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Sojourners...
This is Not Fiscal
Conservatism. It’s Just Politics.
By Jim Wallis
The current budget and deficit debate in America is now dominating the
daily headlines. There is even talk of shutting down the government if
the budget-cutters don’t get their way. There is no doubt that
excessive deficits are a moral issue and could leave our children and
grandchildren with crushing debt. But what the politicians and pundits
have yet to acknowledge is that how you reduce the deficit is also a
moral issue. As Sojourners said in the last big budget debate in 2005,
“A budget is a moral document.” For a family, church, city, state, or
nation, a budget reveals what your fundamental priorities are: who is
important and who is not; what is important and what is not. It’s time
to bring that slogan back, and build a coalition and campaign around it.
The governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, says he only really cares
about his budget deficit; however, it now appears that he proudly sees
himself as the first domino in a new strategy for Republican governors
to break their public employee unions. (We are already seeing similar
actions in Indiana, Ohio, and New Jersey.) Governor Walker’s proposed
bill is really more about his ideological commitments and conservative
politics -- which favor business over labor -- than about his concern
for Wisconsin’s financial health. Thousands of working-class Americans
are now protesting in the streets of Madison and have made this a
national debate. Even protesters in Egypt are sending messages of hope
(and pizzas) to the Wisconsin demonstrators.
The Republican governors’ counter parts in the U.S. House of
Representatives are also not cutting spending where the real money is,
such as in military spending, corporate tax cuts and loop-holes, and
long term health-care costs. Instead, they are cutting programs for the
poorest people at home and around the world. This is also just
political and not genuine fiscal conservatism. It is a direct attack on
programs that help the poor and an all-out defense of the largesse
handed out to big corporations and military contractors. If a budget is
a moral document, these budget-cutters show that their priorities are
to protect the richest Americans and abandon the poorest -- and this is
an ideological and moral choice. The proposed House cuts, which were
just sent to the Senate, are full of disproportionate cuts to
initiatives that have proven to save children’s lives and overcome
poverty, while leaving untouched the most corrupt and wasteful spending
of all American tax dollars -- the Pentagon entitlement program. This
is not fiscal integrity; this is hypocrisy.
U.S. military spending is now 56 percent of the world’s military
expenditures and is more than the military budgets of the next 20
countries in the world combined. To believe all that money is necessary
for genuine American security is simply no longer credible. To say it
is more important than bed nets that prevent malaria, vaccines that
prevent deadly diseases, or child health and family nutrition for
low-income families is simply immoral. Again, these are ideological
choices, not smart fiscal ones. To prioritize endless military spending
over critical, life-saving programs for the poor is to reverse the
biblical instruction to beat our swords into plowshares. The proposed
budget cuts would beat plowshares into more swords. These priorities
are not only immoral, they are unbiblical.
Now some members of Congress seem to want to force a government
showdown over all this. They are saying there will be no shared
sacrifice for the rich, only sacrifices from the poor and middle-class,
or we will shut down the government. The only people whose lives have
returned to normal in America are the ones who precipitated our
financial and economic crisis in the first place. They have all
returned to record profits, while many others are still struggling with
unemployment, stagnant wages, loss of benefits, home foreclosures, and
more. These representatives are claiming that we should restore fiscal
integrity by protecting all the soaring billionaires, while forcing the
already-squeezed to make more and more concessions.
Let me offer a word to those who see this critique as partisan. I’ve
had good friendships with Republican members of Congress, but not the
kind who get elected by their party anymore. But let’s be clear, when
politicians attack the poor, it is not partisan to challenge them; it
is a Christian responsibility.
This is wrong, this is unjust, this is vile, and this must not stand.
Next week, thanks to your support, look for a full-page ad in Politico
signed by faith leaders and organizations across the country that asks
Congress a probing question: “What would Jesus cut?” These proposed
budget cuts are backwards, and I don’t see how people of faith can
accept them. And we won’t.
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