This is Viewpoints for Sunday, March 5, 2017

Defense of offense?

The civilian hiring freeze is in effect, Congress is seriously discussing BRAC for the first time since 2011 and sequestration is still in place despite it “remain(ing) an unreasonable and inadequate budgeting tool to address the deficits and debt of the federal government.” General Mattis has been confirmed as the new Secretary of Defense. His strategy consists of three steps to quickly close readiness gaps and then build capability, especially in the Army. “…The ultimate objective is to build a larger, more capable, and more lethal joint force, driven by a new National Defense Strategy.”

Step one will review the Fiscal Year 17 budget and determine what shortfalls exist. Step two will relook at the FY18 budget addressing shortfalls and step three will revise the National Defense Strategy and modernize the services. His focus will be on the Army primarily; they have had the least modernization and have struggled just to recapitalize a force that has been fighting hard since 9/11.

The focus here is on military force, not civilians, which is about three quarters of the Robins Air Force Base population. The new strategy is expected to contain new business reform agendas, and will be driven from both the legislative and executive branches of government. Expect to see reform focused on defense acquisition that “will include horizontal integration across DoD components to improve efficiency and take advantage of economies of scale.”

Additionally, expect to see focus on BRAC or BRAC like actions to reduce unneeded infrastructure while increasing infrastructure that directly supports the “lethal joint force.” Finally, expect to see offsets from lower priority programs where appropriate, although what these programs are is unclear.

So, back to the civilian hiring freeze. While in effect for 90 days, expect to see it remain in place for the foreseeable future, as well as cuts in civilian numbers overall. This could well have a dramatic impact to the Middle Georgia area, especially if we are not articulating the importance of the programs currently at Robins AFB to our congressional and state delegations. As the base is held from filling vacated positions and hiring new positions, the current staff will have to work harder to make up the shortfalls.

Additionally, several programs on the base could well fall under the “lower priority programs,” such as JSTARS. Acquisition has barely begun on the new JSTARS and the current program is very expensive to maintain. The C-130 program has deceased year after year and will likely continue to shrink. Life Cycle Management could well see changes as defense acquisition is reformed.

To counter these potentially negative impacts to Middle Georgia, the community needs to focus on ideas and strategies. A strategic communication plan needs to be developed that is executable. We should accomplish a deep dive into all base programs now to appropriately prioritize resources. Waiting for a BRAC announcement is too late. We need to decide as a community whether we prefer to play defense or offense and act accordingly.

Poor care

Is it reasonable to put your life in the hands of a physicians assistant? Thus far my experience has been very questionable. After being thrown to the ground by a defective auger from a big box store, I was seen by a PA and it was a sham. My elbow was ripped open and scared terribly. He only glanced at it and turned me over to a nurse assistant. She put a plain bandage over it and walked out of the room. I quickly sought a reason for this lack of care. A real nurse came in to dress my wound and sent me on my way. When I tried to confront the box store, the report from the emergency room only showed bandage applied. End of game.

Now I go to a back surgeon, but again only a PA. Obviously the different knowledge levels of a PA and a trained surgeon are staggering. Here is just one of the problems. The PA makes maybe $150,000 and the real doctor gets between $800,000 and millions of dollars a year. Our care is in question.

Now comes the big question. How do they arrive at the level of compensation? Our already staggering debt is being pushed closer to the edge of the cliff by Medicare and Section 8 housing. So back to the bill. We are yet to see it, but be assured it will be very expensive.

I often wonder which is more ridiculous, the $60,000 commission to sell a high-end home by a (education level unknown) or $3,500 to be examined by a certified doctor and his staff of 10. Hmm.

Paul’s church?

There seems to be confusion concerning the difference between Jesus’ earthly ministry to the Jews and his current heavenly ministry to the church. In the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) we are given the account of Jesus coming to the nation of Israel as their Messiah to present the kingdom promised to them in the Old Testament. Except for a small number of believers, the nation as a whole under the leadership of the religious leaders rejected Jesus to the point of having him crucified.

After his resurrection, he sent his disciples to the nation of Israel again to give them a chance to repent of their rejection with Peter being the chief spokesman. You see this in Acts 1-7 where every sermon in these chapters mentions their having killed their Messiah. Many repented and were saved, but again the religious leaders rebelled and had Stephen put to death. God then set Israel aside (temporarily) and eventually raised up Paul.

Before Paul came along the Jewish believers understood Jesus’ death and resurrection for their salvation, but they didn’t understand that Jew and Gentile were to be equal in the body of Christ. It’s important to recognize that Paul was chosen by God to establish churches and set forth the doctrinal truths that they were to teach. Paul was given more revelation about the church than any other apostle and this revelation was given to him by Jesus Christ. All of this nonsense about “Paul creating a church for Gentiles and calling it Christianity,” comes from the minds of theologians who have long since rejected God and his word of truth.

This story was originally published March 4, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, March 5, 2017."