by J. Michael Sharman, Contributing Writer
“The Democrats’ $3.6 trillion budget raises taxes on all Americans by $1.3 trillion.
Hey, reader, that’s you,” cries an op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA, 3rd).
Not the thing you want to hear this close to April 15th.
It is hard to get a grasp on what those numbers mean. The definition of a trillion is one thousand times one billion, which is 1, followed by 12 zeros.
Okay, a thousand billions. Got that. So the new budget is 3,600 billions.
What’s a billion, really? One thousand times one million, which is 1, followed by nine zeros.
Right. A billion is a thousand millions, and a trillion is a thousand billions, so the new budget is 3,600,000 millions.
Another way of conceptualizing it is to say that with a new budget of $3,600,000 millions, we have to find the equivalent of 3,600,000 millionaires and have them give everything they have to the government to pay for it.
But since there is no such thing as Tax Day sacrificial lambs, the tax burden will spread out to more of us than that.
Our total national income is our “Gross National Product” or GNP. The government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis says the definition of our GNP is the total goods and services produced by the labor and property supplied by U.S. residents. Our GNP in 2008, when you add in all the U.S taxpayers’ income receipts from the rest of the world, was 14,911.9 billions, which translates to $14.9 trillion.
If we were to have a truly flat tax, with all income earners paying the same rate with no personal or corporate deductions, that would mean every U.S. taxpayer would pay 24 cents of federal income tax on every dollar earned.
But we don’t have a flat tax, and since there are a whole lot of taxpayers on the top and bottom rungs of the taxpayer ladder that don’t pay any income tax, the share left to the rest of us is going to be a lot higher than 24%.
Back in biblical times some local religious leaders who opposed Jesus were trying to make Him look bad to the controlling Roman authorities, and so they asked Him, “What is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
The Gospel of Matthew records His response:
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.”
So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The image of Caesar/government is on the money, so we are to give the government the money when we are asked for it. Likewise, we are to give to God the things which He has created in His own image when He asks for it.
Here’s the catch: Back in the Old Testament in the first chapter of Genesis, God says He created us in His own image , and in the New Testament at Romans 8:29 the Bible tells us God chose us specifically to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
So, I’m to pay a quarter or more of my income in taxes to the federal government, but I’m to give all of myself to God – my work, my play, my body, my mind, my heart, and my inclinations, both good and bad.
All of a sudden, paying taxes definitely looks like the easier deal.
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