Capitalism | Always Question Authority

Now more than ever, the United States needs to change its laws surrounding religious subsidies. Last year, the state of Florida cut over $1.3 billion from the budget meant for public schools as well as $1.1 billion for police and firefighter pensions. If Florida had collected property taxes on religious institutions, the revenue would have been $2.2 Billion, almost enough to cover both of these budgetary expenses. In fact, the debate over religious tax exemptions has recently been distilled down to one number: 71 billion dollars. That’s the total amount that the government forgoes every year in religious subsidies, and clearly, there are places that this money could be put to use.

Continue reading . . .

h/t: Planet Atheism

Research Report: How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States (alwaysquestionauthority.com)
The Yearly Cost of Religious Tax Exemptions: $71,000,000,000 (patheos.com)
The Church Business (freethoughtblogs.com)
Study challenges tax exemption for religious organizations – Kimberly Winston – USA Today (richarddawkins.net)
U.S. Loses Over $71 Billion in Religious Tax Exemptions (atheistrev.com)
Study challenges tax exemption for religious organizations (usatoday.com)

In a preview of this weekend’s Moyers & Company, I talk with What’s the Matter With Kansas? author Thomas Frank about the friendly faces greeting Jamie Dimon when he appeared before the Senate Banking Committee this morning. Seven members of the committee were big recipients of money from the megabank.

Frank describes the revolving door of employment between government and corporate America, especially when it comes to Congressional staffers-turned-lobbyists.

“Staffers know they could drop what they’re doing and go work for a lobby firm and make fantastic money… They want to please these companies — even when they don’t work for those companies – because that’s their future employer and everybody knows it.”

Watch video here . . .