Just as a review as to why I started this series “The Church v. the Angel of Light” I will recap the purpose. The Bible says Satan steals, kills, and destroys. To accomplish these goals, Satan lies, twists the Word of God, makes good appear as evil and evil appear as good…thus the angel of light. It is done with the intent that you will oppose the will of God which leads to bondage and destruction. It is the exact intent of the liberal platform. From abortion, to gay marriage, to wealth redistribution, to environmentalism, to sanctuary cities, to progressive taxes it is the liberal platform that is contrary to the Word of God. We will now look at the progressive income tax system and its effort to be ‘fair’ by liberal definition.
The angel of light in all his efforts to ‘level the playing field’ would propose that higher tax rates on the wealthy are needed to right the wrongs done to the poor and oppressed in society. The rich need to pay their fair share by liberal definition. Satan’s goal: penalize success and reward laziness which leads to destruction through greed, envy, and anger. The Bible gives us the “Parable of the Talents” in Matthew 25:14-30.
A liberal proposal to ‘level the playing field’ (which in reality is not possible to achieve) must be funded. There are no ‘free rides’. The only way to do this is to implement a progressive tax system, which taxes people at a higher rate for making greater amounts of money. I guess the definition of ‘progressive’ is in the eye of the beholder. The more successful a person is, the more they are required to pay. By my math 10% of $1,000 is $100 and 10% of $1,000,000 is $100,000. $100,000 is more than $100 but not by liberal math. That is just not good enough. It boils down to a system that rewards laziness and punishes success.
Many forgo some of the luxuries of life to invest in the future. They rely on earnings from investments to support retirement goals. But what about those who spend every cent they get on ‘wants’ and still expect the government to supplement their income? The money must come from somewhere. A past liberal president said,”I would look at raising the capital-gains tax for purposes of fairness.”…fairness to whom? Another liberal politician said,”The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues (the United States is), whether it’s individual, corporate… whatever the taxation forms are.” Since when is it the responsibility of one who manages finances to cover for those who don’t? Another ultra liberal politician said,”It is appropriate to ask the wealthy and large corporations to start paying their fair share of taxes.” Once again what is the definition of ‘fair share’? To some it may seem compassionate to make the wealthy pay more to help the poor, but there is not enough money to transfer from the ultra-wealthy to solve the problem of poverty. Bottom line, the angel of light in all his compassion wants a society to penalize those who work hard thus penalizing success. This only creates division and animosity among the citizens leading eventually to hate and we know where that leads.
Let us take a look at a couple of easy examples. If you had a child that was given five chores to do in a week (all were equal in nature) and you gave your child $5 for the first chore, $4 for the second, $3 for the third, $2 for the fourth, and $1 for the last chore, what would be the incentive to complete all five? The child may stop at maybe the third chore. Then take a look from another vantage point. Say one child did all five chores and received $15. What if that child had a sibling who did nothing but received an allowance of $10? What would be the incentive for the first child to do any chores at all? It’s easier to just take $10 for doing nothing. Would it be foolish to punish the hard working child and reward the lazy child? Do we see this potential with today’s liberal proposals?
Let’s take another example…sports. In professional sports players are given incentives to achieve. Hitting home runs or making the all-star team has its rewards. What if the system were reversed and players were penalized for hitting home runs or making the all-star team…and money was given to players that under performed, did not practice, or missed games? Smart players would fail on purpose. The game would eventually go out of existence.
This is exactly what the progressive tax system does. It penalizes hard work and success. Thomas Sowell summarized it quite well. He said, “One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonize those who complain.” Conservatives have proposed a flat tax for many years, while liberals portray it as unfair. You know what is unfair…taxing someone more for achieving and succeeding?
It is most difficult to find anything good that comes out of laziness. Plenty of bad has certainly been the result. As Benjamin Franklin said, “laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it.” The Bible has several ‘commentaries on laziness:
“The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” [Proverbs 13:4]
“He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.” [Proverbs 10:4]
“In all labor there is profit, But idle chatter leads to poverty.” [Proverbs 14:23]
“A lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing.” [Proverbs 20:4]
“Laziness casts one into deep sleep, And an idle person will suffer hunger.” [Proverbs 19:15]
“Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread.” [Proverbs 20:13]
The Bible says that laziness will lead to hunger and poverty. So why would liberals want to reward laziness? Could it be that the liberals want those to become dependent on a liberal based government and in poverty they will. The liberals, like Satan (the angel of light), does not want us bearing good fruit and doing good works. They want you wasting your life and the gifts God has given you. The Bible says,“that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” [Colossians 1:10]. This means that we are to live a life worthy of God, pleasing Him and being fruitful in every good work.
The Biblical argument against the progressive income tax is found in the Parable of the Talents presented by Jesus. The parable tells us that God gives us gifts to accomplish His work on earth. It is then up to us to use those gifts. God holds us accountable on how we use our gifts. We have a choice to use our gifts or do nothing with them. God rewards those that accomplish and who do well. God is so serious about accomplishing and not being lazy, that He takes from those who squander their gifts and gives them to those who produce. Ultimately, the reward is great for those who use the gifts they are given. For those who do not use their gifts, there is great punishment. The progressive tax plan is a cornerstone of the liberal platform and contradictory to how God rewards those that produce and accomplish. The Parable of the Talents can be found in Matthew 25:14-30.
Not to let any earned wealth escape attention the liberals want to tax us even after death. Called the “Death Tax” it is anything but Biblical. The death tax imposes a tax on estates when people die when that estate is over a certain value…greed and envy. This means that if you produce and achieve, during your lifetime, your family will be punished, even though you paid taxes on these belongings when they were attained. If you do not produce and achieve over the course of your lifetime, your family is ‘safe’. But if you have done well in life the liberals believe you must give part of your fortune to the government. It takes from people who have succeeded and accomplished greatly in life. It is a tax to punish a lifetime of success.
How would God accomplish His work on earth if He punished hard workers and rewarded those who are lazy? If this is how God ran the church, the church would have failed a long time ago. But then this is what the liberals and progressives want for America. They want American freedom and success to fail. It is the reason to punish success and reward failure. Such a platform is not Biblical.
Next week we will look at ‘wealth redistribution’. As might be expected, it is presented as being Biblically supported…a lie from the ‘pit of hell’.
– Bob Munsey
“We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Geezer Politics 