NOT MY pres drumpf/trump and NOT MY vp pence hate the poor. Their proposed budget takes fro the poor, the working and middle classes, students, retirees, vets and gives to the rich and the military-industrial complex. Warnings of the real drumpf/trump-pence and gop agenda have been sounded for over a year, including from the Christian community. Amazingly the very people who are targeted to receive fewer services and less support in this proposed budget, who are also targeted by the proposed congressional gop (greed over people) budget while proclaiming their Christian faith are still being deceived by the lies and deception of the drumpf/trump-pence and republican propaganda campaign as well as the preachers of the gospel of greed and their alt jesus and so reject all criticism of these austerity budgets. drumpf/trump-pence and the gop controlled congress are waging class warfare on the 99%, the question is what is it going to take for the 99% to start fighting back? From Benjamin L Corey and National Priorities Project
Cutting Government Spending And Our Hypocritical Refusal To Help The Poor
January 29, 2016 by Benjamin L. Corey
Every few years around election cycle the same discussions repeat themselves over and over again. While there are a few issues here and there that crop up because of new gaps in culture, the bulk of the issues debated are quite predictable.
One of those issues is “big government.” One side of the political spectrum will typically advocate for social programs, while the other side will object and call that “big government.”
On one hand, the idea of small government sounds great. I think the average person would like to experience as much freedom from external restrictions as possible. And of course, no one enjoys being taxed. Thus, in theory small government sounds great.
However, over the course of time I have come to see that when politicians say “small government” they’re often using that as a code-word for cutting spending for the poor. It also seems true that they don’t want to take away the tax breaks which benefit the rich donors and corporations who got them elected.
Thus, when folks talk about small government and reducing government spending, it seems highly likely that they really just mean “the government needs to spend less money on the poor.” Many of those pushing this philosophy are professed Christians who believe the Church is the responsible party for dealing with poverty.
For example, David Barton (who helped pen the Republican party platform in 2012) said:
“It’s not the government’s responsibility to take care of the poor and needy. It’s the Church’s responsibility.”
While I think there’s a sound biblical argument for the government assisting with providing for the poor, they are right in that caring for the poor is one of the core tasks of the Church. In fact, in Matthew 25 Jesus makes one of the boldest statements in his ministry when he said that Christians who don’t feed the poor or clothe the naked will be shut out of his Kingdom at the last judgement.
The idea that the Church should be outspending the government on caring for the poor is actually a fantastic idea– I think we should be first in line to set the example for everyone else. Conservative politicians however, seem to be taking this concept to an extreme of “Church not state, instead of Church and state.”
However, I have no love or trust in secular government, so if their idea worked in practice instead of theory, I’d be all on board. But, there’s one major snag to this idea:
Statistically speaking, the Church in America doesn’t do its job. In fact, it is my contention that most Christians in America don’t actually believe we have a moral responsibility to care for the poor.
Why? I’m convinced that what we believe is revealed by our actions, not our words. It is in what we do, not what we say, where truth is revealed.
And if this is the case, caring for the poor via generous, charitable giving, simply isn’t a widely held belief among American Christians.
Case in point: Presidential candidate Ted Cruz is among the professed Christian candidates who want less government spending and to transfer a greater portion of caring for the poor to private charity. However, recently released documents show that between 2006-2010, Cruz gave less than 1% of his income to charity— even though he made over $5 million dollars during that time.
While Cruz’s hypocrisy is an extreme example, we know that the average American Christian doesn’t believe it’s the Church’s job to care for the poor either (if judging by actions instead of words). In fact, recent research by the Barna group found that 95% of Christians in America do not tithe.
And even among the 5% who do tithe, how much of that goes to the poor? After salaries, building funds, and a host of other line items found in a typical church budget, there’s not much left to do things like feed the poor or pay for their healthcare.
So here’s our problem Christians of America Land: Many of us say that the government shouldn’t be caring for the poor. Instead of that “socialism” stuff, we’ll say the Church should be caring for the poor.
But almost none of us actually believe it, because almost none of us are actually doing it.
And this is the tragic reality: cutting government programs for the poor doesn’t mean they will be taken care of by Christian charity– it simply means they will go without.
Until we as Christians in America learn to honor God with our finances, until we embrace a belief in giving radically, and until we actually believe it’s our job to care for the poor, we have no moral high ground to complain when the secular government tries to do what we should have done in the first place.
Trump Hates the Poor
Trump's budget proposal has something to hurt almost everyone, but it's a perfect storm for the poor.
By Lindsay Koshgarian , Opinion contributor | Feb. 15, 2018, at 7:00 a.m.
On Monday, President Trump released his vision for America's budget.
The president's budget is supposed to be a visionary statement of the president's priorities, unencumbered by the messy realities of negotiating with Congress. It has no binding legal power, but it sets the stage for debate in Congress.
So what's Trump's vision for the country?
Apparently, Trump's America is a place where the poor – even children – can go hungry and homeless while the rich get richer, and billions of tax dollars freely flow to Pentagon contractors.
Trump's plans for ending or cutting government programs have something to hurt almost everyone – from cuts to rural business services, to federal student aid, the Global Climate Change initiative that seeks to help countries both adapt to and prevent climate change, and workplace health and safety.
