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Budget priorities |
| Bush budget shifts priorities from
human needs to war
Weekly Message 2002, #4 From the UCC Justice and Peace
Action Network
[2-8-02]
Every year at the end of January, the president
proposes a federal budget which Congress then shapes into a spending
plan for the coming year. This process must be completed by October 1,
2002. The first wartime budget of the Bush Administration has been
released, and the $2.13 trillion spending plan features a 14.5% increase
in military spending ($48 billion) and doubles 2002 expenditures for
homeland security ($38 billion). Most of the homeland security budget is
comprised of airport security, increased police and military presence,
and tighter border control.
At the end of 2001, the U.S. government completed four
straight years of economic surplus, a feat which had not been
accomplished for 70 years. The president's proposed budget takes the
federal government into deficit spending by $106 billion in fiscal year
2003, effectively reneging on last year's pledge to pay down $2 trillion
in government debt over the next 10 years.
The military build-up, combined with last year's tax
cuts of $1.35 trillion, are forcing a depth of budget cuts in job
creation and human needs programs which haven't been seen since the
Reagan Administration. The president proposes a 30% cut in highway
spending ($9.5 billion) and a $9 billion cut in federal payments to
hospitals -- many of them teaching hospitals training tomorrow's
doctors. Both of these are sources of major revenue for states and for
individual workers trying to outrun the recession. A 5% cut in the Labor
Department ($3 billion) -- the agency charged with enforcing safety
standards and minimum wage compliance -- will further add to the plight
of working Americans.
Low income people don't fare much better. The
president proposes a 15% cut ($300 million) from the Low Income Home
Energy Assistance Program which helps poor people heat their homes in
the winter and cool them in the summer, and a 6% cut in public housing
subsidies for low-income housing residents and developers ($382
million).
Even while proposing cutbacks in human needs programs,
the presidential budget seeks to enact $591 million in new tax relief
for corporations and high income individuals that were not included in
the 2001 tax cuts. This budget threatens current spending priorities and
jeopardizes long term priorities like Social Security and Medicaid
solvency.
General Synods of the United Church of Christ have
spoken for more than 40 years on the importance of adequate government
spending on programs for human needs. (See resolutions such as
"Call to Christian Action in Society" (GS2, 1959), "The
Right to Earn a Living"(GS 11, 1997), and "Effects of the 1996
Welfare Legislation" (GS 22,1999).)
Justice and Witness Ministries urges you to contact
your members of Congress and ask them to oppose this shift in federal
budget priorities during this time of recession.
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Senators' email addresses: www.senate.gov or go to www.ucc.org/justice
and click on the left button that says "Contact Congress."
******************
This weekly message is sent by email each week for
use in church news- letters and bulletins the following Sunday when
Congress is in session. To add names to this weekly advocacy service,
for more information, or to remove your name from the list, reply to JPAnet@ucc.org.
For additional information on the UCC Justice and Peace Action
Network, log on to the UCC website at www.ucc.org.
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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