Trumps New Tax Plan – Reader Feedback on Gay Marriage

Hope you’re having a great week.  On Monday, Donald Trump released the details of his long awaited tax plan.

While some consider Trumps plan radical, its simplicity and pro-growth structure has many people excited.

For starters millions of America’s poorest families will get a huge boost.  Individuals with income of less than $25,000 a year or married couples earning less than $50,000 a year will pay zero income taxes.

Trump said these low income earners will have a simple one page form to send to the IRS saying “I win”.

Now, I’m not sure making less than $25,000 a year is “winning”, but it will save these individuals nearly $1,000 each.

The plan would also further simplify the tax code and lower taxes across the board.  Taking the current 7 different tax brackets and breaking it down to 4.  Under Trumps plan there would be 0, 10, 20, and 25 percent brackets.

Perhaps one of the most significant pro-growth elements of this plan is lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%.

This was met with much excitement by Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist.

He tweeted out: “This makes us competitive worldwide. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.”

Later he went on to praise the plan even further saying, “This is a pro-growth Reaganite plan” “It’s a good plan… It’s republican orthodoxy with a little twist here and there.”

What are your thoughts?  Do you feel this plan will help the economy grow?  Feel free to drop us a line.

Next we’ll move on to our heaviest mailbag yet…

Last week I sent out a letter discussing gay marriage in the US.  If you missed it and would like to read it, you can find it on this website.

Anyway, the overall gist of my letter was this… Marriage is a union between a man and a woman that happens in a church before God.  Therefore it doesn’t matter that the state issues marriage licenses to gay couples as that is not a marriage in the eyes of God.

Needless to say our email box was flooded with comments.  Some supporting my view, some bashing me, and others using language I can’t publish.

Below you will find some of the feedback we received along with my comments.

“Although I appreciate your opinion on gay marriage it is simply not enough to say let G-d be the judge. We as Americans who I believe have been blessed because of our stance on what we believe G-d wishes us to do. If we continue not to speak out and protest against those who wish to change what G-d has said then we are putting our lamp under the bed and there will be a price to pay for that. If we pull the lever for democrats in the voting booth we have accepted gay marriage and abortion. The sin of that is now upon us. Not me, I say with true sincerity, change now before our country is swept away.”

-Michael

My comment: Thank you for sharing your comment. This is certainly something to consider.

“Pretty heavy stuff there. 

My thoughts???

First is if they are truly gay, lesbian or whatever, one would think they would breed themselves out of existence.

But that has not occurred. Odd, why not?

Second would be (I know the law protects them). Why do we allow children to be adopted by these folks? Yeah, I saw the “Bird Cage” but I just don’t believe a child raised in circumstances such as these, would not grow up with some sort of bias in either direction. But you can read the same into a child raised in a quote unquote normal family. I have read the stories of children raised in this manor, they were not happy stories. And yet part of me wants to believe that these folks are being honorable by adopting children that otherwise would have no home except through foster care or an orphanage or worse, a pitiful life on the streets. I am by no means disparaging foster parents, most are loving and caring people trying to help an overloaded system.

So who is right and who is wrong?

I know who my friends are and they know me. Some are gay, lesbian and I do not care, they know I am straight. We have had some of these same discussions. Marriage to me is between a man and woman.

Remember the mind is like a parachute…works best when open.”

-Bill

My comment: Thanks for your thoughtful reply.  You bring up a great point on adoption.  It truly is a beautiful thing for someone to take in a child and lovingly raise them as their own.  Though is that the best environment for a child to grow up?  I’m not sure I want to open up this can of worms right here and now.

“I think it is up to Christians to tell the world what is in the Bible. Now you can tell them in love.  I will be prepared for God to react to leaders and followers.” 

-Paul

My comment:  Paul, I agree.  We definitely should not be afraid or ashamed about sharing God’s teachings with others.

“What I really wanted to bring out is I think there shouldn’t be all these cases cluttering up the legal system. Why don’t they just leave all this in the bedroom instead of the courtroom. I’m a great believer in if they wouldn’t have blown this thing clean out of size it wouldn’t be an issue today.”       

