Opinion
The Moral Case for Preserving the Safety Net
By Rev. Jennifer Butler and
Gordon Whitman
As cracks form among CEOs
and Republican Members of Con-
gress over their hardline anti-tax
position in the fiscal showdown,
religious leaders from across the
ideological spectrum have been
united in supporting new revenue
over additional spending cuts.
And they’re speaking for their
people. A strong majority of reli-
gious Americans favor letting the
Bush tax cuts for the richest two
percent of Americans expire.
Even
reliably
conservative
groups, such as white evangelical
Protestants, are evenly divided on
the issue.
The outcome of this debate has
profound moral consequences.
The government’s capacity to
invest in the common good and
responsibly reduce the debt
depends on raising more revenue.
Letting tax cuts that only benefit
the richest two percent expire isn’t
a magic bullet, but it’s a necessary
component of a balanced solution
that doesn’t harm poor families or
slash Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid benefits for current
or future beneficiaries.
Clergy have spoken clearly
about our duty to protect low-
income families in the fiscal
showdown negotiations. Inspired
by the clear mandates of Scrip-
ture, many of our nation’s most
prominent faith leaders have
drawn a circle of protection
around programs such as educa-
tion funding, food stamps, and the
Earned Income Tax Credit. This
stance reflects not only religious
Protestants) oppose cutting pro-
tections for the poor in order to
reduce the deficit.
In addition to programs aimed
expressly at low-income Ameri-
cans, we also have a responsibili-
ty to defend Medicaid, Medicare,
and Social Security. Social Secu-
rity keeps 21 million Americans
out of poverty every year. Medi-
caid protects not only low-income
children and families, but also
provides long-term care to mil-
The fiscal showdown is a day of
reckoning for the conservative
movement’s long-term “starve the
beast” political strategy
teachings about justice and com-
passion, but also popular opinion
among people of faith. A post-
election poll by Public Religion
Research Institute showed that
majorities of all major religious
demographics (with the lone
exception of white evangelical
lions of older and disabled Ameri-
cans. And Medicare is the
cornerstone of our national com-
mitment that American seniors
receive the healthcare they need
regardless of economic status.
Using deficits caused by irrespon-
sible tax cuts, unfunded wars, the
financial crisis and an inefficient
healthcare system as an auspice to
weaken programs that ensure
basic economic security and
access to health care for millions
of Americans is wrong. Arguing
that we must slash these programs
now to avoid destroying them
later is a failure of leadership.
Faith leaders of the PICO
National Network are telling our
elected officials in no uncertain
terms that protecting the poor,
preserving the social contract and
making the richest Americans pay
their fair share are nonnegotiable
priorities. This message is particu-
larly important as corporate CEOs
intensely lobby both parties to
enact an agenda that cuts taxes for
rich people and powerful corpora-
tions while undermining needed
benefits for seniors and working
families. Trickle-down economics
and austerity benefit only the
wealthy and powerful, and the rest
of us pay the price.
Some conservative leaders
argue that the religious obligation
to care for the vulnerable – which
is common to all faiths — applies
to individuals but not government.
But Scripture is clear that nations,
not just individuals, will be
judged by how we treat the least
among us. Furthermore, private
religious groups alone cannot
meet the needs of struggling fam-
ilies. Just four percent of food aid
to hungry Americans comes from
private sources. Government has
to play a strong role. Those who
would let people suffer rather than
have government provide assis-
tance put political ideology before
the commandment to love our
neighbors.
The fiscal showdown is a day of
reckoning for the conservative
movement’s long-term “starve the
beast” political strategy. For
decades, they have cut taxes at
every opportunity in order to run
up deficits that would force the
government to dramatically scale
back the safety net. As right-wing
lobbyist Grover Norquist put it,
the objective is to shrink govern-
ment to the size where he can
“drag it into the bathroom and
drown it in the bathtub.” The
moral imperative to ensure that
this plan fails is clear, and the
well-being of millions of Ameri-
cans who are precious in the eyes
of God depends on it.
