Published: February 03, 2008 01:02 am            

Rebates or Handouts?

As the stock market continues sliding backward and prices at the pump remain in the three dollar range, the President and Democratic Congress both agree that something must be done to prevent an economic recession.

President Bush has proposed an economic stimulus package amounting to 150 billion dollars (1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product) in order to boost consumer spending and encourage primarily small businesses to continue hiring new workers and investing in future growth. About 50 billion of the President’s proposal tax incentives for business and 100 billion is in the form of rebates for taxpayers totaling $800 per individual and $1,600 per married couple.

Democrats counter that economic tax relief should go as Hillary Clinton said, “to the 50 million Americans who need it most.” Senator Clinton counters that rebates should go not only to taxpayers but also to those who don’t pay any income tax by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit programs and federal spending on food stamps.

Both parties are playing to their base. Republicans believe that middle class taxpayers should be allowed to keep more of what they make while Democrats are striving to increase federal benefits to the poor who do not pay any net income tax at all. The rich in either party could care less about an $800 rebate.

It is interesting that for once both conservatives and liberals agree that the best way to stimulate the economy is for the federal government to allow Americans to keep more of what they earn. Consumer spending is now widely recognized as far better for the health of the economy than government spending. What a concept.

But who should get these tax rebates? Should they go to taxpayers or to those who already drain the federal treasury without contributing anything in the form of income tax? Let’s be realistic. Poor families do not pay income taxes. They do pay payroll taxes which fund their own Social Security and Medicare, as everyone should. But our progressive tax code with its exemptions, deductions, and Earned Income Tax Credit (a colossal misnomer) assures that poor families near or below the poverty line don’t pay a net dime in income tax.

When the government gives more money back than was ever paid in, that’s not a refund, it’s a handout. The federal government has no constitutional right to tax the middle and upper class in order to provide charity for the poor. That’s an idea that originated not in the Constitution, but in the Communist Manifesto.

I believe in charity, but I believe it should be exercised by the Church, not the State. Christ commanded his followers to meet the needs of the poor. And the Bible declares that true religion and undefiled is to take care of widows and orphans in distress and those truly in need.

Charity that’s either personal or combined through the Church is a beautiful expression of God’s love demonstrated through his people. But governmental charity is impersonal, wasteful, and has enabled millions of able-bodied, lazy men to ignore the Scriptural warning that, “he who does not work should not eat.”

If the government wants to stimulate the economy with tax rebates, I suggest they go to the hard-working Americans who paid for them.



Craig Ziemba is a military pilot who lives in Meridian. A collections of his columns is available in his book, Give War a Chance available at Meridian Bible Bookstores.

        

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