Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You . . .

This past week we remembered the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address.  It was a very different time.  It saw the passing of the torch from one generation to the next, from the generation that came of age in World War I to the that which emerged into public life through the Second World War.  It was a time of great anxiety due to perceived threats from an advancing communism, but it was also a period of growing affluence.  Religion was still "in," and there was a sense that Americans were in this together.  Of course, there were important issues that were getting papered over -- like those that would be identified with the emerging civil rights movement.  We were not yet at war in Southeast Asia, and we were ready to compete with the Soviets in the space race.

On that day in January of 1961, the new President, the youngest ever elected at the time, took the world stage and offered a call to America, a call to join together in a common cause.  The sentence that has come down through time still rings loudly, and yet it would appear that as a nation we are less inclined to heed its call.

On that day President Kennedy issued these words:

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."  

In our day, it seems that we are asking a very different question -- "What have you done for me lately?"  We went to war in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, but instead of calling for national sacrifice through increased taxes to pay for this war, we cut taxes, and passed on the debt to a later generation.  That decision is coming back to haunt us.  Even as talk of cutting the deficit is being heard in the Halls of Congress, the buck is being passed on to the States and then to local governments.  While Congress can enable the nation to print money, states, counties, and municipalities must try to balance budgets -- and they must do this without raising taxes, since there is no interest in paying more to keep existing services.  Now, what is interesting is that most Americans want to keep the status quo in terms of services, they just don't want to pay for it.

And when one state, such as Illinois, tries to raise taxes in order to balance its budget, other states seek to capitalize on this fact by trying to woo companies to move elsewhere.  In other words, competition among states is leading to cannibalization of the nation.

So, I come back to the point made fifty years ago -- What Can I do for my country?  And I ask this question from the perspective that my own ultimate allegiance is due not to the nation but to God.   

What Do the People Want?

As a new Congress is seated, one that has a tidy GOP majority in the House and a slimmer Democratic majority in the Senate, one of the big questions will be -- what do the people want?  John Boehner and Eric Cantor have made much of the fact that the GOP won "big" -- that is won the House in the most recent election.  This, they believe, gives them a mandate to undo all the bad things the Democrats did in the last Congress, which in their opinion the American people didn't want.  Well, if I remember correctly, in the previous (2008) election, the American people gave the Democrats, at least for a time, a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate, and an overwhelming advantage in the House -- plus they gave the White House to the Democrats.  So, you would have thought that 2008 gave the Democrats a mandate.  But, if you thought that -- according to Republicans -- you would be wrong. 

The way the Republicans seem to look at the 2008 elections is very different.  Consider that they keep on insisting, quoting Sean Hannity almost verbatim, that the Democrats "shoved down the throats of the American People" a health bill they didn't want.  Truth be told -- the poll numbers are much more complicated than many have been led to believe.  A sizable number don't like the Bill because it doesn't go far enough -- that is, they didn't like the compromise.  But if you take those who want a better, more far reaching bill, plus those who like the fact that a Bill got passed, and put them together you have a majority of Americans who favor government involvement in health care -- because they don't like the former system (now being fazed out).  Oh, and if they didn't want health care reform why did the American voters overwhelmingly support President Obama's bid for office.  I seem to remember him saying quite clearly that one of his top agenda points was health care reform!  Maybe I misheard him, but I think he made that clear in a debate with John McCain. 

Then there's the tax issue.  The Tea Party folks, which in my mind still seems to be a small but very loud minority, wants you to believe that all taxes are bad and that we should make the government really small -- sort of like it was at the beginning, back when Thomas Jefferson was advocating pretty much unfettered freedom.  What people seem to forget was that Jefferson came out of an Agrarian context much different from today.  When the Republic was founded the Industrial Age had yet to even hit America.  Folks -- things have changed a lot since 1800!  

People want services.  They want safe food, they want safe roads and streets, they want quality health care at an affordable price, they want good schools, but they're not thrilled about paying for them.  Read just the other day that a majority of Americans want taxes raised on the wealthiest Americans before budget cuts are made.  

So, Republicans, watch out -- you may be claiming the mantle of the people, but the people may have already moved on!   

Sacred Texts, Social Duty (DVD) -- Review

SACRED TEXTS, SOCIAL DUTY:  A Documentary by Ethics Daily.  (DVD)  Robert Parham and Cliff Vaughn, Co-Producers/Directors.  Nashville:  EthicsDaily.Com, 2010. 58 minutes.

