Interfaith group: Bills give to the rich, take from poor

Author: Sven Gustafson

Published: December 14, 2005

An interfaith group of clergymen is taking aim at a pair of bills passed recently by the U.S. House of Representatives, saying they will hurt the poor and violate basic principles of morality.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, Christian, Judaic and Islamic leaders denounced Congress for approving a $50 billion budget reconciliation bill that makes deep cuts in programs for the poor while approving $56 billion in tax cuts that will benefit the wealthy three weeks later. Both bills are being reconciled with Senate versions.

The Rev. Harry Cook of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Clawson referred to the biblical prophet Amos, who urged the wealthy king of Israel to consider the poor instead of his own satisfaction.

"He demanded the end to the same kind of thing we're demanding an end to here today: a gross economic injustice," Cook said. "We're telling (congressional leaders) to pay attention to the imperatives of the Bible that they seem to love so much."

The House budget bill contains measures to cut spending for food stamps, student aid, Medicaid and child support enforcement programs. It passed 217-215 last month, mostly along party lines, with all Michigan Democrats opposing it and all Michigan Republicans supporting it.

The tax cut extension was passed last week 234-197, extending cuts on dividends and capital gains by two years through 2010.

Democrats have blasted the measures as "reverse Robin Hood" policies that take from the poor while giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said the House budget bill could cost the state $1 billion in federal Medicaid funding over five years, and Republican state Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan recently said the proposed cuts would cripple the state's enforcement of child support payments.

Meanwhile, the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center says that in 2009, 45 percent of the tax cuts would go toward households with annual incomes of more than $1 million, while 72 percent would go to households making more than $200,000. The Senate bill does not include such an extension.

"Instead of using this money for deficit reduction or Katrina, they're using it for tax breaks," said Jim Sheehan of the group Catholics for the Common Good. "From a human point of view, from any point of view, certainly from a religious point of view, that doesn't wash."

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Livonia Republican whose district includes western Oakland County, said the budget bill merely slows the rate of spending growth in programs from 7.3 percent to 7 percent. He said the tax cut extension will help the state's economy.

"First, I disagree with their fundamental proposition where we're cutting when we're actually spending more than we did this year," he said. "And secondly, I disagree with their assertion that workers should have to pay more for bigger government. Lastly, as a Catholic, I find using the church to put out a message offensive."

In an analysis of the two bills, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities writes: "The likely combined effect of the House and Senate budget and tax reconciliation bills would be to increase the deficit over the next fi ve years."