Millions of American Jews and Christians believe in tithing. There is a biblical basis for this belief, found in both Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible.
Tithing is commonly taught in conservative Protestant denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, Free Methodists, Baptist General Conference, Assemblies of God, and most Pentecostal groups and independent fundamentalists, as well as among Mormon groups like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the related Community of Christ denomination.
The United States has never collected a church tax or mandatory tithe on its citizens. Such a tax is likely prohibited by the First Amendment (specifically the Establishment Clause) to the US Constitution. The United States and its governmental subdivisions also exempt most churches from payment of income tax (under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and similar state statutes, which also allows donors to claim the donations as an income tax itemized deduction). Also, churches may be permitted exemption from other state and local taxes such as sales and property taxes, either in whole or in part.
President Obama is not a member of a church, has attended some form of church only sporadically since taking office, does not tithe, does not sit in a pew when the offering plate is passed, and does not financially support a church or synagogue. He simply does not practice or even hear what is preached each week from the many houses of worship in our nation.
Last night, July 22, 2003, President Barack Obama held a new conference to tout his healthcare proposals. He said the following:
"What I've said is that there may be a number of different ways to raise money. I put forward what I thought was the best proposal, which was to limit the deductions, the itemized deductions, for the wealthiest Americans."
The President plans to take money from charitable organizations and pour it into his governmental health care, use taxing and spending policies to replace the traditional role of churches and other charitable organizations with government handouts in his healthcare law.
So who is the money going to come from?
In last night’s press conference, President Obama has targeted families with incomes over $250,000. He proposes to limit itemized deductions on these families to increase their tax burden further. But who gets hurt the most when itemized deductions are eliminated? Consider the following:
Among its list of itemized deductions the IRS includes:
**Charitable contributions to Churches
**Charitable contributions to Synagogues
**Charitable contributions to Other Houses of Worship
**Charitable contributions to the Boy Scouts of America
**Charitable contributions to the Girl Scouts of America
**Contributions to the American Legion **Contributions to the Veterans of Foreign Wars
**Contributions to the Disabled American Veterans
The $250k+ families will not be allowed to deduct these contributions from their income tax, so the money that would have been set aside for donations will instead go to the federal government. The Administration, in their new budget, estimates that it will be able to take $318,000,000,000.00 (that's $318 billion) in taxes from these families. Much of this money would have gone to churches and other charities across America, but the President would rather pour the money into Washington's bureaucracies, especially the government run health care program.
Churches' poor boxes may be lighter and there may be a few less wheelchairs for our injured veterans or the Boy Scouts, but who needs private charity when we have the government to take care of everyone?
So who is the $318 Billion going to?
You can get a pretty good hint by reading the P. 9 of the President’s Budget and these repeated catch phrases within the printed budget as passed:
"...closing doors to the middle class..."
"...to enter the middle class..."
"...the ladder into the middle class..."
Although the burden of new taxes may cause some to move down the ladder into the middle class, the President is presumably talking about pulling the poor up to a better financial situation, with free health care coverage. How will he move them up? With $318 billion taken from churches and veterans groups, you can make a lot of poorer people "middle class" with a large check or two.
What does the President plan to do with all of the extra money? In addition to making a "down payment" on socialized health care, he plans to increase funding for social welfare through new and existing programs. Through initiatives such as the "Social Innovation Fund," (see the Obama Budget at p. 111) the President plans to use government spending to choose the winners and losers in the nonprofit sector. Instead of allowing individual Americans to give to the churches and charities of their choice, President Obama will take more money through taxes and hand it out as he sees fit in the form of a socialized health care policy. Since the government will decide which charities receive funding, only those that the government deems acceptable will be eligible for federal grants.
Make your voice heard
The American Success Story was built on the individual hard work and ingenuity of America's entrepreneurs. The Obama Administration wants its new Success Story to be built on government handouts to those Americans the President chooses. These handouts will be bankrolled through the confiscation of money from other Americans.
So far the President's Budget and healthcare bill are merely proposals, a dream by Mr. Obama and like-minded people. For the dream to become a reality, the President needs to get enough votes in the U.S. House and Senate. Below is listed the Name, Phone Number and Email for your congressman in the 6th and 7th C.D. and senators. You might want to give them a call and tell them what you think about the President's grand plan to impose a socialized medical plan to "level the playing field."
6th Congressional District - Mike Coffman
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-7882
Email: https://forms.house.gov/coffman/contact-form.shtml
7th Congressional District - Ed Perlmutter
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-2645
CO Phone: (303) 274-7944
Email: http://perlmutter.house.gov/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm
Senator Mark Udall
D.C. Phone: (202) 224-5941
Email: http://markudall.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
Senator Mike Bennett
D.C. Phone: (202) 224-5852
Email: http://bennet.senate.gov/public/?p=TransitionalSiteEmailSenatorBennet
Mike Robinson is the Senior Partner at Robinson & Henry, P.C., a law firm based in Castle Rock, CO. Robinson & Henry practices in financial matters including tax law.
Comments
but, I've always been told that rich conservatives are the most generous...so, if that's true, they will continue to give to the church even without the tax deductions, won't they?...are you saying that tax deductions are the only thing they care about when giving money to the church?
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