This is Pastor Tim’s Article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Monday, July 27, 2020
A few months back, I wrote an article about Kanye West and the new Christian album he put out. I appreciated the fact that he used his platform to promote Christianity. I am sure that none of you find it surprising that I would be very much in favor of his efforts.
I also watched a YouTube video in which he tearfully and passionately spoke up about how close his mother was to aborting him and how happy he was to be alive today. I don’t want to get into the whole political debate on the legality or morality of abortion, but any argument that doesn’t take into account there are two lives involved in an abortion is ignoring half the issue. I appreciated Kanye speaking about how grateful he is to be alive. I think that is an excellent way to balance the argument.
I was a little shocked to hear that Kanye is now running for president. I am wondering why that is as I thought he supported President Trump. He is running as an independent; his party is the Birthday Party. I had to chuckle at the creative name even if I don’t know what the name is supposed to mean.
Now, in his first campaign promise, I see that he has promised 1 million dollars to any family with children. Ok, Kanye, you had me interested up to this point. I did not do any research on who qualifies for this, but depending on how you define a family with children, this is the vast majority of households in the United States. As I am forced to ask all the time, where is the money for this program coming from? Even if we confiscated all of the money in United States, I don’t think we would get enough money to cover this bill. Look, I am all for helping families and am not opposed to this because I would not be eligible for it, but I just feel the need to point out that the government doesn’t make any money. It doesn’t produce anything, sell anything, or provide services for profit. The government cannot generate money. The only way the government has any money to do anything, from social assistance to road construction and upkeep, is because they use 100% of all money that comes from taxes.
Kanye, my man, in order to pay a bill like that, you are going to need massive, and I mean massive, amounts of cash. Unless you are going to set up a Ponzi scheme (which is illegal), there is no way that you will be able to make that much money come out of the economy without bankrupting the country or causing inflation to go crazy until $1,000,000 has the purchasing power of $100. What that means is, with that kind of inflation, what $100 would buy you today would take $1,000,000 to buy in the future. That is why gasoline used to cost a nickel a gallon and the annual salary used to be far under $9,000 a year.
I am writing this article because I think that people are starting to look at elections like they look at the lottery (which is nothing more than a tax on the poor.) They vote for who is giving them the most with no regard to how much it costs to give them their winnings. We need to go back to voting for the best interest of our country, and that means voting in ideologies and plans that will promote good jobs and safe communities. You have to decide what party represents that as the argument could be made for both. But to vote for a candidate because she or he promises to confiscate someone else’s money to give it to you is not in the best interest of our country. We need to go back to a system where we are able to make a good living working harder and smarter and saving.
I love you, Kanye. I have respect for what you have done and what you have the potential to do. I want you to keep faith in the eyes of our kids because you can reach more people in a day than I will in my lifetime. That is why I don’t want you wasting time on this silliness. This presidential run is so out there that it comes off like a publicity stunt and since you are one of the few voices out there people will listen to, we need you to use your voice to spur conversation, not deepen the divide.