If Pastor Rick Warren can say “Half of America Pays no Taxes, Zero”- you better believe it! But Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast has helped to uncover some data that refutes this notion easily. The Pastor is beginning to sound like Senator John Kyl of Arizona who was caught damning Planned ParentHood(“90% of its services are abortions” – 3% is the true number) which the Senator’ later attempted to explain away his remark before the Senate as “not intended to be a factual statement”. There have been a number of voices taking Pastor Warren to task see here and here. But the Christian Post rushed to the defense of Pastor Warren citing the mistaken words of “liberals”. But I thought Pastor Warren was a “liberal”.
Read the Tax Foundation study for yourself and decide if Pastor Warren spoke without a basic understanding of the economic facts. And also check the OECD report that finds that the USA has the lowest level of actual taxation among 35 developed countries with exception of Mexico and Chile. In sum onerous taxation is not the problem; but rather uncontrolled Republican spending which they are now turning on a dime and saying we have not seen the error of our ways since we are now blaming the deficits on the “tax and spend” Democrats
But the essential and real al problem here is that Pastor Warren, heretofore a voice of moderation between conservatives and liberals, could be found to be so wanting in basic understanding of the social and economic facts.Second, the only correction Pastor Warren has made is to remove the statement from his twitter log. No Kylian “this was not intended to be a factual statement” but no apology either. Not good for a pastor devoted to Christian outreach.