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October 13, 2005
Not Hillel or Jesus, but Ebenezer Scrooge Guides Our President and Congress: Call Them on US Budget on Mon. & Tues.
by Faithful Progressive
Despite all the showy religiosity of the present Administration and Congress, it sometimes seems as though the real guiding moral compass of our present government is Ebenezer Scrooge. Certainly the current direction of the new budget owes much more to that mean-spirited Dickens-character than it does to Jesus or Hillel. The bitter irony associated with the fall-out and reconstruction of hurricane Katrina is that, after all of the discussion about poverty in America, our government is now cynically using the costs of hurricane reconstruction as an opportunity to cut aid to the poor. This is shocking and immoral and we need to tell them so.
This repested pattern of using a crisis to rationalize old policy goals started up again with President Bush slashing wages for workers involved in the clean-up by suspending the Davis Bacon Act. Now there are renewed calls for cuts for programs that serve the poor.
Margaret Krome of the Capital Times reports, "Calls for budget reconciliation began last winter, and for a while after Hurricane Katrina, they paused, as politicians were temporarily worried about being criticized as callous to the tremendous needs brought on by the disaster. Then, Republican leaders got the idea that they could actually use the hurricane reconstruction costs to justify budget cuts they wanted anyway. They rolled up their sleeves and began slicing.In the name of cutting the deficit, they proposed to cut Medicaid, Medicare and $574 million from food stamps, as well as make cuts in environmental, conservation and virtually all other domestic programs except for those associated with homeland security."
But what's most cynical about this exercise is the assumption that the potentially $200 billion bill for hurricane relief and reconstruction is the cause of the $317 billion deficit. In fact, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysts say that interest on the borrowing for these reconstruction costs can be expected to increase the deficit by no more than 3 percent, 10 years from now. They point out that the budget was successfully balanced in the 1990s despite expenditures to deal with that decade's disasters.
So if the one-time, albeit huge, costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction aren't the source of a worsening deficit, what is? The two words responsible are short, understandable and clear. They are "tax cuts."
The nation's deficit will balloon, not from disaster relief costs, but from the huge tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest individuals. The tax cuts enacted since 2001 will cost more than $1.77 trillion over the next five years - many times the anticipated cost of the hurricanes."
Religious leaders are once again calling for action. Here's a staement from a group of ELCA Bishops
Cuts to mandatory spending called for in the reconciliation package would decrease valuable assistance to millions of low-income families, children, elderly and people with disabilities. Even as the number of people living in poverty and without insurance has increased dramatically in the past five years, the last few tragic weeks in the Gulf Coast area have put a face, indeed, thousands of new faces, on poverty in the heart of our society. Programs such as Food Stamps, Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) help to keep struggling families together and assist low-income working families in moving to higher economic ground. This is not the time to cut such important programs while using the cuts to pay for tax breaks for those who don’t need them.
The Biblical record is clear. The Scriptural witness on which our faith tradition stands speaks dramatically of God’s concern for and solidarity with poor and oppressed communities while speaking firmly in opposition to governments whose policies place narrow economic interests driven by greed above the common good. Jesus speaks and acts unequivocally on behalf of those on the margins of society. St. Paul writes forcefully about the importance of community and expands the definition of those we call brothers and sisters in Christ. As Americans open their homes to embrace neighbors from Gulf Coast states, as non-profit and religious organizations provide relief services, we strongly urge you to reflect on your role as a government official in providing for the least in our society and ask that you oppose any attempt to move forward with the budget reconciliation process.
The Coalition on Human Needs and the American Friends Service Committee are sponsoring a toll-free call-in to the Capitol Toll-Free (1-800-426-8073)next Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 17 & 18. Set Congress's Priorities Straight! If you click the link it will tell you all about it. In the name of Jesus and Hillel, in the name of all that is right and fair, please speak up and help restore America to real Judeo-Christian and American values.
Posted by Faithful Progressive at October 13, 2005 11:31 PM
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