Defining 'proportionate reasons'

[Prodigal_Son1]

Well, if you insist on dismissing opposition to your views as “spin”, then I think we really are through

Please show me where I said take from the middle class and give to other middle class, otherwise it’s spin.

But I will submit to you, and I encourage you tol read, the Social Encyclicals and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas on economics, upon which the Popes placed considerable weight. I also encourage you to read “Redeeming Economics” by John Mueller, which is based on Scholastic economics and the Social Encyclicals, as well as providing an examination of secular economic theories both old and new.

If you do, you will find that transfers from earners to people who are not in real need of it are not moral, tend to be harmful, and are not in any way required or recommended by the Church. If you study Obamacare, you will find that it really is a transfer from primarily the middle class, to other members of the middle class. If you know anything about Social Security Retirement and Medicare, you cannot deny that they are primarily middle class benefits; to the rich in some cases. The truly poor are dependent on SSI in whole or in part, and Medicaid, both of which are inadequate (though Medicaid’s adequacy varies from place to place, but SSI’s is grotesquely inadequate everywhere) and should be the immediate focus of charitably intended political action.

I trust Pope Benedict has a much better understanding of the encyclicals you reference than myself and I trust his teachings.

I do not doubt that there are people who take advantage. I’ve even said that, several times. We shouldn’t overlook those in need because of those that take advantage.

I have said that I am not voting for, or supporting, Obama, yet I have to continue hearing arguments as if I were. Is this your justification for telling me that I said we should take fro the middle class and give to other middle class?

Through my job I see many recipients of social security, medicare and medicaid. I assure you that I have not seen someone I would consider middle class. So that ‘primarily’ argument doesn’t hold true in my experience. Maybe this is a more depressed area than what you’re talking about, but it’s not the case in this county.

 

[Ridgerunner]

We’re done, Prodigal. You said it and I said it. Those who care to read back through the posts can make their own judgments.

 

[Prodigal_Son1]

The new USCCB Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States is out.

Catholics often face difficult choices about how to vote. This is why it is so
important to vote according to a well-formed conscience that perceives the proper
relationship among moral goods. A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes
a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter’s
intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal
cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate’s
opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other
important moral issues involving human life and dignity.

Seems the wording has changed just a bit…