Here’s today’s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

An alternative the budget sequester. They say politics is downstream of culture. So, let’s take a quick journey downstream.

Here’s my suggested alternative to those proposed across-the-board cuts that were designed to be so devastatingly painful to both the military and domestic programs that they would force President Obama and the Congress to work out a budget deal to avoid them. Which, of course, hasn’t happened.  May I suggest that it’s because the pain is being inflicted on people other than those charged with solving the problem.

How about this? Throwout the current sequester deal and replace it with one that cuts in half the salaries of the President, his White House staff and congressional members and their staffs until such time that a budget deal is reached that A.)  balances the budget within ten years and B.) sets the U.S. on a course that pays off its debt within 50 years. It seems to me to be only reasonable that he burden of governmental inaction on the budget and debt by borne by those whose job it actually is fix those problems.

Oh, and one more thing. Did you hear Dr. Benjamin Carson speak at the National Prayer Breakfast? He elaborated on his views via some TV news channel interviews, including this conversation with Larry Kudlow on CNBC:

Here he is in 2007 talking about the formation of his perspective:

Dr. Carson’s story, in fact, is so inspiring that it was turned into a 2009 TNT TV movie called Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the title role.

That’s one I want to check out. And, boy, I’d love to see this guy run for president.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11