            We know that people don’t like to pay taxes; that is clear from the political rhetoric of the day.   Who can forget the famous words of George H. W. Bush, who said so very clearly:  “Read my lips:  No new taxes.”  It was a promise that he couldn’t keep, but the blowback was so great that today it would seem un-American to suggest that taxes should be raised.  Although we like public services, such as roads, schools, police, fire departments, ambulances, libraries, and the like, we’d rather not pay for them.   And don’t get me started on those entitlement programs like Medicaid and welfare; though Medicare and Social Security seem sacrosanct in many quarters (remember that senior citizens do vote).   Our anti-tax mentality, when accompanied by an inability to figure out exactly where the fat is that can be trimmed, has lead to ever increasing budget deficits.   

Questions of taxation would seem to be political issues upon which the faith community would appear to have little to say, which may be why there are so few sermons on the subject.  After all, politics doesn’t belong in the pulpit.  Still, is it really true that our sacred texts don’t have anything to say about this issue?  Is there no word that can be spoken from a faith perspective on this issue, especially at this critical moment in the nation’s history?  These are the kinds of questions that are addressed in a splendid but challenging documentary from the people at Ethics Daily, who graciously provided me a copy of Sacred Texts, Social Duty to preview.  

The premise of this documentary is that the sacred texts of the three Abrahamic traditions do offer important guidance on the matter of taxation.   It’s not that God has a specific tax policy or method of taxation, but the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do speak of the need for funds to be gathered for the common good.  Consider that Moses levied a half shekel tax on the people of Israel for support of the community (Exodus 30:13).  Malachi even suggested that failure to pay the tithe should be considered robbing God.  As for Jesus, he consistently called for those who had funds to share them with those who did not, and he is famous for saying “Give to Caesar, that which is Caesar’s, and give to God that which belongs to God” (Mark 12:13-17); while hanging around with tax collectors.  Yes, he called on them to do their job justly, but he didn’t condemn the profession.  Paul, of course, called for submission to the authorities, whom God had placed in their positions for the common good (Romans 13:1-7).  And, according to the Qur’an, zakat, alms given for the provision of care to the poor is a pillar of Islam.   So, the question is:  do our sacred texts simply commend charity – that is voluntary giving – or do they encourage or allow for what we would call taxation?  

The documentary is divided into four segments – “Social Duty in the States”; “Social Duty in the Sacred Traditions”; “Social Duty in the Square”; and “Social Duty and the Pulpit.”  Contributors to the discussion come from all parts of the three Abrahamic traditions, and are drawn from North and South, East and West.  All are in agreement that in one form or another; the Scriptures allow for and encourage the gathering of funds for the common good.  Indeed, as Presbyterian Tami Sober puts it:  “Taxes are what we pay for the common good.” 

At the heart of the conversation is a matter of justice.  The scriptures of all three traditions are clear – God is concerned about justice.  Historian and Baptist Sunday School Teacher Wayne Flynt reminds us that Matthew 25 speaks not just about charity, but about justice.  He says in the film that “What we’ve done is sever ethics from social morality and reduce ethics to personal morality.  Also what we’ve done is say that justice is about charity.”  Rabbi Ben Romer of Virginia reminds us that in the Jewish tradition, government is charged with preserving justice for the entire community, therefore, he says that:

“The American government has the responsibility, as the government of the people, to provide for the needs of the people.  And certainly the synagogue and the mosque and the church has a responsibility beyond the government, but not in place of the government.”

             If taxes are appropriate way of providing for the common good from a faith perspective, then the next question concerns the kind of taxes that Scripture would deem appropriate.  Again, even though no particular tax method is outlined in Scripture, principles of justice would assume that the tax burdens not fall on those least able to pay.  That is, tax policy should be progressive not regressive.  As all the scriptures of all three traditions put it – those to whom much is given, much is expected.  Even Adam Smith agrees with this principle – as pointed out in the documentary, Smith wrote in the Wealth of Nations:   

 “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”   

A progressive tax is one that doesn’t fall heaviest upon those least able to pay – making sales taxes more regressive than income taxes, since often sales taxes fall even on essentials such as food.  Lotteries are also regressive forms of taxation, in fact they can be considered, as Baptist pastor David Wheeler puts it, “tax evasion.” 

