We Need a Just & Moral Federal Budget

The process of creating the federal budget for the 2017 fiscal year is underway. For people of faith, the budget is a moral statement that specifies how we use our nation’s resources.

The months-long budget process includes a few key steps, one of which – passing a Budget Resolution – is happening now. The Budget Resolution is an agreement between the House and Senate on spending and revenue levels for the budget as a whole. It also sets the spending level for each of the major functions performed by the federal government, for example, natural resources/environment, military, education/training, transportation, etc.

The Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is currently poised to bring its proposed Budget Resolution to the full House for a vote. It is a very disturbing proposal. It repeals the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and parts of the Dodd-Frank legislation that barred some of the banking activities that led to the Great Recession. In addition, the proposed Budget Resolution:

    • makes severe cuts in assistance to lower-income families, eliminating roughly 40% of federal resources for these families over the next 10 years;
    • hinders efforts to address climate change by providing more tax incentives for oil and gas exploration and cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency;
    • increases already excessive military spending; and
    • eliminates taxes on profits that multinational firms earn abroad, giving them a huge financial windfall and additional incentives to move their operations off shore.
    • Our policy makers must do better than this. Tell members of the U.S. House of Representative to vote against the Budget Committee’s proposed Budget Resolution.

Now is the time to act! Urge your Representative to vote against the House Budget Committee’s proposed Budget Resolution.

Need more info? See the analyis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Coalition for Human Needs.

Enter your information to take action now!

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