Pro-life strike (abortion boycott) mission: To purify our prayers and other pro-life efforts, and to make a concrete difference, we refuse to fund the abortion industry. We boycott corporate abortion funding, and hold back abortion taxes. We pray for life; we will not pay for death!
Here is a first draft attempt to flesh out Pope Benedict's suggestion of fiscal subsidiarity. If Obama and congressional Democrats truly want to find common ground on the issue of tax-funded abortion, try this: citizen allocation of certain government expenditures.
From the standpoint of well-formed moral principles, appropriations for Title X abortion services, funding for Planned Parenthood and U.N. population control programs and the like might be easier to accept if they were funded solely by individuals who freely chose to do so. Here's how such a plan might work:
All controversial value-laden budget items would be removed from congressional consideration. Congress would only have the authority to include such items in a citizen allocation check list. The 1040 tax form would now include a new table with each of these allocation items listed. The taxpayer could optionally allocate a portion of his taxes toward one or more of these programs without increasing his total tax liability. Each program on the list would receive tax money only in the amount allocated by individual taxpayers.
So, for example, Planned Parenthood would only receive tax money from citizens who proactively chose to allocate to them. The pro-life and neutral citizens who chose not to support PP or other abortion programs would therefore be able to pay taxes in good conscience, knowing that their money was not paying for the slaughter.
I suppose that pro-life programs could go on this list as well, with the expectation that only pro-life taxpayers would be allocating to them. The idea is: let each citizen follow the dictates of his own conscience with regard to all such value-laden allocations.
Note that this only works if there is no other government money going to these controversial programs. If Congress were still allowed to allocate monies from the general fund, such citizen allocation would merely be feel-good symbolic gestures, and the proposal would be useless.
In contrast with the many shallow minds of our time, Pope Benedict XVI is a true intellectual and source of deep insights. His latest encyclical is a fine example.
There is too much in Caritas In Veritate to treat here, but one relatively minor statement leapt out at me, toward the end of paragraph 60:
... fiscal subsidiarity, allowing citizens to decide how to allocate a portion of the taxes they pay to the State.
The context of this statement is development aid for poor countries, but it has the potential for much broader application. Applying it to tax-funded abortion or any other value-laden tax, the implications are profound. I hope to develop this concept in greater detail as it might relate to the pro-life tax strike.
Our two Wisconsin senators have replied to the email sent a few days ago. Senator Feingold began his response with this astounding denial:
Federal funds are not permitted to be used for performing abortions.
Uhhh... OK, Senator, if you say so. We will immediately ignore all the reliable sources that report in detail on the many and diverse ways the U.S. government is funding the abortion industry both here and abroad. Trusting in your unblemished integrity, the purity of your nearly divine character, the power of your encyclopedic knowledge, on the strength of your word alone, we are now convinced that no U.S. taxes are being used to kill innocent babies. Yep. Sure thing, Senator. Thank you so much for clearing that up.
In other words - does he really expect this to fly?
As noted in the first post, this blog and website is founded upon a single idea: that pro-life folks ought not be paying for abortion via taxes.
Within this single, simple idea, a variety of strategies may exist - different methods implemented by a variety of folks in a variety of situations. Specific ideas on ways to flesh out the principle idea. The "Strategies" section on the manifesto page talks about some possible strategies, but that section is far from exhaustive.
Last week, a friend suggested a new idea, a new concrete thing to do. Maybe other folks would like to try it. So a new web page was opened for this very purpose. Click on the "ideas" tab on the menu line to see this page, and this first idea.
Maybe you have an idea. A concrete way to live out your opposition to the tax-funded slaughter of the innocents. Please tell us about it. Click on "Contact" for ways to contact us with your idea.
All controversial value-laden budget items would be removed from congressional consideration. Congress would only have the authority to include such items in a citizen allocation check list. The 1040 tax form would now include a new table with each of these allocation items listed. The taxpayer could optionally allocate a portion of his taxes toward one or more of these programs without increasing his total tax liability. Each program on the list would receive tax money only in the amount allocated by individual taxpayers.
