Archives

Monday, August 13, 2012

400-408 – Garry Poole, was evangelism pastor at Willow Creek for 16 years, before joining up with Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg at The Institute at Cherry Hills (chcc.org/the_institute.aspx, 303-791-4100).  Today, we talk about his blueprint book Seeker Small Groups: Engaging Spiritual Seekers in Life-Changing Discussions (2003) (Amazon).  Christians need to get out of their Holy Huddle and create non-threatening opportunities to engage non-believers on the big issues.  Keys to launching a "gathering" – 1) Catch the vision: non-Christians matter.  2) Build strong bridges of trust.  3) Extend an invitation to a gathering.  4) Launch the first meeting.   5) Facilitate captivating discussions.  6) Maximize your impact.   He's got a book on 1001 conversation starters entitled The Complete Book of Questions (2003) (Amazon). Garry says the key is to live in "3D" – to Develop new friendships, Discover their story, then Discern the next steps.  He asks, "Who's your one life?"  Who is the one person you're praying for that is far from God?

413-423 – Garry Poole,

428-438 – Garry Poole,  

443-452 – Garry Poole,

458-508 – CALLS – Paul Ryan: good pick, bad pick?

• RCP (8/13/2012) Obama: "A New Vision Of An America In Which Prosperity Is Shared"

"Too many folks still don't have a sense that tomorrow will be better than today. And so, the question in this election is which way do we go?" President Obama asked at a fundraiser in Chicago on Sunday.

"Do we go forward towards a new vision of an America in which prosperity is shared?" Obama asked. "Or do we go backward to the same policies that got us in the mess in the first place?"

512-523 – CALLS – Paul Ryan: good pick, bad pick?

LINER – Don't miss "Pathway to Victory" with Robert Jeffress now at it's new time, weekdays at 10am!

528-539 – CALLS – Paul Ryan: good pick, bad pick?

544-554 – • Mitt Romney Speech Before Introducing Paul Ryan as VP Pick

(:35) 01-MR-PR Intro

(:40) 02a-MR-PR Character

(:29) 02b-MR-PR Character

(:26) 03-MR-PR Freedom Justice

(:32) 04a-MR-PR Energy & Vision

(:44) 04b-MR-PR Common Ground

(:14) 05-MR-Solutions

(:23) 06-MR-Opportunity 4 Success

(:11) 07-MR-Care Work4Welfare

(:26) 08-MR-Poverty, Preserve Medicare

(:14) 09-RM-Repeal Replace Obamacare

(:35) 10-MR-Better Days Ahead

558-608 – • Paul Ryan Vice President candidate speech from August 11, 2012

(:27) 01-PR-Romney Man 4 This Moment

(:36) 02-PR-WI Rep Experience

(:23) 03-PR-Crucial Moment

(:24) 04A-PR-Dad Words 1

(:31) 04B-PR-Dad Words 2

612-623 –

(:34) 05-PR-Save American Dream

(:33) 06A-PR-Obama Inherited Difficult Economy

(:38) 06B-PR-Record of Failure

(:30) 07-PR-Running Out of Time

(:18) 08-PR-Politicians from Both Parties Empty Promises

(:50) 09-PR-POV New Normal 

(:17) 10-PR-America on Wrong Track

(:22) 11-PR-BiPartisan You Did Build That

(:29) 12-PR-Bain Success

(:25) 13-PR-Romney Gov Record

(:36) 14-PR-Pride in Success

628-639 –

(:23) 15-PR-America Is An Idea

(:25) 16-PR-Equal Opportunity (Not Equal Results)

(:30) 17-PR-Idea Under Assault

(:18) 18-PR-Won't Blame

(:27) 19-PR-We Will Honor You

(:22) 20-PR-We Can Turn This Thing Around

(:27) 21-PR-Unite America

644-656 –

•• Stephen Moore (8/12/2012, WSJ) The Kempian Roots of Ryanomics: Like his mentor Jack Kemp, Paul Ryan understands that growth makes a balanced budget easier to achieve.

// Mr. Ryan has made clear in his budget and has educated his congressional colleagues that with a growth rate of less than 2% you can never cut government spending or raise taxes enough to balance the budget. At what is now the explicit Romney-Ryan target of 4% annual growth, deficit reduction and fiscal stability would be achievable, and with much less pain and suffering. When I recently asked Mr. Ryan whether 4% growth was reasonable, he responded: "It should be easy. Under Reagan we had growth rates of 7% and even 8%."  

The centerpiece of Mr. Ryan's growth plan is a robust tax reform. The Ryan budget would cut the top personal income rate and the corporate tax rate to 25% (10% for the middle class) while eliminating unproductive loopholes that complicate the tax code. Lower tax rates in the 1960s, 1980s, and even in the Bush years (2003-07) accelerated growth.  [And eliminate the estate tax and alternative minimum taxes.] 