-Bob

My comment: This is so true.  You’ll see later why I believe this has spun out of control a bit, and it should not be considered our most pressing issue as a country.

“What about all the co-opted “Christian” churches like Presbyterian USA which was originally very truly Christian and Episcopalian among others who perform gay marriages in their churches and ordain gays?”

-Joyce

My comment:  Joyce, I’m not sure what to say there.  They are definitely at conflict with the Bibles teachings.

“The Ultimate ‘Christian Argument’ about marriage !

JESUS said:  You have seen all that has been written and is in the Commandments . .   But I say unto you:  “Love Ye One Another”…

This is the Greatest Commandment:  “Love One Another . . As I Have Loved You” !”   

-Bill

My comment:  Yes, couldn’t agree more.  We can disagree, we can speak out against it, but most importantly we must remember to love one another.

“Answer to your question: The Bible gives a very definite and absolute answer. Gay marriage is sin in God’s eyes; Lev.18:22, Romans 1:26 thru 32, Rev 22:14-15, I was interested to hear what you had to say. However, you didn’t speak to the question.”

-Steve

My comment: I’m in no way questioning the bibles view on homosexuality.  There is no debate necessary there. Just in my mind and my heart there is big difference between a man and a woman being married in front of God in a church and state issued marriage licenses for gay couples.

“I have a little bit of libertarian leaning in me, too.  I don’t personally agree with homosexuality. I believe, as it’s stated in the Bible, that homosexuality is an abomination, but it is an individual’s personal choice and they will be judged by God concerning it.  You mentioned that “as long as it’s not infringing on my rights and hurting others, it’s none of my business.  You might add “as long as it’s not being pushed on the rest of society” to that, also.”

-Alan

My comment:  This is a great point.  Perhaps it is being pushed a little too much, though that also becomes an issue of first amendment rights.  I remember the problem with the unofficial “Gay Day” at Disney World.  I don’t believe most people had an issue with gay people going to Disney World.  It was more of an issue of what might go on in such a family environment.

As usual there was also some hate mail…

“You guys are so focused on the “sanctity of marriage.” So why don’t you include DIVORCE (What God put together, let no man put asunder…) and ADULTERY (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife…) in your list of No-no’s ???” 

-Perla

My comment:  I don’t believe in divorce and I most certainly don’t believe in adultery.  If someone wants to bash homosexual activity and then go out and cheat on their husband or wife they should take a look in the mirror first.  Neither is right, but let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

“I’ve had it with this site whenever you mock the Bible because your own personal opinion you’re very sick person like the rest of them excuse me you were sick and they are not sick they know what they’re doing their evil goodbye!”

-Richard

My comment: Richard, I’m not sure what letter you read, but at no point in the article did I mock the bible.  As a Christian man that is not something I’d ever do, and I take personal offense.  Call me an idiot, say I have no clue what I’m talking about, but don’t accuse me of something as heinous as that without me having actually done it.

Finally some love letters…

“Thank you for your thoughtful letter on gay marriage.  The government providing a license to marry is not the same as pastor performing the ceremony.  The government grants divorces and allows divorced people the right to remarry even though some religions believe divorce is a sin.  I take the view we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s…”

-Elsie

“Thanks you are so right.”

-Joanne

My comment: Ladies, I appreciate the feedback.  My two favorite comments yet.

Gay marriage is certainly a hot topic.  People feel very strongly on all sides.  While we may discuss this again at some point I would like to move on.

One of the main reasons I wrote the letter is I believe this is not the most pressing or important issue facing our country at this time.  We have the national debt that is piling up, Obamacare, trade deficits, unemployment, the growing welfare state, terrorist threats, and countless other problems.

Whether or not a gay couple is issued a marriage certificate by the state, not by my church, but by the state is very low on my list of concerns.

Thanks again for spending a few minutes of your day with me.  I appreciate all of the feedback and I look forward to talking with you again.

Some upcoming topics we’re working on include the candidates for the next speaker of the house, as well as some more detailed profiles on all the Republican presidential candidates.


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