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April 26, 2011
Lawrence O'Donnell: Jesus Specifically Endorsed A 100% Taxation Rates for The Top 5% of Earners In Society
Special Bonus: Letterman & Maher Team Up To Double Their Chances of Not Being Funny
Who knew?
Addressing Rush Limbaugh's question, I guess, about how much it is the left wants to take away:
"The New Testament does have an answer to Rush's question, 'What would Jesus take?' and it's not one Rush is going to like," O'Donnell began, adding smugly, "And since he obviously has no working command of the Bible, it will surely shock him because he will be hearing it now for the first time."
"The answer is everything, not 35 percent, not 39.6 percent. One hundred percent," O'Donnell continued, referring to marginal tax rates for top income-bracket earners, citing as his proof text a passage from Mark 10 in which a rich man comes up to Jesus and asks "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
O'Donnell then selectively edited Jesus's answer:
Go and sell all your possession and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven...
But right after the ellipsis, verse 21 continues "and come, follow me."
O'Donnell also ignored the thrust of the story in context, which is the high personal cost in this age of following Jesus, but the eternal inheritance that awaits those who abandon all to follow Jesus, whose kingdom, Jesus himself repeatedly said, was "not of this world."
But alas, O'Donnell is concerned not with rendering unto Christ but rendering unto Caesar.
"It seems very clear that Jesus would be cool with a 39.6 tax bracket for those making over $250,000," O'Donnell concluded from the text.
Well, let's see.
Jesus was promising eternal salvation in Heaven besides his Father Our God.
Is that what O'Donnell and Obama are promising? Do they have that kind of pull? Or supernatural power over the soul?
I didn't know that. I know that Obama has been repeatedly depicted as a halo-orbited angel or Messiah but I didn't know now he literally is selling timeshares in Heaven.
Let's also see: Jesus is speaking of an ideal to aspire to, voluntarily. I don't see him just taking money from people and then telling them, "It's for your own good, trust me."
Also, the "give" part of the command seems rather more important than O'Donnell is letting on: Virtue is demonstrated by voluntary undertaking of it. Not state-compelled compliance with it.
In fact, O'Donnell's plan to replace God with Obama and Heaven with Government would seem to eliminate, entirely, the possibility of virtuous behavior, as virtue compelled is no virtue at all. It's just avoiding prison.
Uggghhh: You've Got Old Midget In My Old Crank: Letterman and Maher. What could go right?