the Great Depression of the 21st century, one of several helpful resources is the book The SALT Plan: How to Prepare for an Economic Crisis of Biblical Proportions.

SALT is an acronym that stands for Savings, Allocation, Liquidity, and Truth. The book is written by Chuck Bentley of Crown Financial Ministries and not only does it offer insight for those who actually still have some assets about which to be concerned, but it also offers some very basic ways to prepare.

Bentley said in the book that he wrote it with the intent to “shock” people out of their “typical mindset.” He goes on to note that Americans are generally an “optimistic people, but that leads us to be unprepared for something unexpected.” He adds that the combined events of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan in 2011 were what made him realize that the “unthinkable” isn’t as unlikely as we tend to believe.

Bentley discourages a survivalist, loan-ranger mentality, but rather, encourages the idea of people being willing to come together in a community to help each other in difficult times. He touches on the ideas of the value of gardens; having an ample supply of canned goods, clean water and other basics on hand; and having at last a basic understanding of how to live off the land if necessary. Bentley also addresses economic cycles and the approach of the New World Order.

The SALT Plan is available at Amazon.com and at www.Crown.org

IMF head accuses US of not paying its fair share

Never mind that the U.S. has been contributing to Europe’s bailout since the first signs of trouble in Greece. The US still hasn’t paid its fair share. Or that’s what IMF head Christine Lagarde has implied with her latest statement.

While speaking in the US capital on Tuesday, the International Business Times of India
reported that Lagarde stated that, “Americans might ask themselves. ‘Why should what happens in the rest of the world concern us? Don't we have our own problems?’ The answer is simple: In today's world, we cannot afford the luxury of staying in our own mental backyards.”

America has been anywhere but its own mental backyard where the eurozone debt crisis is concerned. In fact, the U.S. Federal Reserve bailed out the eurozone through the year’s end in 2011. And the U.S. is the biggest contributor to the IMF, which has also extended funds to troubled eurozone countries.

Obama has admitted from the beginning of the euro’s unraveling that he was watching the Greek debt crisis closely. And if he was watching Greece that closely, it stands to reason that he has been watching the other troubled countries as well. Italy and Spain would have been especially interesting to watch.

Back in November, not only was Italy supposed to be audited by the EU and the IMF,
but according to the Christian newswire, World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs noted the significant impact of family issues: “Over the past 8 years of its socialist misrule, the Zapatero government painted a symbolic bulls-eye on the Spanish family and moral virtues -- liberalizing and promoting divorce, instituting same-sex marriage and adoption, creating easy access to abortion, lowering the age of consent, eliminating parent's rights, and mandating pro-homosexual education in the schools.”

It has even been suggested that eurozone countries need to surrender their sovereignty in order to save their economies, in spite of the fact that the euro is a faulty currency that was basically doomed to fail from the start.

If the eurozone is by any chance the “pilot program” for the remaking of America, sort of like Romneycare was the pilot for Obamacare, then what is happening in Europe is eventually coming here. While the dollar was not originally designed to fail as the euro was, the debt load that America is carrying isn’t going to be able to be sustained forever, especially as more baby boomers retire and need to pull on social programs that are not only presently grossly underfunded, but also in need of reform.

To borrow an Occupy Wall Street concept, if the U.S. is the 1 percent and Europe is the 99 percent, will we have finally paid our fair share when we no longer exist?

National movements pressuring DC to act with fiscal responsibility, preserve America’s future

Cincinnati, OH - The “Tax Day 2012 – We Demand a Balanced Budget” rally is fast becoming a national movement. The organization highlights DC leaders who have committed to acting with fiscal integrity for the sake of America’s future, and the rally will encourage attendees to take a pledge saying they will not send money to or vote for any candidate until that candidate has agreed to pass the People’s Balanced Budget Amendment. 

Cincinnati, Ohio is leading the way with the rallies.  Tea Party groups from the Ohio and Indiana regions will gather on Fountain Square in Cincinnati on Sunday, April 15 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  The rally, organized by the Cincinnati Tea Party and the People’s Balanced Budget Amendment movement, will bring attention to this important 2012 election season by highlighting one of the most significant issues of our time—a balanced budget.

Attendees who choose to take the pledge will be joining American citizens, candidates, and elected officials from over 40 states who have already signed the balanced budget amendment Pledge at www.WeDemandABalancedBudget.com.

The rally will feature a slate of local leadership, candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Ohio House of Representatives, and other invited guests:

• George Brunemann, President of the Cincinnati Tea Party
• Dan Regenold, local businessman and WeDemandABalancedBudgetAmendment founder
• Ben Swann from Fox 19
• Brian Thomas from 55 KRC radio
• Brad Wenstrup, Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives (Ohio’s 2nd District)
• Mike Wilson, founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party and current candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives (28th District)
• Dave Yost, State of Ohio Auditor

The People's Balanced Budget Amendment is a nationwide initiative to force our elected federal officials to balance the budget.  The People’s Balanced Budget Amendment would:

• Balance the budget in 7 years
• Reduce the deficit by 1/7 each year after passage
• After the budget is balanced, prevent Congress from spending no more than the average income of the previous 3 years
• Allow Congress to operate at a deficit during an emergency that is declared by 2/3 majority vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives

The full text of the amendment, plus a running tally of Senators, Representatives, and presidential candidates who have indicated support for the People’s Balanced Budget Amendment is available at www.WeDemandABalancedBudget.com. Citizens can take the pledge on the site, and are able to search by state to see how many others have taken the pledge.  The site also allows groups to sign the pledge as a block of people and makes it easy to get friends and relatives involved.