Posted on 12/01/2004 6:04:00 PM PST by OklaRancher
I belong to a Methodist Church in a rural area with a small congretion of 30 or so. This past Sunday the Pastor started his sermon by saying how much good the Bush tax cut could have done if it had been used to alleviate poverty.
While I don't have hard facts in front of me at the moment, I hope that you get what your looking for and set your pastor straight.
Just tell him you gave part of your tax cut as tithing to the church instead of letting the government fund the ACLU, National Endowment for the Arts (cross in urine), and planned parenthood.
If your pastor believes that more taxes equals giving to the poor, ask him how much of his income above the required amount he gives to the government. Liberals are so screwed up. They actually believe that taxes equal charitable giving. This is why the states that are taxed the highest (all blue) have the LOWEST per capita giving despite having 50 million FEWER adults.
The Methodist Church has been taken over by liberals who don't even bother to read the bible. Find a good Southern Baptist church and go there.
We've spent 4-6 trillion dollars in the "war on poverty" in the past 40 years. At what point do you accept that a transfer of wealth doesn't work.
It's the old "give a man a fish........."
Some people will be poor even if given a million dollars. There will just be a short period in their life that they weren't poor.
You might want to remind the pastor that taking care of the poor is the moral responsibility of (properly led)Christians as individuals, not the Government.
In any well functioning economy the gap between rich and poor will always be getting larger as there will always be people with zero.
You're going to have a very tough time disputing what the preacher says...However; when you find out his/her views on queer preachers and marriage, Israel, salvation, etc.,, you probably would have walked out anyway...
i was told once that for every dollar the USG spends (taxes) the private sector would turn that dollar over 5 to 7 times. i think there is some truth to this but not sure of exact numbers
Ask him how much LBJs Great Society has spent on stamping out poverty and why it's been such a failure.
The tax cut will alleviate more poverty the way it's being worked now than if double the amount had been tendered to the poor in the form of handouts.
I don`t have any idea the theology of the church you attend but if this is an issue of more pressing concern than salvation through Jesus it may be time to find another place of worship.
As far as your search for facts, this web page; http://www.econ.umn.edu/~bplatt/Rational/TaxCuts.htm gives some factual information directly related to the Bush tax cuts as well as a tax chart showing who got what cut and how they were effected economically. A quote from the page being
"Bear in mind that this is actual historical data coming straight from the 1040 forms that you and I submit - we aren't just talking about what happened "in theory," but what actually happened. Notice that every taxpayer earning less than $200,000 dollars received a tax cut, effectively giving them between a 1.4% to 2.6% raise in income. Remarkably, the only people seeing savings of 2% or more are those earning less than $20,000. The idea that the tax cut only helped the rich is complete falsehood."
Hopefully this'll help in your search.
in order for government to end poverty, they must hire four people to oversee the spending, one to collect, one to verify collection, one to verify distribution and one to distribute. for those government employees, poverty ends. unfortunately, the government does not earn money, but must take it from taxpayers. these taxpayers if not supporting government, would be supporting charities that actually would help the poor.
you will not change your pastor's mind... you are better off in another church.
teeman
Rodney King is a prime example. He got millions after his nationally televised role as an LAPD piñata, but pissed it all away and wound up back in jail inside of two years. Poverty isn't a financial circumstance, it's a state of mind.
Those are good ones. Private charity is simply far more effective that government spending:
"...if an individual gives a dollar to charity, he should be able to reduce his tax liability by a dollar. Since current federal welfare spending is equivalent to 41 percent of the revenue generated from personal income taxes (for all major means-tested programs), the credit could be capped at 41 percent of tax liability.
Private charities are able to individualize their approach to the circumstances of poor people in ways that governments can never do. For example, private charities may reduce or withhold benefits if a recipient does not change his or her behavior. Private charities are much more likely than government programs to offer counseling and one-on-one follow-up rather than simply providing a check. "
"Private charities are also much better able to target assistance to those who really need help. Because eligibility requirements for government welfare programs are arbitrary and cannot be changed to fit individual circumstances, many people in genuine need do not receive assistance, while benefits often go to people who do not really need them. More than 40 percent of all families living below the poverty level receive no government assistance. Yet, more than half of the families receiving means- tested benefits are not poor. Thus, a student may receive food stamps, while a homeless man with no mailing address goes without. Private charities are not bound by such bureaucratic restrictions."
"In 1965, 70 cents of every dollar spent by the government to fight poverty went directly to poor people. Today, 70 cents of every dollar goes not to poor people, but to government bureaucrats and others who serve the poor. Few private charities have the bureaucratic overhead and inefficiency of government programs."
Read the whole thing at the Cato institute website. Its a congressional testimony.
http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-ta3-9.html
No sorry that's wrong, they just let us keep more of our money already earned.
Matthew 26:11 "26:11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always."
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