Congress Should Defeat Budget Reconciliation Once and for All

Joint Statement from Five Mainline Protestant Leaders

Christians have begun the Advent Season in which we prepare to celebrate our Savior’s birth - the Savior who began his public ministry by proclaiming that God had anointed him “to bring good news to the poor.” We view this as a time for purposeful reflection, recognizing that we live in a fractured and fearful world, but seeking to find hope for ourselves and to give hope to those without hope.

Throughout this year we, five leaders of Christian denominations representing close to 20 million followers, have asked that the Federal Budget be recognized as a concrete statement of our nation’s values, and as such that it “bring good news to the poor.” At each stage of the complicated legislative process, we have viewed the budget through the lens of faith and our values and found the FY ’06 Federal Budget wanting. Now we ask that it be defeated once and for all.

The traumatic events of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita showed the nation and the world the faces of poverty in this country. The statistics from the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report on poverty presented hard numbers of 36 million Americans living below the poverty line, thereby verifying what our eyes had seen along the Gulf Coast but know to be true throughout the land. Yet Congress continues to make decisions which benefit the rich but are paid for by the poor and most vulnerable in our land.

Now the conferees must take hard decisions regarding the FY ’06 Federal Budget. They will seek to find compromise where there should be no compromise - that is with the lives and future of the poor of this country. The House budget package cuts total $49.9 billion and the Senate $35 billion necessitating hard bargaining and unacceptable choices. How can Congress compromise on food stamps when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that more than 222,000 people, primarily low-income working families with children and 70,000 legal immigrants, would lose food stamps if conferees follow the House budget? How can Congress compromise between the $1 billion for heating subsidies for low-income people included in the House bill but not in the Senate while knowing that heating bills are expected to rise 50 percent? How can Congress compromise on Medicaid provisions that will force low-income patients to forego needed health care or medications and relieve states of providing low-income children just above the poverty line with comprehensive preventive care and treatment? How does Congress compromise when the House proposal includes deep cuts to child support enforcement that will likely push children deeper into poverty when, already, nearly one in five children in this nation live below the poverty line? It cannot.

We pray that Congress will use this Advent season for purposeful reflection and in so doing conclude that the compromises required are unfair and will only cause greater hardship and suffering. They should vote down the FY ’06 Federal Budget. Then, Congress and the President should come together to present a budget that brings “good news to the poor,” reflecting our nation’s historic concern for justice and the least among us.

Signed by:

The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

The Reverend Mark Hanson
Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Reverend Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.)

The Reverend John H. Thomas
General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

Mr. James Winkler
General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church