Religious Tax Exemption

[yellowwoodII]

Six of the members of the Supreme Court are Catholic.
This has significance when it comes to their decisions on birth control which Catholics profess not to "believe" in.
I don't believe in any religious organization. Tax exemptions for religious organizations make it necessary for the rest of us to pay the taxes that they don't pay.
We should not have to pay religious organizations' share of what it takes to run this country.
Time to rethink this issue.
http://www.examiner.com/article/should-we-rethink-tax-exemptions-for-churches-and-religious-organizations

[hrmjustin]

1. You want to rethink all non-profits or just the religious ones?

[avebury]

2. Tax everybody - human and corporate.

No exceptions. Heck if you could get the mega profitable corporations to pay their fair share of taxes that might lighten the tax burden for the masses instead of us having to carry the load for them.

At minimum, if a church wants to try to influence US politics then they should totally lose their tax exempt status.

[hrmjustin]

3. what about charities? If they get political should they lose funding?

[avebury]

6. If you want to play (i.e. political activity) then

you should have to pay).

The point is that is we stop the corporate welfare program then the tax burden for everyone else would not be as bad as it is. Cutting back of foreign aid and military spending would free up money to be invested in our crumbling infrastructure. It just does not make sense to ship billions of dollars in aid outside of the US when we aren't even taking care of our own business. It is like we are trying to buy friendship and cooperation which has a tendency to bite us in the butt. For example, in the Russian-Afghan war we funded the rebels including one Bin Laden. And whatever became of him?

When we had problems with Iran (remember Iran hostage situation) we had provide weapons to Sadam Hussein in his war against Iran. And what became of Sadam?

The CIA got involved with Noreiga. We eventually invaded his country and he ended up in a US prison.

This country has become an aging dinosaur. We have lost the industrial capacity we once had. Science is denigrated and education is far too often viewed as elitist and ignorance is becoming acceptable. Too many people are hooked on reality TV and don't pay close attention to what is going on in their own country (it reminds me of ancient Rome and people going to watch the gladiators fight at the Colosseum. More and more of our country is coming to be owned by outside interests. We are going to have to rely more and more upon military might because we will have fewer and fewer alternatives to try to maintain a world position. Woe to us if China, Russian and a few other countries ever band together to take us on. Under Bush Jr. we lost all moral high ground. We are on a downward spiral and I seriously doubt that we can change the course we are on. We are headed to a huge ball, it is not a matter of whether or not it will occur but when it will occur (if not in our lifetime then probably within the next generation or two).

[yellowwoodII]

4. In This Case

The issue is about religion, so that was what I was addressing.

But, probably there are many tax-exempt organizations that could use some scrutiny.

And, incidentally, I have no issue with organized religion. I believe that people should be able to practice their beliefs.

[hrmjustin]

5. I would say there is always room for reform but I would not change the tax exempt status rule.