The Catholic Perspective on the Election of 2012

The election of 2012 presents us with multiple issues that pertain to our faith and for the first time the ability to practice it freely. We as Catholics are called to follow our faith and conscience as we reflect on the issues pertaining to our choice of candidates. It is our moral duty to examine the candidates’ positions and beliefs, their consistency with our Church teachings and promoting our values. We are called to be living examples of promoting the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and spreading the Churches’ teachings through our actions, words and deeds. The election process is a key example of how we can promote Catholic values through selecting candidates who will embrace and defend our principles.

This election we have several issues that relate directly to our Catholic faith. We have the issue of legalized abortion, protecting the sanctity of life from conception. The Church has always promoted a pro-life position and advocated for us to consider this as we choose our candidates to represent us. We have the issue of protecting the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman as the foundation of society. The Sacrament of Matrimony is clearly defined and celebrated throughout Scripture. The issue of supporting gay marriage runs counter to our beliefs and church teachings throughout the centuries that matrimony is blessed by God and is an instrument of God’s will to bless us with children. The promotion of gay marriage clearly runs counter to our teachings, beliefs and the best interests of society as a whole. We cannot fall into the trap of those who would argue that gay marriage is about discriminating against gays and taking away their rights.

We also have the fight to preserve our first amendment right to Freedom of Religion which for the first time ever in American history is under attack. The Church is being forced to choose between continuing our ongoing mission to provide essential services to the community, through our charitable organizations that serve the poor, our hospitals that serve the sick, our universities that help to promote higher learning and our Christian values and go against our conscience, religious beliefs and church teachings or stop providing these essential services. The pundits have taken to calling this an attack against women when nothing could be further from the truth. This is not about denying women access to contraceptives, but about denying us our God given right to follow our religion and religious positions without interference from the federal government. A major reason why the first immigrants came here was to escape state sponsored religion and establish freedom from government sponsored religion. This is an unprecedented federal government attempt to undermine one of the major tenets of our system of government which provides for freedom to practice our religion free from federal interference, we cannot allow it to be undermined. This is an issue we cannot take lightly as the next president could conceivably be able to choose two Supreme Court Justice Nominees during this next term which could affect the direction of the court for many years to come. We Catholics must stand up united on Election Day defending the positions that define us. We must help this nation find its moral compass so that God may continue to bless this great country.

The Truth About Medicare

There have been many political ads trying to scare America’s seniors into believing that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wish to end Medicare and break our commitment to our seniors, nothing could be further from the truth. Quite to the contrary, they are the only candidates who have promised to keep Medicare benefits for all Americans 55 or older. Beginning with keeping the $716 billion dollars being taken out by Obamacare to help fund it, believing our seniors deserve what they paid into and worked for their whole lives, and were promised. Obama made no effort to strengthen the program in his first term, ignoring Medicare completely, knowingly allowing it to head towards bankruptcy making it unavailable to future generations.

Obama’s plan allows Medicare to go bankrupt in 2024 without offering a solution. It takes over $716 billion from the program for Obamacare and then empowers 15 bureaucrats to make further cuts who are unelected and unaccountable to congressional overview. The Romney approach differs greatly from Obama’s; together with Paul Ryan they have bipartisan support for keeping benefits intact for anyone 55 or older. They also want to ensure that the promises made to all other Americans are sustainable and will be there when they need it. Obama‘s trying to scare you because as he said himself as a candidate in 2008, when you have no new ideas to offer, no record to run on, you resort to trying to use scare tactics against your opponent.

The truth is there’s been a lack of leadership, four years and nothing to brag about but the passage of Obamacare, a hugely unpopular law adding one trillion dollars in taxes on top of the theft of over $700 billion from Medicare to pay for it. We were told it was not a tax yet it is actually the largest tax increase in American history The Romney, Ryan plan is to keep that money in Medicare where it belongs and work from day one towards enacting the full repeal of Obamacare. This alone eliminates a trillion dollar tax increase, while undoing another entitlement program that we ultimately can’t afford. The president promised he would cut the deficit in half in his first term, another broken campaign promise, instead he added $5 trillion in additional debt, all in just four years. Spending without budgeting restraint, helped by the fact that ally Senator Harry Reid has not allowed a vote on a budget on the Senate floor since 2009.

The choice on Medicare is simple, you have Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan vowing to keep our promises to all Americans 55 or older while working on a bipartisan plan to ensure we can offer future generations a Medicare program they can rely on. The other choice is Obamacare and its decimation of Medicare by stealing over $716 billion, straddling us with debt, building an entitlement program with a trillion dollar tax increase on top of the $5 trillion dollars he has added to the deficit. Unfortunately Obama’s distorting the Romney plan, because after four years he has no plan, no vision and no record. No path towards saving Medicare while speeding up its destruction so he must resort to scare tactics.