By Bernice Powell Jackson

Over and over again last fall we heard news reports that the presidential election was determined by moral values.  Over and over again we heard references to the bible in those discussions.  Yet, an examination of the federal budget now being proposed by the Bush administration belies a commitment to the biblical call for economic justice.  In the words of the old saying, “the devil is in the details.”

The budget is a moral document.  It shows how we as a nation choose to spend our money.  This budget shows that we are choosing to increase our defense spending, extend tax cuts to the wealthiest and cut programs for the poorest and sickest.

The budget is a moral document.  As any middle or high school student who learns budget basics knows, a budget is composed of two parts – income and expenses.  In the case of the proposed federal budget, the government’s income will be reduced dramatically by the extension of 2002 low tax rates for dividends and capital gains through 2010.  Three-quarters of these tax cuts have gone to those who earn over $200,000 a year (with  half  going to those Americans who earn more than $1 million a year.)  This amounts to a $23 billion loss of income to the federal government.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that these tax cuts will increase our deficit by an astounding $1.6 trillion over the next ten years.

The budget is a moral document.  Not only will our national income be decreasing, but our spending is increasing on military, homeland security and other international programs.  For instance, the administration’s proposed budget is asking for more than $400 billion for the Department of Defense discretionary budget alone.  This does not include any funding for the war or occupation in Iraq or Afghanistan, an amount estimated to be $153 billion.  Veterans groups worry that it also does not adequately fund rehabilitation costs for wounded and disabled soldiers.

The budget is a moral document.  Since the proposed budget decreases income and increases military costs, in order to balance the bottom line it must make massive expense cuts to programs targeted for the poorest and the sickest Americans.  For instance, nearly 150 programs that provide vital social services to the poor and to families and communities will be cut.  For example, while taxes will be cut for the wealthiest Americans, the Earned Income Tax Credit, a program which provides tax relief to poor working families, will be drastically reduced.  Or, despite the fact that one in five American women under age 65 currently has no health insurance at all, the administration is proposing $60 billion in Medicaid budget cuts over the next ten years.

As Congress has begun debating the budget, its proposed cuts are also draconian.  For instance, cuts to programs for low income Americans proposed by the House of Representatives would be 10 times larger than those proposed by the Senate.   

The budget is a moral document.  How are we, the richest nation in the world, caring for our children?  The Food Stamp program would be cut by $1 billion over 10 years, and the nutrition program for pregnant women and children would also receive huge cuts. Children’s health insurance programs would be cut.  Moreover, this budget would reduce funding for primary and secondary education and delete 48 Department of Education programs while reducing 16 others.  It would freeze child care funds for working mothers as well as funding for Head Start, which would result in some 25,000 poor children being dropped.

The budget is a moral document.  “Some contend that these cuts will stimulate the economy and improve life for all Americans, but we believe that stocking the rich man’s larder is a peculiar strategy for getting Lazarus (the poor man at the gate in the bible) more food,” said a joint statement by leaders of the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  “For even as this budget reduces aid to those in poverty, it showers presents on the rich,” it added.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to support the garbage workers.  In those final weeks of his life, he was planning a Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., in which he wanted to focus the attention of Congress and the American people on “the least of these.”  Maybe it’s time to once again bring poor people to Washington to confront our legislators and our President with the faces of those whose lives will be impacted by their budget cuts.  Let them look into the eyes of the children and the women and the elderly and the disabled.  Let them meet those of us for whom moral values mean how we treat the poorest, the weakest, the sickest, the youngest and the oldest.  Maybe that’s how we honor Dr. King.  Maybe that’s how we reclaim our moral values and our souls.  

(Note: You can contact your U.S. Representative at 202-224-3121.  Or contact your U.S. Senator at 202-225-3121)