He said this in the overall context of the budget debate and as his contribution to the misconception that 'the poor' don't pay income taxes. As you can imagine, he paid a political price for this comment, and retracted it later - it no longer appears on his Twitter account. II will say one thing about him in particular and then move on to the broader debate, Rick Warren joins his philosophical counterpart Rick Perry in being one of the more heinous type of hypocrite. Both benefit by being supported by the very people they vilify in their comments. Many of "Pastor" Warrens flock are people of little means. Similarly, the base of Rick Perry's Texas support is made up of folks like conservative West Texas hardscrabble farmers. Perry is the worse of the two as he touts his minimum-wage job creation record while saying those same folks stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart at 8 dollars an hour with no benefits should turn out their empty pockets and give more to the government till. AGAIN a note of hypocrisy here, Perry wants people to pay more in taxes to a government he wants to succeed from, to a government whose 13th Amendment (enabling the Federal Income Tax) he wants to abolish and to fund a government that he says is too large and wasteful and needs less money.
Phew!
Quickly, let's correct the record on the whole 'poor people don't pay any taxes' statement. The working poor, many of whom have to work more than one job to make ends meet, pay taxes on a larger portion of their income than any other sector of our society - why? Because they do pay portions of their income into government programs that amount to taxes while paying the direct, regressive taxes based on spending we all pay. So their paychecks have all of the standard deductions we have, the only 'rebate' many of them get is the Tax Refund at the end of the year.
I know some of you will say, "Well, they get child credits and education credits and home-heating credits, etc. etc." Let's save that for another argument. What really hurts the working poor relative to the Middle- and Upper-classes is that the remaining tax structure, the 'regressive' taxes, hurts them more. Sales taxes, sin taxes (and don't go saying that, "If they're so poor they can do without beer and smokes.") gas taxes, property taxes (if they even own a home - if they don't, they pay it by proxy to the landlords they rent from), use taxes and pass-through taxes (like on your phone and cable bills). These dollars add up. Without the working poor contributing to these things then the costs for everyone else would skyrocket. So, they DO pay taxes, and more of their income by percentage than most Americans.
On to the general point of the so-called "Compassionate Conservative" moniker being so very inaccurate these days. Its not just "Pastor" Warren, Gov. Perry, and Rush Limbaugh (click link below for a scathing Lawrence O'Donnell rant on this very topic) saying these things, its the cause celeb of the entire GOP at the moment. News story after Faux News blog calls for the working poor to give more back, unapologetically. They are currently fighting an extension of the Payroll Tax holiday, which expires at the end of this month. This is hypocrisy of Epic proportions. Why? Because the payroll tax primarily hits the working poor and middle class the most. Again, why? Because most of their income is derived directly from salary or hourly wages. They don't benefit from investment income the way the upper-classes do. If you don't extend the payroll tax holiday, which is only a short-term option for stimulus and alleviating some of the pain of the recession, then you are essentially raising the taxes of the working poor and middle-class by approximately $1,000 for someone earning $50,000 per year.
Stay with me now. We're almost there. This is a significant tax increase for someone in that tax bracket. The GOP folks are saying that they Payroll Tax holiday should be allowed to expire because it was just a temporary thing and was never meant to be long-term. The made the EXACT OPPOSITE argument for the Bush Tax cuts to be extended just a few months ago. Why hypocrisy? Because they will wantonly argue one position when it benefits them and their 'sponsors' when it comes to the Bush Tax cuts while, with a straight face, arguing the exact opposite just a few months later. They even had the gall to say that they couldn't in good conscious support the extension of the payroll tax holiday because it would add approximately 112 billion dollars to the deficit. The extension of the Bush Tax cuts is estimated to add trillions. Yes, that's right...trillions with a "T". Yet GOP member after GOP member actually have said they can't support the payroll tax holiday extension because it will add to the deficit. One said that, when asked to compare the two positions, it was a reasonable argument because tax breaks to 'job creators' (their latest euphemism for the wealthy) made sense because it stimulated job growth.
As my teen aged daughter says so eloquently, "Whatever."
So the next time you meet a GOP candidate that will espouse their Christian values and their Evangelical, by-the-Bible, mores, ask them, "Who Would Jesus Tax?" Then be prepared to laugh, laugh, laugh.
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Take a moment and click on this link. It leads to a Lawrence O'Donnell commentary on Rush Limbaugh pontificating on the "Libs" exploiting Jesus for their own Socialist agenda. Rush is a douche bag of the highest order, but rarely does he sink as low as he does here. Its worth the time it takes to watch it.
