April 14, 2011; Source: Sojourners | Long time tax justice advocate, Chuck Collins, strongly believes that “before we make draconian budget cuts at the federal and state level, we should reverse huge tax cuts for the wealthy and tax dodging corporations.” He believes that “the Jesus I know would rail against principalities and powers that rig the tax rules so the privileged pay less.”

Collins suggests that Jesus “would be alarmed about financial and commodity speculation driving up the cost of food and worsening hunger.” He (Collins, not Jesus) proposes “sin taxes” that would “discourag(e) financial speculation and environmental destruction-while reducing the huge canyon between rich and poor.”

Collins would “reverse some of the more irresponsible tax breaks of the last generation.” On the expenditure side, he suggests he would responsibly make some cuts, with farm subsidies and military costs on the top of his list.

But he suggests that the “prophetic Jesus would turn our head” away from a focus on expenditures and toward increasing revenues from wealthy people and non-taxpaying corporations such as General Electric.

Do nonprofits think that Collins has Jesus’s likely federal budget priorities pegged correctly? –Rick Cohen