Quoted Text

Where does it say government has to take care of the poor?

    There have been a lot of letters and opinion columns in your newspaper lately bashing the rich and Republicans in Congress over the tax rates for the rich. Quite frankly, I am sick of all of these whiners.
    Some of them claim it is our patriotic duty to pay taxes. Tell me where in the Constitution it says that. Our Founding Fathers actually founded this country because they were tired of paying taxes to support others. To me, that would make it patriotic to not pay taxes.
    Let me ask these whiners something. Who gives you the authority to ask other people to pay for your lifestyle? Why should anyone else be forced to give up their earned money (as long as it was legally earned) to you? Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. I believe the whiners who have written to your paper have left God. They should try going back to him and pray. God will take care of them.
    You should not put your trust in others to take care of you. To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, don’t ask what your government will do for you, ask yourself what you should do to take care of yourself. The more you have government take care of you, the less freedom and liberty you will have.
    The income tax system is not designed to give the government revenue to pay for all the things government does, so much as it is for redistributing wealth. I would like to see the abolition of the income tax and the establishment of a fair tax-like system. Everyone would pay their fair share.
    All you whiners should buck up and take some responsibility for yourself. It will truly be liberating!

    JOHN GAETANI
    Glenville

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00703&AppName=1

From the comments section below this article in the Gazette:

~ "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." ~
- John F. Kennedy

Quoted from Box A Rox

From the comments section below this article in the Gazette:

~ "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." ~
- John F. Kennedy

Spoken by a man that had more money than he could spend.

Quoted from 55tbird

Spoken by a man that had more money than he could spend.

A man whose daddy lie, cheated, stole, and broke many laws to make that money.  Who doesn't believe in Karma?

One must be a really twisted individual to suggest that the government should NOT help the poor.

How about a different twist on that?

"Should the Goverment Take Care of the Rich?"

And the team of DV, Savage, Gillen, & Stratton would have you believe the answer to that question is a resounding yes.   But remember, the government is the taxpayers.  And taxpayers are those who are not rich..  And the rich are not taxpayers.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

One must be a really twisted individual to suggest that the government should NOT help the poor.

I think that the government should do a certain amount to help, but at the same time, the government should stay out of the people's pockets so they can decide if they want to help their neighbors or not.

We should be giving the poor a hand up not a hand out.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

One must be a really twisted individual to suggest that the government should NOT help the poor.

But DV, YOU are the one, along with Savage, Gillen, and Stratton who do NOT want the govemernt helping the poor.  The four of you praise the giving 100% (and higher) tax exemptions to the millionaire and near millioaires property owners downtown while at the SAME TIME, failing to take care of the financially struggling homeowners in Schenectady by raising their taxes, taking money away from the lower income people, the elderly on fixed incomes, etc, thus making their taxes among the highest in the whole country....and then while the three of them give people's hard earned money to the rich downtown, YOU are the LOUDEST MOUTHPIECE for praising that.

And you have NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER written one word, NOT ONE WORD in opposition to your dem buddies forcing the poor in the city from paying the property and school taxes of the well heeled.

Every time there is a news item about taking more money from the taxpayers to spend it on wasteful downtown projects, you have the absolute highest praise for that.

You praise taking money out of peoples pockets, taking vital essential city services away from the neighborhoods while at the same time money is given to and spent on millionaires downtown

You ARE the BIGGEST hypocrite in this county!

I believe that helping the less fortunate aka poor is a good thing. But I think people have trouble distinguishing between what constitutes being poor and what doesn't.

Does a household of 4, wife works for the government, husband is laid off from a private sector job constitute being poor? What if they live in a $245K house with a heated swimming pool? The husband is on extended unemployment, entitled to food stamps and heap. Two vehicles, one that is worth $38K. Now do ya classify them as poor? I don't. And yet there are thousands of cases like this.

Some taxpayers are paying for people to maintain a life style that is actually higher than theirs. If this is called 'government taking care of the poor'.....I say NO!

And on the flip side.....schenectady county has the rich, tax exempt and not paying their fair share in property taxes. I just don't get it.

Quoted Text

What Jesus had to say about rich and poor

    Re John Gaetani’s Dec. 20 letter, “Where does it say government has to take care of the poor?”: Apparently this gentleman believes he is being a good Christian by basically telling poor people to go to hell, for all he cares.
    Did not Jesus himself say, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God?” Did he not instruct such a man seeking salvation to sell his worldly possessions and give to the poor? Did he not drive the moneychangers from the Temple, where they plied their detestable usury?
    I have no doubt that, were Jesus to walk the earth today, he would condemn the speculators, derivatives traders, mortgage swindlers and other parasitic profiteers who amass great wealth by their financial rape and enslavement of the people.
    And as for taxes, Jesus also admonished us to “render unto Caesar” — in other words, stop whining and pay your taxes!

    MIKE FOLEY
    Rotterdam

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00707&AppName=1

"If this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are...
or,
we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition...
and then admit that we just don't want to do it." (Stephen Colbert)

Comparing the government to a 'religion' taking care of the poor is like comparing apples to oranges. To my knowledge, the catholic church is the largest contributor in the world for the poor.....yes?

I don't recall Jesus preaching about how King Herod should use his power to take personal property from the "rich" by force, and give it to the poor.  Or telling his disciples to spread the word of God by telling the flock to use the power of law to forcibly take from the have's and give to the have not's.  My understanding was that Jesus was teaching us that it is the personal responsibility of the fortunate to give to the unfortunate.  

Most people don't have a problem with contributing to help the poor through the church, City Mission, Salvation Army or the food pantries. People have a real problem with the government taking our money by force through taxes and giving it to people who just refuse to work and sit on their duffs all day and wait for the government check to arrive.