But not everyone is harmed equally by this budget. The president's budget disproportionately targets the poor.
It calls for major cuts to food stamps, Job Corps education and job-training programs for low-income youths, and housing rental assistance. And it would completely eliminate heating assistance for low-income Americans, legal aid for domestic violence victims and people facing foreclosure, and Community Development Block Grants that fund everything from affordable homeownership and homeless services to infrastructure and small business loans in impoverished communities.
Since nearly one in five American children live in poverty, the budget cuts also target children.
Some studies have shown that nearly half of children will rely on food stamps for at least a short time before they turn 20. Even active-duty military families are sometimes forced to rely on the program.
This isn't popular.
In a January poll by the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans agreed they want poverty to be a top priority for the president and Congress. In a 2017 Pew Research poll, nearly 2 out of 3 Republicans and 19 out of 20 Democrats did not support cuts to assistance to the needy. It turns out most of us, regardless of our political leanings, feel good about helping the less fortunate.
The budget also goes back on some Trump's core campaign promises: It proposes a series of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which Trump once made a big point of saying he was the only Republican committed to protecting.
The worst cuts are to Medicaid. The proposal would severely limit Medicaid spending, ultimately restricting how much health care the program could provide. It also makes targeted cuts to Medicare and to the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
These cuts have absolutely nothing to do with concern over deficits, which will explode thanks to increased Pentagon spending and the just-passed $1.5 trillion tax plan.
The one government function the president wants to fully fund is the Pentagon.
Under the president's budget, the Pentagon will be flush with money, reaching an astounding budget of $726 billion in today's dollars in 2023. Half of the current Pentagon budget goes to private contractors like Lockheed Martin, which soaked up $43 billion in federal tax dollars in 2016 and paid its CEO $19 million.
Meanwhile, the proposal does away with an effort to allow military leaders to close unneeded military bases, a move that could save $2 billion per year. That's roughly the same amount that the administration wants to cut from the Environmental Protection Agency, which would face a $2.8 billion, or 33 percent, cut.
Trump's choices for this budget fly in the face of decency, compassion and even his own campaign promises. Combined with the inequality-boosting effects of the recent tax plan, this budget is a perfect storm for lower- and middle-income Americans.
Though symbolic, this budget should remove any doubt that Trump was ever a populist. And worse, it will give Congress cover for picking up on some of the budget's more dystopian policy ideas.
Budgets show our values as a nation. Are we a nation that believes in human dignity and basic necessities like food, shelter, and medicine for all people? The answer in Trump's budget is a resounding "who cares."
Trump's budget proposal has something to hurt almost everyone, but it's a perfect storm for the poor.
By Lindsay Koshgarian , Opinion contributor | Feb. 15, 2018, at 7:00 a.m.
The president's budget is supposed to be a visionary statement of the president's priorities, unencumbered by the messy realities of negotiating with Congress. It has no binding legal power, but it sets the stage for debate in Congress.
So what's Trump's vision for the country?
Apparently, Trump's America is a place where the poor – even children – can go hungry and homeless while the rich get richer, and billions of tax dollars freely flow to Pentagon contractors.
Trump's plans for ending or cutting government programs have something to hurt almost everyone – from cuts to rural business services, to federal student aid, the Global Climate Change initiative that seeks to help countries both adapt to and prevent climate change, and workplace health and safety.
But not everyone is harmed equally by this budget. The president's budget disproportionately targets the poor.
Since nearly one in five American children live in poverty, the budget cuts also target children.
This isn't popular.
In a January poll by the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans agreed they want poverty to be a top priority for the president and Congress. In a 2017 Pew Research poll, nearly 2 out of 3 Republicans and 19 out of 20 Democrats did not support cuts to assistance to the needy. It turns out most of us, regardless of our political leanings, feel good about helping the less fortunate.
The worst cuts are to Medicaid. The proposal would severely limit Medicaid spending, ultimately restricting how much health care the program could provide. It also makes targeted cuts to Medicare and to the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
These cuts have absolutely nothing to do with concern over deficits, which will explode thanks to increased Pentagon spending and the just-passed $1.5 trillion tax plan.
The one government function the president wants to fully fund is the Pentagon.
Under the president's budget, the Pentagon will be flush with money, reaching an astounding budget of $726 billion in today's dollars in 2023. Half of the current Pentagon budget goes to private contractors like Lockheed Martin, which soaked up $43 billion in federal tax dollars in 2016 and paid its CEO $19 million.
Meanwhile, the proposal does away with an effort to allow military leaders to close unneeded military bases, a move that could save $2 billion per year. That's roughly the same amount that the administration wants to cut from the Environmental Protection Agency, which would face a $2.8 billion, or 33 percent, cut.
Trump's choices for this budget fly in the face of decency, compassion and even his own campaign promises. Combined with the inequality-boosting effects of the recent tax plan, this budget is a perfect storm for lower- and middle-income Americans.
Though symbolic, this budget should remove any doubt that Trump was ever a populist. And worse, it will give Congress cover for picking up on some of the budget's more dystopian policy ideas.
Budgets show our values as a nation. Are we a nation that believes in human dignity and basic necessities like food, shelter, and medicine for all people? The answer in Trump's budget is a resounding "who cares."
