The GOP Tax Bill Would Automatically Create Mega-Churches as Super PACs

[dlk]

The Constitution is clear - religious institutions and government are to be kept separate. The 1954 Johnson Amendment, strengthens the Constitution by prohibiting non-profits and churches from taking an explicit stance on political candidates. Yet, the proposed GOP tax bill repeals the Johnson Amendment and would make every mega-church in the U. S. an instant super PAC, a bold move toward establishing a state-sponsored religion. This would shred the Constitution the GOP purports to worship by infusing millions of tax-free dollars into political races, a nightmare scenario we are heading toward.

[RKP5637]

1. Horrific, and the US would become like the religious countries we see with multitudes of

hatred, death and destruction.

[defacto7]

2. This would be the end. Seriously.

[Initech]

8. Yup - we would be no better than the countries we are fighting.

Our religious fundamentalists really aren't any better than theirs. And the last thing they need is unlimited campaign influence. That's scary.

[WinkyDink]

3. Will churches, as with corporations, be declared "people"?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

4. Not only would it be a PAC, but donations to a church are tax deductible, aren't they?

That's not true for contributions to a real PAC. So you could theoretically donate an unlimited amount of money to the Church of the Republican Party and get a tax write-off?

[Fred Sanders]

5. How is this to do with taxes other than consequently? And using reconciliation is criminal.

[Jim Lane]

6. It would also create Super PACs as churches

As LastLiberal in PalmSprings points out in #4, the important point is deductibility. Every Super PAC now existing, on the left or the right, should reconstitute itself as a church. For example, there could be a Swords into Plowshares Ministry, spreading the word of God by letting people make tax-deductible campaign contributions to anti-war candidates.

In trying to cater to their Christofascist base, the Republicans would totally upend campaign finance law.

[NastyRiffraff]

7. Mike Pence is salivating

He's a firm dominionist, whose stated first allegiance is to Christianity. He tried that shit in Indiana and he's straining at the big to try it in the country.

[defacto7]

9. Don't forget, the dominionist's ultimate objective

is to "bring on" the second coming of Christ. That requires a world war, famine, and claiming all of Jerusalem and the tempel mount by Israel. Among other ugliness.

[CrispyQ]

10. Back when Jack Cafferty was still allowed 5 minutes of time on CNN,

he did a segment on the dominionists & warned that the media should pay attention to these people. Of course, the media never did.