Paul Wilczynski's Observations

Without vision the people perish

Jim Wallis, head of Soujourners and author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It comments on President Bush's 2006 budget. He begins ...

On Monday, February 7, President Bush released his 2006 budget proposal. As convener of Call to Renewal, Sojourners' partner organization, I issued the following response to the budget. The biblical prophets frequently spoke to rulers and kings. They spoke to "the nations," and it is the powerful that are most often the target audience; those in charge of things are the ones called to greatest accountability. And the prophets usually spoke for the dispossessed, widows and orphans (read: poor single moms), the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the least, last, and lost. They spoke to a nation's priorities. Budgets are moral documents that reflect the values and priorities of a family, church, organization, city, state, or nation. They tell us what is most important and valued to those making the budget. President Bush says that his 2006 budget "is a budget that sets priorities." Examining those priorities - who will benefit and who will suffer in President Bush's budget - is a moral and religious concern. Just as we have "environmental impact studies" for public policies, it is time for a "poverty impact statement," which would ask the fundamental question of how policy proposals affect low-income people. We could start with this budget and do a "values audit" to determine how its values square with those of the American people. I believe this would reveal unacceptable priorities. The cost of the deficit is increasingly borne by the poor. The budget projects a record $427 billion deficit, and promises to make tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest permanent. Religious communities spoke clearly in the past years about the perils of a domestic policy based primarily on tax cuts for the rich, program cuts for low-income people, and an expectation of faith-based charity. We must speak clearly now about a budget lacking moral vision. A budget that scapegoats the poor and fattens the rich, that asks for sacrifice mostly from those who can least afford it, is a moral outrage.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:07 AM