Raise My Taxes, Please!

[AllegroRondo]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/A945D2EBFDB49337862570A5003252F2?OpenDocument

Please stop talking about tax relief. I am not relieved.

I am not relieved when we spend billions in a war to which we are already committed, distribute more billions in necessary response to natural disasters, watch the national deficit steadily climb and then talk about tax reductions. And then - indignity of all indignities - suggest budget cuts to the neediest of the needy.

I am not relieved to know that those with the most will once again be favored. I am not relieved to know that the poorest among us will once again do with out the most basic medical care. I am not relieved to watch us borrow ourselves into oblivion.

It would be a great relief to me if you would just keep my alleged whopper of a tax windfall. You can use it to be fiscally responsible and morally responsive.

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This LTTE is from the St Louis paper, written by a local minister. The discaimer at the end is quite telling:

"The Rev. Timothy L. Carson is the senior minister of Webster Groves Christian Church. His commentary expresses his views and does not necessarily represent those of the members of the church. He is certain that some members would happily tar and feather him for advocating such social heresy."

[TygrBright]

1. And I bet that the senior minister of Webster Groves Christian Church...

...makes somewhere around, hmmm... be generous here... fifty, maybe sixty k? Seventy, maybe eight if it's really a well-to-do congregation. Probably not that much, though.

And if he's like a lot of the ministers I know, he's using his own cash to do tons of little things like buy extras for Sunday school kids from poor families, buy emergency supplies for congregation members in crisis, purchase materials for minor repairs to Church property, etc. And probably has two or three pet charities he gives to, as well.

Yeh. Raise HIS taxes.

But not the taxes of the well-to-do Church selectmen or Church Council members who have to be coaxed and ragged and guilted into just meeting their annual pledges to the Church's social welfare fund or Church maintenance fund. The ones who never show up to help sort and store and rotate and cull donations for the food shelf, but can always be found when the cameras are there, handing over bulging bags with a benevolent smile.

"The Pharisee stood in the front of the synagogue and prayed: 'Lord, I thank Thee that Thou hast not made me like these sinners, even such as the publican, there. I fast on the holy days, and tithe, and observe all thy ordinances.'

The publican stood in the back of the synagogue, and bowed his head and humbled himself, saying 'Lord, be merciful unto me, for I am a sinner.'

Which of these two, think ye, went down from the synagogue justified?"

mordantly,
Bright