            The assumptions that lie behind the film are that most people of faith want to do the right thing, and that the Scriptures of all three traditions call on governments, as well as individuals, to pursue justice and the common good.  It would appear that taxes are essential to this process, for services need to be paid for – something that seems lost on so many American today.  They decry the deficit, but want their taxes to reduced even as they demand more services.  Unfortunately, those who need help the most, too often don’t have the power to speak out for themselves, and thus they end up bearing the burden.    

The value of this documentary is that it raises important questions that people of faith need to wrestle with.  This film, therefore, is an excellent piece to be used in congregations to start that discussion, and fortunately a discussion guide can be found on the web site.  Congregations may want to divide the video curriculum into four parts, making for a month long study, or it could be used in one sitting, but the participants need to be ready to engage for a lengthy period of time.     As to why we would want to do this, perhaps Methodist pastor Philip Blackwell makes the best the case:

“If the public system of taxation as well as the delivery of services doesn’t reflect how it is that we are to care for one another, then it is the religious community’s responsibility not only to point that out, but to advocate and to organize in order to make sure that there is a kind of common care for people.”

Some might call this politics, but as the participants in this conversation are apt to point out, it is really a matter of a sacred duty, for God is concerned for justice and the common good.  And that, as they say, is preachable! And this DVD an insightful and important contributor to a conversation that needs to be undertaken.

Democrats Show Ineptness Once Again - Run Scared on Tax Cuts

I told you they had serious PR problems. Putting this issue up for a vote, forcing Republicans to defend tax cuts for the rich and daring them to vote against cuts for the middle class would have been a winner for the Dems. Harry Reid is incompetent, and I have been saying it for at least a year...not long after he became Senate Majority leader.

And one reason they are running scared (besides the Blue Dog weaklings worried about holding their seats) is because they may be preparing to cave altogether on the Tax issue, as I suggested weeks ago. After the election... watch them cave and renew all of the Bush Tax cuts...including the tax cuts for the rich, which will cost us $700 billion on top of the debt that all the other tax cuts and the other deficit spending will cost (which is in the trillions). Democrats are so scared of the Republican media machine that they are running with their tails tucked between their legs... with just the mere threat that they may be hurt by attack ads or specifically targeted to be unseated in the midterm elections. This is a perfect example of how powerful the right wing media is...and it is also an example of why there should be a Progressive alternative... a Progressive media infrastructure which could act as a counterbalance.

Can we resurrect Tip O'Neal or bring back George Mitchell? How about Adam Clayton Powell? Seems to be a lack of people with courage in Congress. The U.S. will end up in one crisis after another...instead of preventing the next crisis ahead of time with corrective policies, because everyone is more concerned with the next election.

America is screwed, especially if it can't get spending under control within a few years.

Related

The "Taxes Are Too High" argument is a Republican media illusion

Why the GOP's love of tax cuts hurts African Americans

At what point do Americans need to reconsider our old political stereotypes? I would say the time is long past due. For too long Americans have labored under the misunderstanding that the Republican Party is the party of fiscal discipline, low taxes and limited spending. The great mystery is how this myth survives year after year.

Read the rest at The Loop.

Obama Administration Under Pressure to Extend Bush Tax Cuts

The Obama Administration is under serious pressure to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Insiders have been suggesting over the past week, that Obama & Co. is flirting with the idea of caving. Extending these tax cuts would dig the nation into an even bigger debt hole. Once again Republicans - who claim to be concerned about annual deficits & the national debt - are saying one thing and doing another, as is normal for them.

The Republican media has carefully framed the expiration of the tax cut as a tax increase by Obama. The way that they manipulate the public through the media is just uncanny. They are making the Bush tax policy appear as if it was a permanent law and the evil Democrats are going to radically change tax policy. Of course this is all BS. The tax policy was never permanent...which is why the legislation is sun shining to be reconsidered by Congress. The cuts were temporary. This misconception (that Republicans purposely created) has allowed them to frame the scheduled expiration as an increase. This has been another textbook example of the power & influence of Conservative right wing media.

Commentary on why the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire.

The Politics of Stupidity...or More Accurately, The Stupidity of Our Politics

E.J. Dionne posted a great commentary today on Truthdig.

The Politics of Stupidity Strikes Again

Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid?

Start with taxes. In every other serious democracy, conservative political parties feel at least some obligation to match their tax policies with their spending plans. David Cameron, the new Conservative prime minister in Britain, is a leading example.

