Gehring on Taxes and CST

John Gehring has a splendid essay up at US Catholic in which he notes how Catholic social teaching has never embraced the anti-tax, anti-gvoernment mantras emanating from the Tea(Taxed Enough Already)Party. Gehring correcly applies key Catholic tenets, with quotes from episcopal and papal texts, to the debate and points out the inconvenient fact that the U.S. is one of the most under-taxed industrial countries in the world and that our current tax rates are at historic lows.

Yes, Catholics are allowed to disagree on matters that demand prudential judgment, but prudential judgment does not cover a fundamentally flawed approach of the kind on exhibit from the Tea Party.