The real Christian approach to taxes

I was reading a piece in the Wall Street Journal about religious groups in Illinois protesting the state’s income tax. No, it’s not what you think. Yes, they think the state income tax is unjust, but only because it doesn’t tax rich folks enough. Right now, the Illinois state income tax is a flat tax. These protestors want a progressive tax. In other words, the more you make, the bigger chunk they take, like the federal income tax.

“This is a moral imperative,” the Journal quoted Rev. C.J. Hawking as saying. “There are over 400 passages in the Bible that talk about God’s special concern for the poor.” Yeah, Reverend, and you are supposed to be the one taking care of them, not the government.

But this is the state of our nation these days. Too many religious institutions are shirking their responsibilities and insisting — and, in this case, protesting — that the government should do their job for them. It’s quite interesting that many of these same liberals are the ones who claim a separation of church and state, yet they believe the state is somehow obligated to answer the call of the Bible.

While Rev. Hawking and other so-called religious leaders protest the rich not being gouged, churches in Illinois are not only exempt from paying property taxes, they buy items without paying a sales tax. Nothing against churches, I’m a member of one, but they’re the last entities that need to pointing fingers at tax scofflaws. 

If Hawking and others are going to get biblical on us, the Bible says we should tithe. Maybe Hawking needs to look that word up. It means to give a tenth. There’s nothing in the Bible about a graduated income tax. In fact, there’s nothing in the Bible that says the state should be paying for the poor. Not that I’m against that, mind you, but there are too many people passing themselves off as poor when they’re not.

One of the primary responsibilities of a Christian church is to look after the less fortunate. That’s why you see so many charities that have been started around this country by churches. Prior generations understood that churches were called by God to help those less fortunate. This new generation of liberal theologists believe the government should do the work. They protest for higher taxes on the rich, when the rich are already paying the bulk of the taxes. They protest for a “living wage” instead of stepping in themselves to help folks who aren’t making it month to month.

To be quite honest, it makes me absolutely furious to hear so-called religious people scold anyone about not doing their fair share, especially the rich. To quote a CNBC headline, “The rich do not pay the most taxes, they pay ALL the taxes.” This was a story about a Congressional Budget Office report that revealed the top 40 percent of wage-earners in America pay 106 percent of the taxes. The bottom 40 percent pay negative 9 percent.

How can this be? The bottom half of wage-earners pay no income tax and the the bottom 40 percent get money through the Earned Income Tax Credit that they never paid in. In other words, they not only pay no income tax, they make money on Tax Day. 

Now, back to these “religious groups.” How Biblical is it to steal from those who produce and give it to those who don’t? Theft shrouded by a reverend’s robe is no less theft. In fact, stealing in the name of the Lord is the worst.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Food desert? How about brain desert

State social services officials in Louisiana have decided to enact new limits for welfare recipients. No longer will you be able to use your welfare card at lingerie shops, tattoo parlors, nail salons, jewelry stores, video arcades, bail bond companies, cruise ships, psychics, adult-entertainment businesses, nightclubs or bars. Which begs the question, why in the world were you ever able to use your welfare card at these places?

The Louisiana legislature is trying to codify the changes into law. How many other states are allowing our tax dollars to pay for a cruise for some deadbeat? It’s absolutely infuriating.

State officials say there’s only so much they can do about the abuse because the cards can be used at ATMs to get cash. Hello! This is the easiest thing to fix I have ever seen.

The leftists think tanks and advocacy groups do their level best to shroud the obvious but there’s no denying that poor people in this country are the fattest. The liberals claim all sorts of nonsense like “food deserts” and “food insecurity.” The fact of the matter is there’s no excuse for anyone to be food insecure. They hand out EBT cards like candy, especially if you have children. And food deserts? Please. The poorest people live in the cities and there are grocery stores all over the place.

So what’s the answer to why so many poor people are obese? This is the obvious answer the liberals try to keep hidden. People getting free food make poor choices. Now, in all fairness, junk food is generally cheaper because it’s subsidized through the farm bill. Oh, yeah. A lot of the junk food consumed in this country comes from corn, soybeans and wheat, three crops that get huge subsidies from the federal government. Your vegetable farmer gets virtually nothing from the government.

