According to Barack Obama, his Christian faith compels him to require the “rich” to pay more taxes. Obama told us this at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast. He believes that, like most modern liberals in today’s America, that the rich are not “paying their fair share.” Really? If only we could take more money, by force of law, from all those rich people out there we could finally balance our multi-trillion dollar budget deficit? Jesus says? Even if he did, there are not enough of these so called “rich” to make up for the sea of red ink the United States government is drowning in.

But this, not surprisingly, is a breathtakingly dishonest assessment of the state of American finance. In fact over the last 30 years or so the US tax system has become more progressive. This means that the “rich” are paying more of the total tax burden today than maybe ever. I don’t have time to look at all the charts and facts, but clearly, it is beyond dispute that the wealthiest Americans are paying more than their “fair share.” Obviously fair is in the eye of the beholder.

If this is not offensive and dishonest enough, we have the President of the United States claiming his Christian faith compels him to believe that charity begins with government coercion? This is pathetic reading of what Christian compassion means, and that the president would justify his progressive tax policy because of his Christian faith is beyond spurious.  It’s no wonder that study after study shows that conservatives, especially religious conservatives, give a whole lot more to charity than liberals, especially secular liberals. If the government is going to take my money in the name of compassion, why would I need to give whatever I have leftover to charity willingly? Everyone will be taken care of by Big Brother. God Forbid.