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Trump kills rural broadband grants, calls digital equity program “racist and illegal”
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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Churches and other religious congregations in the US are NOT funded with taxpayers money (at least, pending Supreme Court decision on the Kansas taxpayer supported Catholic school), and pastor salary and building upkeep are very real costs. If a family values the community having employee(s) and a building, and doesn't want the hassle of other payment options, automatic debits are a good option to have available.
Things that actually are funded with taxpayer money, yes, they should be free. The Project 2025 plan to kill NOAA so weather forecasts will only be available to subscribers of private companies is incredibly destructive to such a huge number of people, and yes, this broadband decision is in that same awful category.
You misread my comment. I'm relating direct tithing to churches, to things like NOAA. That's actually an incredible example of what I'm talking about. But I'm not saying churches are taxpayer funded no.
That being said... I'm not putting it past religious fundamentalists to convince Trump to issue an executive order garnishing every American's wages in the name of tithing to the church. It would be foul, and fucked, but the last 6 months have given me an ample imagination.
Isn't the fact that they get a tax credit kinda means they get that money through?
I'm not sure what you mean by "tax credit". Religious congregations do not receive payments of any kind from the government. They do not pay taxes on their income (donations/tithes), so each donor's money goes farther, and donors, if they itemize on their tax returns (pretty rare with how generous the standard deduction has become) have tax incentive to give generously. But without donations, there won't be any building or full time officiant.
So you see exactly what I mean. They get to not pay taxes. That's money in their pockets instead of the government. Ergo, that's a grant.