Thank you for supporting my position.

Yep. And then the shelters, institutes and churches would all have good reasons to advocate for lower tax rates on everyone. As it is a good many of them pocket their tax-free status and push for higher taxes on everyone else.

Agreed as to your first statement. But in the second you are confusing loopholes (some people pay nothing, others pay through their noses) with tax cuts (everyone pays less).

Simplify the tax code, eliminate the fraud and graft and let everyone understand why low tax rates are important.

Yes, churches should pay taxes, and they also should be able to publicly advocate political positions, which their non-profit status prohibits -- the gag order is the steep price the government extracts for the exemption (and which the churches are curiously willing to pay). Think of the tax-exempt nature of MediaMatters, MoveOn and all the other lefty outfits. None of them are paying any taxes while advocating that everyone else should be plundered.

As I said, everyone should have some skin in the game. Then they would be far less likely to be oblivious to how harmful high taxes are. It's also the basis of any flat-tax proposal -- maximize the tax base, minimize the tax rate.

You may not receive payouts of public money, but your 501(c)(3) status amounts to a subsidy from taxpayers. I'll vote for whatever candidate pledges to abolish from the tax code the pernicious concept of tax-exempt entities. Everyone should have some skin in the game.