'Budget critics: What would Jesus cut?'

[truthpusher]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0228/p17s01-cogn.html

from the article:The "immoral" label is one of the biggest political risks Republicans face with the budget, says Stanley Collender, a budget expert with Financial Dynamics Business Communications.

Budget critics: What would Jesus cut?
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from the February 28, 2005 edition
By David R. Francis
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Immoral. That's what several religious groups are calling President Bush's latest budget. The charge has political ramifications. It threatens to undermine some of Mr. Bush's support from voters concerned with values. But it also raises a deep question: Can budgets be moral or immoral? Is that really how the nation's spending plan should be judged? This emerging challenge is turning the "values" debate on its head. Liberals are putting policy issues in moral terms. Conservatives are resisting it.

"Budgets are moral documents, providing a framework for laying out priorities and values," says Yonce Shelton, public policy director for Call to Renewal, a progressive, faith-based organization in Washington. His biggest complaint: The administration is "trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor," at the same time it is expanding tax cuts for the wealthy. "It's not a moral-based approach," he says.

(snip)

"The Bush budget is not one of shared sacrifice," says Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a liberal think tank in Washington. "It maintains all the old tax cuts and adds new ones <$146 billion over 10 years> heavily tilted to the top," while slashing benefits for the poor.

Groups critical of the proposed cuts forecast widespread social damage. They say some 300,000 people will lose food-stamp benefits, a cut in child-care assistance will affect 300,000 children, large reductions in housing assistance will leave more people with disabilities and AIDS out in the cold, and 600,000 will be hit by cuts in a supplemental nutrition program. The list goes on.

Complete Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0228/p17s01-cogn.html

[wildmanj]

1. what would jesus cut

seems jesus has been cutting and starving those poor one going on 2005 years now----i stand to be corrected but so it seems

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. since the teachings of Jesus

said that the rich should give their goods to the poor, that there should be justice for all and that the poor should be taken care of, I think He would say that those who have exploited the poor in His name over the millenia are not following His teachings.

Actually, the words of Jesus are some of the most compelling arguments AGAINST Bush's budget, and are obviously being used by several progressive groups, including progressive Christian groups.

[Sapphire Blue]

2. Opposition to Bush's immoral budget....

Sojourners:

http://go.sojo.net/campaign/budget_06?rk=P11cZi41WRL9W


Campaign for America's Future:

http://www.ourfuture.org/reject_bush_budget.cfm


Democrats.org:

http://www.democrats.org/action/200502080001.html?psc=action_alert

[FreedomAngel82]

3. I'm glad to hear

people talking about this. It's nice to know some people really are waking up to Bush's budget cut plans and realizing what he does. He does make it to where the wealthy can get more wealthy and the poor more poor. Maybe we can all find common ground with this issue that will effect all of us. I hope so. I remember not long after the election reading how Bush's evangelical base was getting upset with him for not keeping promises. Maybe more of them are waking up to him. One can only hope. It's not going to be an easy four years for Bush. Maybe now some of them will realize what the democratic party has been telling people now about Bush is true.