That’s how much our new administration has spent in the first 51 days between the Stimulus Bill and Omnibus Bill. Thanks Mitch McConnell for breaking this down for us.

I’m not sayin’…I’m just sayin’.

In his recent speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Obama outlined the need for better education in our schools, and how reforming education will help keep our country as an economic leader in this world. Our President called for a time where we expect more from our students; a time where we reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. He also called for tougher test standards: “The solution for lower test scores is not lower test standards – it’s tougher, clearer standards.”

While I agree with Mr. Obama that education is extremely important and an area where we need to greatly improve (especially within public schools), I do not hold the same level of belief that education is the answer to our problems. In his speech, President Obama stated that “America will not remain true to its highest ideals – and America’s place as a global economic leader will be put at risk – unless we…do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters; unless we give them the knowledge and skills they need in this new and changing world.” I don’t believe that the current state of our economy has anything to do with a lack of education, but rather closer to do with the condition of the heart. For example, Bernie Madoff caused the loss of billions of dollars of his investors’ money. Was Madoff poorly educated? He graduated from Hofstra with a Political Science degree. Although he did not finish, he attended Brooklyn Law School for a while. As the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, it’s clear that he was considered a sharp, bright man.

Let’s look at Dick Fuld, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers. Fuld received his B.S. from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Shortly after declaring the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros., Fuld, along with 12 other company executives, received a grand jury subpoena in connection to three criminal investigations related to the securities fraud associated with the collapse of the firm. I don’t think the lack of education is the cause here, either.

Corporate greed was a big contributing factor to the current brokenness of our economy and the erratic behavior of the stock market, not lack of education.

More education is not the solution to staying ‘true to our highest ideals,’ as Mr. Obama put it. While education is useful and necessary to maintain the status of our country, it is not the answer. The system is not flawed; people are. A college degree does not solve the problem of crime. It only helps to refine the complexity of the crimes committed. It takes a well-educated man to pull off what Madoff did.

America, let’s return to the values of our founding fathers. We must return to a reverence for God.

Education does not bring change, Christ does. For some, President Obama stands as a symbol of hope while they miss out on the One who brings a greater, lasting hope. Let’s join together and seek God for our country’s healing as did our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln in his Thanksgiving Proclamation:

“And I recommend to [the American people] that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”