He recently offered a rather brutal budget that includes severe cutbacks. I have doubts about some of them, but at least Cameron cared enough about reducing his country’s deficit that alongside the cuts, he also proposed an increase in the value-added tax from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. Imagine: a fiscal conservative who really is a fiscal conservative.

That could never happen here because the fairy tale of supply-side economics insists that taxes are always too high, especially on the rich.

This is why Democrats will be fools if they don’t try to turn the Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year into an election issue. If Democrats go into a headlong retreat on this, they will have no standing to govern.

The simple truth is that the wealthy in the United States—the people who have made almost all the income gains in recent years—are undertaxed compared with everyone else.

Consider two reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. One, issued last month, highlighted findings from the Congressional Budget Office showing that “the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007,” the period for which figures are available.

The other, from February, used Internal Revenue Service data to show that the effective federal income tax rate for the 400 taxpayers with the very highest incomes declined by nearly half in just over a decade, even as their pre-tax incomes have grown five times larger.

The study found that the top 400 households “paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007, down from 30 percent in 1995.” We are talking here about truly rich people: Using 2007 dollars, it took an adjusted gross income of at least $35 million to get into the top 400 in 1992, and $139 million in 2007.

Read the Full Commentary from Truthdig.

Kill the Bush tax cuts, stop rewarding the rich during the recession

In another display of stunning hypocrisy, congressional Republicans continue their fight to reward the rich during the recession. During the upcoming campaigns, Republicans will claim to represent every American, but that’s hardly the case when it comes to tax policy. This time the battle is over whether Congress should extend Bush’s 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and the GOP is siding with the rich over the middle-class.

Read the rest at The Loop.

Denmark - a Model for the U.S.?

Denmark (and much of Europe) has a far better social welfare system and a better quality of life overall, than what you would find in the U.S. In Denmark, peace of mind touches far more people, or at least it seems that way from everything i've read or heard about Denmark. Middle class life is the established norm, and people will fight to keep it. The "least of these" and the working poor aren't left to fend for themselves. Greater emphasis is put on investing in infrastructure, education, health care, child care and other human needs.... needs of their own citizens. The approach in the U.S. is almost the opposite. Such programs are often the first things to be cut in a fiscal pinch, which provides a candid look at where these items fit on the list of the nations priorities. It's no coincidence that much of Canada's system is modeled after Europe, rather than its closest neighbor. But all of this is provided at a price.... higher taxes. This is something that I would be o.k. with, as long as my money was not horribly mismanaged or was spent on corrupt politicians.

Consider how our money is wasted here in the U.S.-- on corruption; on bailing out rich CEO's...almost directly funding obscene bonuses for corporate egg heads, many of whom couldn't change their own tire or manage their way out of a paper bag; wasted on some Senator's pork project; or supporting ill conceived wars and misguided foreign policy. Until recently, few Americans bothered to complain. But if something came along that could actually improve their quality of life (even for a fraction of the money that goes to waste each year), they fight tooth and nail against it. I never believed that this made much sense. They are o.k. with being robbed of their money each year for all sorts of wasteful, misguided purposes, but they won't fight for a better quality of life, better health care, education, etc. It's strange. I really think the difference in voter competence, voter engagement and voter education plays a big role in this.... as Europe tends to have a more astute electorate.

I would much rather have higher taxes with greater accountability and a much higher quality of life (a normal life). Is that socialism??? I don't see it that way... but call it what you want. I would rather live in dignity rather than in misery (almost in shame really). Right now I feel like a struggling slave in the private sector service economy. My American dream = being broke...no savings, shaky health care (as long as I don't get sick), in debt to the tune of $70,000 with no prospects for meaningful employment (all because I wanted to go to college), driving a POS car, decent place to live....and no woman/no dating (no money = no woman & extremely restricted social circle if any at all). Not that I am actively looking for one... the point is, even if I were looking I couldn't find what I wanted. I couldn't even mount the search if I wanted to in my current state. This is why more people go on rampages in the U.S. than anywhere else in the Western World. I wouldn't do it myself, but I can see how some of the motives develop.

Should the U.S. system change? (not that it will happen... ) But the current system driven by greed, corruption, and an economy that is based on the biggest gambling operation in the World - Wall Street and the hope that more Americans will go out to buy cheap products from Asia (esp. China) is a failed system. It has been proven time and time again to be a failed system.

Hear a segment from NPR about Denmarks system and how life is so much different for those who live there. Denmark has shown that taxes aren't the end of the World.