Federal Tax Policy and Judeo-Christian Ethics

[This piece should be of interest to many MOJ readers.  --mp]

"An Evaluation of Federal Tax Policy Based on Judeo-Christian
  Ethics"
       Virginia Tax Review, Vol. 25, Winter 2006

       BY:  SUSAN PACE HAMILL
               University of Alabama School of Law

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=824907

Paper ID:  U of Alabama Public Law Research Paper

  Contact:  SUSAN PACE HAMILL
    Email:  Mailto:[email protected]
   Postal:  University of Alabama School of Law
            P.O. Box 870382
            Tuscaloosa, AL 35487  UNITED STATES
    Phone:  205-348-5931
      Fax:  205-348-3917

ABSTRACT:
  This article severely criticizes the Bush Administration's tax
  policies under the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics. I
  first document that Judeo-Christian ethics is the most relevant
  moral analysis for tax policy because almost eighty percent of
  Americans and well over ninety percent of the Congress,
  including President Bush, claim to adhere to the Christian or
  Jewish faiths. I also show that evaluating federal tax policy
  under Judeo-Christian principles not only passes constitutional
  muster but is also appropriate under the norms of a democracy. I
  then provide a complete theological framework that can be
  applied to any tax policy structure. Using sources that include
  leading Evangelical and other Protestant scholars, Papal
  Encyclicals and Jewish scholars, I prove that tax policy
  structures meeting the moral principles of Judeo-Christian
  ethics must raise adequate revenues that not only cover the
  needs of the minimum state but also ensure that all citizens
  have a reasonable opportunity to reach their potential. Among
  other things, reasonable opportunity requires adequate
  education, healthcare, job training and housing. Using these
  theological sources, I also establish that flat and consumption
  tax regimes which shift a large part of the burden to the middle
  classes are immoral. Consequently, Judeo-Christian based tax
  policy requires the tax burden to be allocated under a
  moderately progressive regime. I discuss the difficulties of
  defining that precisely and also conclude that confiscatory tax
  policy approaching a socialistic framework is also immoral. I
  then apply this Judeo-Christian ethical analysis to the first
  term Bush Administration's tax cuts and find those policies to
  be morally problematic. Using a wealth of sources, I then
  establish that the moral values driving the Bush
  Administration's tax policy decisions reflect objectivist
  ethics, a form of atheism that exalts individual property rights
  over all other moral considerations. Given the overwhelming
  adherence to Christianity and Judaism, I conclude that President
  Bush, many members of Congress and many Americans are not
  meeting the moral obligations of their faiths, and, I argue that
  tax policy must start reflecting genuine Judeo-Christian values
  if the country is to survive in the long run.