Backlash to Occupy Wall Street from the Right

This story about a memo obtained by the MSNBC's Up With Chris Hayes is informative and shows how far Wall Street and those that circle around it will go to discredit OWS.

Click on the link below to access the story about the memo.

Lobbying firm’s memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street

Paying Taxes a Christian Question

PAYING TAXES
Matthew 17:22-27

This post is taken from a meditation on Episcopal Cafe under Speaking to the Soul. You can view the complete meditation by going to http://www.episcopalcafe.com/thesoul under today's date of November 16, 2011.

There have been Christians who have protested the payment of taxes on religious and ethical grounds. Some were jailed during the Vietnam War era when they withheld a percentage of their tax that represented their share for the financing of what they believed was an immoral war. Acts of civil disobedience have generally included a willingness to suffer the consequences of such disobedience.

The early church walked a fine line between its declaration of challenge to the Roman Empire -- the fundamental creed "Jesus is Lord" defies the claim that "Caesar is Lord" -- and the church's wish to avoid active persecution. From Matthew's perspective, paying the hated tax to the Jupiter temple was not a place to draw a line.

Where is that line? For the most part, I am glad to pay taxes because our taxes support so many of the services that are basic to a healthy society. I am blessed to be in a high tax bracket because my wife and I both have jobs that pay us well. We certainly could afford to pay more taxes, and would happily do so if it would relieve the suffering for those who do not enjoy the security that we do. I prayerfully hope our nation is on the way toward providing a public way of insuring health care for all people as most other industrialized countries already do, and I would gladly raise taxes on people like me to underwrite such a benefit.

On the other hand, I opposed the unnecessary war and occupation that the Bush administration launched against Iraq, and the subsequent $800 Billion cost to taxpayers which helped reverse the budget surplus President Bush inherited, sending us into a deep deficit. (The human suffering from that decision to go to war is incalculable.) It would have been much more honest for Mr. Bush and Congress to raise taxes on people like me who can afford it in order to pay for the war rather than to continue to pass the costs to future generations. But it seems raising taxes is even more unpopular than war, so we borrow.

So, like nearly everyone else, I pay my taxes, and I argue about what the best use of our resources might be. I hope for a more progressive tax policy that relieves the poor and lets those of us to whom much has been given be expected to give more. Is there a line for me when the policies of a government might be so abhorrent that I would refuse to pay taxes? I don't know. Maybe there is. I know that I do respect many who have risked their freedom to raise into public awareness policies that are immoral.