{"id":2153,"date":"2016-01-16T13:23:48","date_gmt":"2016-01-16T19:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2016-01-16T13:23:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-16T19:23:48","slug":"new-taxes-and-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/16\/new-taxes-and-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"New Taxes and the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the debate on Thursday, Marco Rubio expressed concern with <a href=\"http:\/\/taxfoundation.org\/blog\/ted-cruz-s-business-flat-tax-primer\">Ted Cruz&#8217;s proposal<\/a> for a VAT (value-added tax). The creation of a new tax could ultimately lead to increased taxation, as the old taxes could remain or the new tax rate could be increased. Rubio&#8217;s concern is valid, as history shows that governments tend to raise taxes over time.  <\/p>\n<p>This history actually goes back a long time. Just after the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Lord required a half-shekel ransom payment for every individual over the age of 20. This was a one-time tax with the revenues to be used in the construction of the tabernacle (Exod 30:11-16). But later on, Jewish religious authorities decided to make this half-shekel payment an <i>annual<\/i> tax. Its declared purpose was to serve the temple, and Jews from all over the world paid it. When the Romans destroyed the temple in AD 70, the tax didn&#8217;t go away, but the funds were re-directed to the treasury of the pagan god Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. The Jews had to pay this tax for several more centuries.  <\/p>\n<p>There is good reason for people to be concerned about the creation of a new tax, however small or infrequent it may be when initiated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the debate on Thursday, Marco Rubio expressed concern with Ted Cruz&#8217;s proposal for a VAT (value-added tax). The creation of a new tax could ultimately lead to increased taxation, as the old taxes could remain or the new tax rate could be increased. Rubio&#8217;s concern is valid, as history shows that governments tend to\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/16\/new-taxes-and-the-bible\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}