Letters: Helping poor should be a choice, not a mandate

I have a Christian obligation to help those in need, but the idea that taxpayers should be forced by confiscation of our hard-earned money to support other citizens’ offspring is a recent phenomenon.

God’s law commands us to help those less fortunate, but that choice is left to the individual. Many hard-working citizens have a very difficult time making ends meet and should not have excessive taxation to support families who can be supported by churches and charitable organizations.

Unfortunately, many families live off taxpayer programs that help people who have more children than they can afford (“We can’t keep defaulting on payment for civilization,” July 30).

Our country committed to the war on poverty in the 1960s. We are now in 2017, and we still have poverty. We need to revamp the failed anti-poverty programs and devote the revenue to more effective strategies.

This story was originally published August 5, 2017 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Letters: Helping poor should be a choice, not a mandate."