Mainstream Religious Leaders Urge New Budget Priorities in Wake of Katrina

A budget is ---or SHOULD be --- a Moral document in that it represents in very concrete terms both (a) the recognition of needs & (b) the desire to allocate resources which target those needs. The Katrina natural disaster & its aftermath have made the U.S. the laughingstock of all developed nations & some developing nations as well when our impotence & lack of will have been on display & under scrutiny. Why the current regime has balked its grudged participation in the ONE CAMPAIGN to eliminate "extreme poverty" in the world's poorest nations over the next decade is all too clear when the poorest among us was washed up & out of squalor for all to see AND to see them disproportionately as "people of color" & the forgotten mentally ill, not only without assets but without all hope. Infrastructure is people too, and it will take leadership that encourages following to address these needs: No, Dubya doesn't have it: more interested in further tax cuts for the wealthiest under the "trickledown" delusion that they'll reinvest it & create jobs. Suspending the wage requirements of law will rankle when those working in the cleanup at reduced rates will have this further affliction eating at them like a festering sore.

No, throwing money at the problem will not fix it, but neither will not making the money available to address it. For the last three decades (read: since Ronald Regan) the budgetary assault on the weakest peoples (poor, children, mentally ill, etc) has made increasing numbers join them, involuntarily. The decreasing middle class slips farther towards & into poverty moreso than advancing on the other spectrum end into wealth. We call these the "working poor" as they seek two or more jobs to equal one old job with traditional benefits, now that healthcare & retirement contributions are pressured into oblivion. The crisis will explode when these reach retirement age & have insufficient assets to exist, much less live. Yes, we need to revamp the educational system that lost out in the shuffle for these indigeneous poor in the Katrina aftermath so that at least their children will go where their parents could not venture, and it needs to be REAL education, not social promotion, so that real choices will exist. That also entails meeting entrenched racism & discrimination so that the "left behind" can be citizens, not just denizens.

I am proud of this religious leadership sounding this clarion call. I am proud to have professional standing in one of these denominations who sponsored this missal. More often than not, I have not been proud to be maligned by the pseudo-religious rakes that speak loudly & obnoxiously as they seek domination & feed at the Republi-evangelico "faith-based" trough to assault the Constitution on religion's role in our society. I am, however, proud to be a Mainline Protestant for this outworking of Social Ethics. A Budget is a Moral Document, to be read as such. Our stewardship should always be under scrutiny: may we be up to this task & enlist all of Good Will in it.

Religious leaders have been urging Congress to create just budgets for years. Unless church leaders are willing to back up their letters with something concrete, their message will get tucked to the back of Congress's mind.

Laws about tax-exemption may limit the leaders of the denominations from organizing actions, but that doesn't limit organizations like CAP or other concerned members of the denominations from organizing. This is something that CAP should jump on.

Wow.....absolutely incredible. You really hit the nail on the head there, Rev. There have been far too many incidents as of late which even further your argument.

The legislation which was passed that made it far more difficult for the average man to file for protection under bankruptcy laws. It was done under the guise that most of these individuals are merely wreckless spenders feeding on the system, but that is entirely untrue. The majority of these individuals are those who have suffered some form of medical emergeny that has made them unable to work. A good number of disabled veterans coming back from Iraq are also not able to file for bankruptcy protection. But yet we see corporation after corporation file for bankruptcy and ask for restructuting. The majority after restructuring are eliminating pensions for their retired workers. Corporation after corporation are doing this and why the main stream media isn't looking into this boggles my mind.

Jesus said "That which you do to the least of your brothers you do unto me." Well....this administration has not been treating the least of our brothers all that well. Of course we will have people post about how well the poor have it. How incredibly insensitive and naive can you be. To deny that the poor are being mistreated and kept down is immoral and shows a severe lack social knowledge.

Now I agree there are abuses of the system. Then fix the system!! Don't simply eliminate it because a very small minority cause the problems.

You know, I may be very naive here, but I believe a large part of poverty could be eliminated if we would insist on a federal living minimum wage. What people forget sometimes is that these people work. They work very hard, but they do not prosper because we are all too afraid of what their living minimum wage would do to our 401K , our stocks, etc. We must decide, do we prosper on the backs of the poor and call ourselves Christians......or stand up for them.

Kathy, You aren't being naive. A number of economists have been saying for years that raising the minimum wage to something more livable would help Americans in so many ways. Republicans talk about job losses whenever the subject is raised. Some would lose their jobs if the minimum wage were raised as quickly and radically as I would, and think you might. However, to have millions of Americans (who do without so much) suddenly earning $1-2/hr more (with equivalent raises for a few years to follow) would stimulate the economy creating many more jobs than those that might have been lost. I also don't buy the argument about inflationary pressures. Yes the cost of some things would increase a bit, but the net gain to the economy and Americans (from the bottom to the top) would be great.

In addition to raising the standard of living for many, some would be able to quit second jobs and spend more time with their children. This would help lower crime rates, raise educational standards in more impoverished areas (because parents would begin to have the time and energy to participate in their children's education) and so on.

Also, increased revenues from increased wages would help head off the FICA shortfall we'll soon experience with medicare and eventually with social security. It would help state and local governments which have been making draconian budget cuts in mental health, roads, education, etc. It might also help get us back to a surplus on the federal budget, when Democrats control the White House and Congress again.

Raising minimum wage would be a win-win-win proposition. Some people just can't understand that. Just like the people who say higher taxes mean less money in your pocket. Some think that higher wages mean their company will have less profit, without following that thought to its logical conclusion where there would be an increase in revenue (accompanied by lower costs due to higher volume) to more than compensate.

While I agree that raising the minimum wage to a living wage is a great idea and that doing so will help the looming Social Security shortfall, I have another suggestion. I think that deducting FICA and Medicare taxes from ALL pay would REALLY do some good for Social Security. Right now those taxes are paid only on wages up to $100,000. Wages over that amount are not subject to those taxes, but we know that there are lots of folks out there who earn many times that figure. If the high earners had to pay FICA and Medicare taxes on their entire salaries, Social Security would plump up pretty fast.

The USA needs to stop being the world's policeman and use its wealth to provide univeral healthcare to its citizens.

rngmaiij http://fctposxa.com aydelodw vcdzgkgg [URL=http://fsgaybmu.com]wxocqrwn[/URL] yeihimgr

[URL=http://bqzsseyi.com]xjmcmwgc[/URL] jrzergiq http://sgmnklaf.com stdzrhjo gwiwqwmk gyjyukxl