The answer is not to subsidize the vegetable farmer but to stop subsidizing everyone else. If lettuce and carrots were cheaper then, perhaps, more people would buy them but don’t bank on it. A large part of it is taste. Poor people seem to be suckers for junk food. They love it. Heck, I love it but I know it’s not good for me so I limit my intake of it.

And now we’re getting to the crux of the problem. How do you solve obesity among the poor and save the taxpayers a ton of money? 

First, no more cash advances from your welfare or food stamp card. That’ll keep welfare recipients from buying things they don’t need to be buying like beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets. Anything you need to purchase can be bought at stores with the card. 

Second, items need to be coded so that you can only by essentials with the cards. No lobster. No steak. No chips and cookies and soft drinks. You buy hamburger and chicken and fruits and veggies. Did you know that Papa Murphy’s Pizza now accepts EBT cards? And you wonder why poor folks are fat.

If Michelle Obama really cared about the obesity problem she’d be all over this idea but you’ll never hear her advocate limiting the food you can buy with an EBT card. Why? Because that’s how Democrats get re-elected. Why do think the food stamp rolls have exploded since Barack Obama got into office? Yeah, it’s all about keeping that base constituency satisfied. You talk about a riot, take away the junk food from the food stamp crowd and see what happens.

Fat and happy means one thing: Democrat votes. And they’re buying elections with your money.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Why are they poor?

Don’t you just hate it when people sugarcoat it rather than give it to you straight? If you answered yes you’re probably in the minority. We always talk about how we want some straight talk but then people get bent all out of shape when they hear it.

I’m going to lay some straight talk on you and each time I tell people this their body language tells me they’re getting defensive. It tells me they really don’t want to hear it but they need to

hear it. Facing the truth is the only way we’re going to solve problems. We overcomplicate things by ignoring the real reasons they exist.

Okay, here it is. Most poor people are poor because of the poor choices they make. Some of you are already bowing up on me but it’s true. Until we embrace that realization there’s nothing in the world that can be done to help the poor. If you coddle them or make excuses or just give them free stuff from the government you’re never going to improve their plight.

Kevin Williamson recently compiled some stats for National Review and they were eye-openers. He dug down into Census Bureau data and found that for the bottom income group there’s an average of 0.42 earners per household. What exactly does that mean? It means that there’s less than one person per every two poor households that’s working. To illustrate it another way, 68.2 of the households were not working at all. Imagine that. In almost 70 percent of the poorest of the poor households there was no one working. 

At the other end of the spectrum, the top income group averaged 1.97 workers per household. Almost 2 workers per household at the top. Only 13.3 percent of the top income group had no one working. I know it sounds elementary but when nobody’s working in your household you’re going to be poor.

Marriage was another big discrepancy. For the top earners, 78.4 percent of those families were married couples. It was only 17 percent for the lowest income group.

The data don’t lie. The clearest way to get out of poverty is to find a job, work hard, get married and stay married. You may say that’s an oversimplification but at least we should encourage that first before we start all the excuses why poor people can’t get ahead.

Other habits contribute to poverty. How many times have you had to stand behind someone buying one of those irritating lottery tickets? ‘Let’s see, give me two Pick-Six. Naw, make that one Pick-Six, three Aces & 8’s, two Find the 9’s. Naw, forget all that. I’m gonna do the Jumbo Bucks.’ ‘Will that be all?’ ‘Yeah, well, naw. And two packs of Marlboro Reds and this 12-pack of beer.’

And all you wanted was to pay for gas on Pump 5 because the credit card reader was broken. By the way, that transaction you just witnessed was north of 30 bucks and for some poor folks it happens several times a week. Sometimes every single day. Notice you don’t see much of that over in the rich section of town. 

If I were emperor-for-a-day no one taking any kind of government handout would be allowed to buy lottery tickets, alcohol, tobacco or drugs. I would pee-test them for the aforementioned substances and find a way to restrict lottery ticket sales. Oh, okay. If I’m emperor, I eliminate the lottery entirely.

Until then, we have to shoot straight with people. Bad choices have bad consequences.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.