Down To The Fiscal Cliff Wire, With No Solution In Sight
By Brianna Keilar Dana Bash
and Tom Cohen
Call it a bigger, bolder version of the
deadline-driven congressional stalemates
over taxes and spending that have come to
define Washington dysfunction of the past
two years.
The latest edition of political “blinksman-
ship” pits President Barack Obama and
Democrats against Speaker John Boehner
and Republicans on how to avoid the fiscal
cliff — automatic tax increases for every-
one and deep spending cuts including the
military that will be triggered in the new
year without an agreement.
While the focus now is on a possible
agreement in coming days or weeks, anti-
tax crusader Grover Norquist told CNN on
Monday that the nation should gird for
long-range battle.
“This is a long fight. It’s four years of a
fight. It’s not one week of a fight,” said
Norquist, who has threatened to mount pri-
mary challenges against Republicans who
violate a pledge they signed at his behest
against ever voting for a tax increase.
With neither side showing any sign of
blinking, however, the battlefield will prob-
ably shift to the Senate this week after GOP
disarray in the House stymied any progress
before Christmas.
Congress and the president are taking a
holiday break, with plans to return to work
Thursday to try to find a deal in the final
five days of the year.
Economists warn that failing to avoid the
fiscal cliff could spark recession, and
stocks opened lower Monday amid no sign
of the Washington impasse ending.
According to multiple Democratic and
Republican sources, no weekend conversa-
tions occurred between the White House
and Senate leaders from either party or their
aides.
The main dispute continues to be over
taxes, specifically the demand by Obama
and Democrats to extend most of the tax
cuts passed under President George W.
Bush while allowing higher rates of the
1990s to return on top income brackets.
Republicans oppose any kind of increase
in tax rates, and Boehner suffered the polit-
ical indignity last week of offering a com-
promise that his colleagues refused to
support.
While both sides say they want to avoid
the fiscal cliff, signs are emerging that a
deal would come after the new year to blunt
the harshest impacts. Under that scenario,
legislators would vote to lower taxes from
the higher rates that will go into effect in
January when the Bush cuts expire, with
the new top rates staying intact.
The sources described to CNN three
possible options for moving ahead, all
resting with Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid of Nevada.
One would be to amend a House meas-
ure passed in July that extends the Bush
tax cuts for everyone. The changes would
return to higher rates on top brackets,
which Obama defines as family income up
to $250,000, and also could include the
president’s call to extend unemployment
benefits and some of the fiscal cliff spend-
ing cuts.
A second possibility would involve a
Senate measure that Democrats passed in
July with no Republican support. It calls
for the Obama plan of extending the cur-
rent tax cuts on family income up to
$250,000.
However, the Senate version has a con-
stitutional problem because by law, meas-
ures that raise revenue must originate in
the House. Boehner said Friday that the
Senate plan has a “blue slip” problem,
which refers to an objection that it is
unconstitutional and therefore remains
lodged in the Senate.
While one Democratic source said the
Senate version could get taken up in the
House if Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell or Boehner don’t raise a blue
slip objection, Republican sources reject-
ed that scenario.
Reid also could take a different revenue-
raising bill from the House and rewrite it
as a tax and spending measure to address
fiscal cliff issues, the sources explained.
With Republicans holding filibuster
power in the Democratic-majority Senate,
at least seven GOP senators would have to
join Democrats on such a plan before the
end of the year. With McConnell up for re-
election in 2014, he is considered unlikely
to risk angering the party’s conservative
base by supporting a compromise or
allowing one to pass on a simple majority
vote that would need no GOP backing,
sources said.
In the new Senate that will convene in
early January, the number of Republicans
needed to pass a deal would be five because
of Democratic gains in November, when
Obama won re-election.
According to a Senate Republican leader-
ship aide, Republicans reject Obama’s
$250,000 threshold for tax cut extensions.
Meanwhile, a Senate Democratic leader-
ship aide lamented McConnell’s apparent
unwillingness to negotiate.
See CLIFF on page 11
December 26, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 5