Washington – Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said on Sunday his proposed flat-tax plan of about 10 percent was inspired by the biblical practice of tithing.
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“You make $10 billion a year, you pay a billion; you make $10 year, you pay one. That’s pretty damn fair if you ask me,” Carson said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Carson, a former neurosurgeon who announced his presidential campaign last week, has cast himself as a non-politician and a problem-solver in an attempt to set himself apart from the Republican field.
He is a long shot in the race, but his idea of a single, proportional tax may resonate with conservative evangelical Christians who believe in tithes and with Americans frustrated by a complicated tax system.
“I like the idea of a proportional tax – that way you pay according to your ability,” Carson said. “I got that idea quite frankly from the Bible.”
Carson disputed the idea that his plan could hurt the poor, saying that it is condescending to assume they would not be able to pay.
“Poor people have pride, too, and they don’t want to be just taken care of,” he said, adding that his plan would eliminate loopholes in the U.S. tax system and make it hard for politicians to raise taxes.
And Dr. Carson once more demonstrates why Christians have no understanding of Torah. A person worth 10 billion can certainly afford to tithe a billion dollars. However, when you are asking a desperately poor person to give money, that is an entirely different situation. While, as I understand it, (and welcome the more educated to explain further) there are some differences of opinion as to when one is/isn’t obligated to give tzedaka and maaser and how much should be given, I do believe there is not a Rav on earth who would think it fair to require someone to give money that is needed to feed his baby. The Torah doesn’t exist to torture the unfortunate, but to help them.
Sounds so simple, I hope it works.
Well, it’s “fair” in so far as it is the same. However, it is regressive in that that a simple percentage disproportionately impacts the poor.
If Legal Voting American Citizens had any pride and self esteem, they would come out and support Dr. Carson in droves.
Unfortunately, the other “types” of voters will likely elect Elizabeth Warren or something similar.
Way to go #maser
Sorry but according to the torah there is a minimum wich if you didn’t make that much you don’t have to give anything. if you earned only a total of 9 newborn calf’s in the entire year you give nothing.
Dearly Hopeful GOP voters:
Recognize that this man is not a jew. He has no biblical inclination and the bible of the christians is NOT the value of Liberty from the Torah.
If you think Mr. Carson has any condition of common luck, you have fallen for the farce. Carson is a breathing heathen looking for his own necessity on hate.
This is not a biblical approach to Values of American Need.
This is like throwing the Jewish Bible out the window to see if it will land in the garden of the nicer pharaoh.
Really, the biblical approach to Taxation says that those who have means to achieve the highest way of living must help those with other needs. We do not plant a field to exclude the poor and the poor who can not plant a field should not be expected to slacken their hate to produce the vineyard for the rich to play wavering hate.
This is a creditable hate and Mr. Carson is a careless man with no religion for human value.
I would not be considering him for any higher office and his values are so horrendous that his real fear is not the smile on your algebra but the future with an Angel of Death who will seal his fate.
Name him Bloated.
So smart! It’s closing the loopholes that big businesses and multi millionaires use every year to get out of paying their fair share. It stops the over complicated system that punishes people trying to pay by auditing people who aren’t trying to cheat- they’re often simple working class people! It also will make the government more efficient by not having to pay for people to look over tax returns- they can now do something productive that will stimulate the economy!
This is not the first time a flat tax was proposed. If I remember correctly from the last time, it included provisions not to tax people below a certain income. It also eliminated certain tax shelters that benefit only the rich.
In reality in the U.S., it’s the middle class that gets squeezed. If you calculate all the benefits the poor get and compare to after tax dollars of the middle, it doesn’t pay for the poor to work. All the system does, both economically and educationally, is promote and keep a permanent underclass.
News flash to Charleton Carson: a single person working at Mcdonalds for $20,000 a year already pays $2558 in federal taxes + Fica, or 12.79%, and that doesn’t include state and local income taxes. How does this clown think he is going to fund the federal government which already runs a $500 billion deficit, by slashing 40% of all tax revenue? Has this moron ever bothered looking at the US budget? 78.7% of the entire budget goes to Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Defense/VA, and interest on the debt. Almost none of that spending is realistically touchable and almost all of it is directed at his prime constituencies: the geriatric set, big pharma, big medicine, defense contractors, veterans, and large banks.
But hey; “It’s in the Bible!” so it’s all good. Math, logic, reason, probability, reality, precedent, experience, and common sense are all tossed aside in favor of silly sound bites designed to appeal to the very people who pay NO taxes: Social Security-collecting alte cockers watching Faux Noise.
You can tell who here benefits from taxes and who puts more money into taxes.