Glenn Beck: Bush's Compassionate Conservatism Must 'Die Violent Death'

[roo_ster]

Scout 26: Such a thing would of course be a violation of religious liberty, d'oh. However, I fail to see how all religious institutions paying an EQUAL tax rate would be a violation of freedom of religion.

Tax on what?  They are not a prophet profit making institution.

Anyways, there are both practical and traditional reasons for religious orgs' tax  exemption:

Practical:
1. Power to tax is power to destroy and, given the 1st Amendment, gov't ought not be in the religion-destruction business.
2. Not profit-making enterprises*.
3. Religious orgs are a net benefit to society, providing manifold benefits that outweigh any societal benefit that might accrue from taxing them.
4. Religious power is still power.  Power only respects power.  Therefore, we ought to nurture power centers outside of / in opposition to gov't

Traditional:
1. Religious institutions have been tax exempt in the West for centuries.
2. Even this was not enough for the English & others who settled America, who wanted even less gov't meddling in religion.

* Religious org tax exemption predates non-profit org tax exemption.  Non-profit tax exemption is likely an outgrowth of religious org tax exemption.

[Balog]

Just curious: do you support taxing charities of a non-religious nature? If I donate to CATO or the NRA is the fed.gov entitled to a % of that?

[Racehorse]

My question to MicroBalrog is this: would you rather give a tax exemption to charities and religions given the charitable work they do (food banks, homeless shelters, job programs, etc.) or have the government tax those entities, thereby reducing their ability to do charitable work, which must then be performed by government or not performed at all?

Personally, I'd rather have private entities fully enabled to do charitable work than leave it to the government.

[Sergeant Bob]

I once asked Micro on which side of the political spectrum in Israel he considered himself to be. He replied (IIRC) that he would be in the far right.

I think that might explain some of his views.

[MicroBalrog]

Just curious: do you support taxing charities of a non-religious nature? If I donate to CATO or the NRA is the fed.gov entitled to a % of that?

This is correct.

It's really beyond me why donations to the NRA-ILA are not tax exempt, because the NRA-ILA is 'political', but donations to JPFO (which goes around promoting political causes) are 'charity'. Donations to the Violence Policy Center are also tax-exempt, IIRC.

Tax on what?  They are not a prophet profit making institution.

If your expenditures are smaller than your income, isn't the difference your 'profit'?

Personally, I'd rather have private entities fully enabled to do charitable work than leave it to the government.

And you are fully correct on this.

However, what concerns me here is the giant manipulative power that being able to exempt stuff from the income tax gives the state. It creates an impetus for a giant amount of legislative wrangling, social tracking, lobbying (and therefore corruption). For example, the WaPo is arguing – even as I type – that newspapers should be considered non-profits and benefit accordingly. Some people want tax breaks for people who buy domestic cars. Other people want to take away the religious tax breaks from churches that speak out on political issues.

Do you think that the early Puritans would have stood for that?

Now, obviously, this sort of thing is not going to be viable unless you FIRST reduce the role of government and the role of taxes in society anyway.

[MicroBalrog]

I once asked Micro on which side of the political spectrum in Israel he considered himself to be. He replied (IIRC) that he would be in the far right.

In terms of economics and society, my views are on the far political right. I support the abolition of the graduated income tax and the welfare state, heavy penalties for violent crime, real gun rights for the citizenry (at least as good as in the United States or better), and limits on the power of the judicial branch. These are unacceptably radical ideas here.