Old Time-y Religion

An interesting article from The Economist citing Professor Michael Munger of Duke University who compares our current tax climate to Catholic church that sparked Martin Luther to act.

Fiscal Indulgences

The short of it... the article compares high taxes to purgatory, and tax credits to indulgences.  Congress creates the tax rates, then allows those who lobby and benefit Congress the most to escape those rates.  The Church, in a way created purgatory, and then allowed those who donated the most to avoid it.

An interesting quote from Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) on this imbalance:

Tax expenditures are not tax cuts. Tax expenditures are socialism and corporate welfare. Tax expenditures are increases on anyone who does not receive the benefit or can’t hire a lobbyist…to manipulate the code to their favor.

The Economist articles cites Senator Coburn's loose dropping of the S-bomb, but agrees with his claim concerning the underlying unfairness of our current tax code, often based on who can contribute to those who control said code.