I don’t understand all the hoopla about Joe the Plumber. He seems like a nice fella, but so what? He did step forward to ask Obama a relevant question leading up to the election, but what most people miss is that Joe, himself, actually will benefit from the Democratic tax cuts. The same is true for his boss, since neither he not Joe actually have earnings that exceed $250K.

What I do know, being born again, is that Jesus teaches us to work to help the poor and underprivileged. Since all taxes are so-called, “redistribution of wealth” whereby government takes money from one person and subsidizes enterprises to benefit the common good or community. This is the goal Jesus asks us to pursue or is it?

Over the last decade, the tax code has changed to take less and less revenue for government. As we know with our own budgets, this is unsustainable. Bush’s two tax cuts have skewed the tax schedule to allow the most wealthy to keep more and more of their incomes. During the same period, The CEOs of the largest corporations in America has seen their average income rise by twenty fold. They used to earn about 20 times what the average worker in their companies earned. Today, they make about 400 times their average employee! Adjusted for inflation, the average worker;s salary is basically unchanged over the last 2 decades.

Maybe, you think this is fair and in keeping with what Jesus would want. I certainly don’t. These obscene income gaps are certainly not good public policy. They lead to dislocations in the quality of life. More poverty and homelessness.

We have witnessed unprecedented greed in our corporations and on Wall Street over the last few years. Corruption and cronyism permeates our corporate life and federal government. Now is the time to change this and move in the direction Jesus directs.

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Politics-Right-Wrong-Doesnt/dp/0060558288