Keeping heavy tax burden on poor called immoral

[SharonAnn]

Very interesting article and it might actually work here in the religious fundamentalist South.

http://www.knoxville.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_2150676,00.html

Keeping heavy tax burden on poor called immoral
By TOM SHARP, Associated Press
August 1, 2003

NASHVILLE - Tax systems that put an unfair burden on the poor are worse than bad policy, they are morally wrong, a law professor from the University of Alabama told Tennessee's Tax Structure Study Commission on Thursday. Susan Pace Hamill, a tax attorney, law professor and Methodist, became part of Alabama's running tax debate after she wrote a master's thesis for the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University titled "An Argument for Tax Reform Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics."

<snip>

She said that during a yearlong sabbatical at Beeson, which is affiliated with the Baptist church, she went through the Bible with evangelical scholars to identify the major points where justice is addressed and arrived at "two ironclad moral concepts."

"Regressively taxing the poor is oppression. It's bad tax policy, it's bad economic policy, it's stupidity and it's morally wrong," she said. "If the poor kids have no chance, the moral value of your community is money and power. It's mammon. And as the Old Testament tells us, that community will eventually devour itself."

"You cannot oppress the least of these, the poorest and most vulnerable," she said. "And if your community reflects godly moral values, the least of these must have at least a minimum shot to better themselves."

<snip>

"Regressively taxing the poor is oppression. It's bad tax policy, it's bad economic policy, it's stupidity and it's morally wrong," she said. "If the poor kids have no chance, the moral value of your community is money and power. It's mammon. And as the Old Testament tells us, that community will eventually devour itself."


Iowa: Our liberties we prize, our rights we will maintain.
Tennessee: Agriculture and commerce

[Sweetpea]

1. Very interesting

[ClintonTyree]

2. The Bible and God itself...............

are only invoked by Conservatives when it suits their purpose. That a vast majority of Americcans consider Rebublicans the moral guardians of our country astounds me. It's another of those lies perpetrated by the Cons and the "liberal media" is complicite in it's support for those lies. I remember when the press did their jobs and weren't employees of the right wing. Good article though, it begs the question, "would Jesus be a Republican".

[JackSwift]

3. The "cons" consider poor people

to be cheap labor and a tax base. They think of them as sub-human and only put on earth to make life better for them.

[Yupster]

4. I never heard of progressive taxation in the bible

It speaks of titthes -- 10 % of your income off the top -- it doesn't say a tithe is 20 % for the rich and 2 % for the poor. Now Jesus and Paul talked about giving away everything and trusting in god to provide for you. Any idea where they're getting the progressive tax idea in the bible from?