// The difference between the Obama spending baseline over the next decade and the Ryan baseline is just over $5 trillion. Mr. Obama would allow the debt to grow by $10 trillion over the next decade, while under Mr. Ryan that growth would be cut in half. Mr. Ryan's House Republican budget would lower the debt as a share of GDP to 50% from 72.5% now, while the ratio rises under Mr. Obama.

The Obama fiscal strategy has taken federal spending from 20% of GDP to 24.1% in 2011, while Mr. Ryan's budget would slowly return the spending locomotive to 19.8% within a decade. That's a giant difference.

Mr. Ryan's budget is also aimed at reducing what he calls "the dependency culture" in Washington. Mr. Obama publicly acknowledges the entitlement time bomb, but his presidency has resulted in expanding dependency on Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance, student aid, mortgage subsidies, and on and on. Fifty-seven percent of American households now receive a government check or service every month.

• Fox News (8/12/2012) Paul Ryan bio emerges with insightful, unexpected stories.

• Fox News (8/13/2012) An emotional homecoming for Paul Ryan.

• NRO Editors (8/13/2012) The Return of Mediscare.

On CNN yesterday, Obama strategist David Axelrod claimed that "most of the experts who have looked at this" have said that Paul Ryan's plan to reform Medicare would put the program "in a death spiral" and "would raise costs on seniors by thousands of dollars." A day earlier — as Representative Ryan was preparing to accept Mitt Romney's offer to join his ticket — Obama campaign manager Jim Messina had said the plan involved "shifting thousands of dollars in health-care costs to seniors."

None of this is true. Any expert who looks at Ryan's plan — any intelligent and fair-minded person, really — can tell you the actual worst-case scenario for how much more it could make beneficiaries pay: $0.

The claim Axelrod and Messina are making is based on a hostile interpretation of an earlier version of Ryan's proposal. Ryan has changed the proposal over the last year, however, and Romney has endorsed the new version. The Democratic criticism, applied to the new plan, is indisputably false.

The Romney-Ryan proposal — which has the support of liberal Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon — would let senior citizens choose a coverage plan provided either by the federal government or by a private company. The government would defray the cost of purchasing the plan selected. The providers would submit bids showing the premiums they would charge to cover the benefits Medicare has traditionally offered. The second-lowest bid would set the amount the government would provide for each beneficiary.  

Seniors who picked the second-cheapest provider would have their entire premium paid by the government, and seniors who picked the cheapest would get a check for the difference. Seniors who picked a more expensive plan would have to pay the difference out of pocket.

• Michael Barone (8/13/2012, NRO) Entitlement Crisis Takes Center Stage.

• NRO Editors (8/11/2012) Just the Ticket.

• NYT Editorial (8/12/2012) The Romney-Ryan Plan for America.

• Catalina Camia (8/13/2012, USA Today) USAT/Gallup Poll: Paul Ryan gets low marks for VP.

• Kimberley A. Strassel (8/12/2012, WSJ) Why Romney Chose Ryan: His running mate offers Romney the opportunity to explain to Americans that they have a choice between national stagnation and renewal.

• WSJ Editors (8/11/2012) The Ryan Choice: Romney selects a leader of the GOP's reform wing.

• Bob Unruh (8/10/2012, WND) CITY: CHRISTIANS CAN'T GIVE WATER TO THIRSTY – But challenge says ban on handing out drinks violates Constitution.

• (2X) Rep Paul Ryan to the President at the Health Care Summit in February 16, 2010 (YouTube).

PR FEB 2010 #1 – "We don't think the government should be in control of all this, we want the people to be in control."

PR FEB 2010 #2 – "If you think the people want a government take over of health care, I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them."

• Fox News (8/13/2012) Ryan could bring senior, female votes to GOP ticket despite Dem narrative.

• (2X) Romney & Ryan on 60 Minutes. • Hot Air (8/13/2012) Video: Romney, Ryan play offense on Medicare in 60 Minutes appearance.

This is the part that readers claim was edited out of the broadcast, which if true would be journalistic malpractice:

Ryan added, "My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they've organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger. And we think these reforms are good reforms. That have bipartisan origins. They started from the Clinton commission in the late '90s."

(:37, :21) 60 Min-Romney Medicare, August 12, 2012.

(:31, :30) Eric Fehrnstrom, Mitt Romney's Campaign Manager, Points Out to Stephanie Cutter, Obama's Campaign co-chair, about Obama's $700B Medicare cut.

(:41, :27) Paul Ryan and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, February 16, 2012.

• Charles Krauthammer (8/10/2012, NRO) The Case Against Reelection.