In the latest episode of his “Foundations of Freedom” series, right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton was once again joined by Michele Bachmann, who railed against the progressive income tax as an unbliblical system that causes Americans to violate the Ten Commandments.
Barton and Bachmann, a former Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, were discussing the topic of “economics and the Bible” and spent most of the program attacking progressive taxation for violating the economic laws set out in the Bible by placing Americans into different groups and tax brackets instead of treating them as individuals.
“God loves the individual,” Bachmann said, “and He wants the individual to succeed, He wants the family to succeed. And when government stops looking at us as an individual with a name and now we become a number, in other words, we become a part of a group association, then what’s dangerous about that is if our group association isn’t pleasing to the current government power, you get whacked!”
After Barton cited a Supreme Court case striking down the income tax prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment, Bachmann warned that a progressive income tax is unbliblical because it encourages the government to tax the rich to benefit the poor, which makes people covet their neighbor’s possessions in violation of the Tenth Commandment.
“Just look at any campaign commercial on TV,” Bachmann said. “It’s appealing to the lower interests of man and it appeals to the American people to violate the Tenth Commandment. We are told, don’t covet; in other words, don’t be jealous and don’t want what your neighbor has. Your neighbor had to work for what he has and don’t be jealous of your neighbor, get out and work yourself. Instead, politicians say, ‘Oh no, no, your neighbor is rich because he stole it from you.’ That’s not true, it’s a lie, and so does anyone benefit from that thinking? Absolutely not. The Bible is exactly right.”
