NCC, Interfaith Alliance Join Hands to Protest 2006 Federal Budget
Concerned people of faith from across the nation on Monday convened at Capitol Hill to protest the proposed 2006 federal budget, which they say provides too little funding for the poor and too many tax breaks for the rich.
Participants at the rally, which was co-sponsored by the National Council of Church USA (NCC) and the Interfaith Alliance (TIA), called on lawmakers to remember the needs of the poor and the “dispossessed” by modifying the 2006 budget.
“This budget is immoral and does not reflect the values we hold as people of faith,” said Dr. Bob Edgar, NCC General Secretary, at the rally. “The proposed budget spends about half on defense and the deficit but very little on addressing the needs of the poor, the dispossessed, children, elderly and those who are most in need."
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According to the NCC news, the rally was needed because the current budget “favors military spending and tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and largely ignores the needs of the poor, children, the elderly, families and communities.”
At the protest, Rabbi Eric Yoffe, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, also called for change.
"We are here today to say that when we look at this budget, we see that American politics right now are fundamentally broken - corrupted by abuse, world indifference, and politicians who spend their days dialing for dollars,” said Yoffe, a member of TIA.
He went on to say that the task of people of faith is to share their bread with the hungry and "to send a message to our President and to leaders of both parties that despite squalor for the poor and gated communities for the rich, the great majority of Americans have not given up on 'We, the People.'"
Arun Gandhi, grandson of the founder of the nonviolence movement, Mohandas Gandhi, and founder/president of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, told rally participants the proposed budget is “immoral” because it “showers presents on the rich.”
"Clearly, this budget seeks to make the rich richer while reducing the poor to panhandlers,” said Gandhi, a member of TIA’s board of directors.
The Bush administration’s $2.5 trillion budget request for the 2006 fiscal year gives a 5 percent increase to the Pentagon, a 7 percent increase to Homeland Security, but cuts 11.5 percent from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and 4.5 percent from community development programs. It also cuts $45 billion from the Medicaid heath program for the poor.
The protestors essentially called for an “alternative vision of the federal budget" that would provide the poor “with the tools to meet their basic needs such as access to nutritious food and quality child care, accessible and affordable housing, comprehensive and affordable health care, high quality education at every stage of life, a fair and just tax system, job creation and a livable income to sustain their future.”
"Fairness, compassion, integrity, and justice are the moral principles that should drive the crafting of the federal budget,” said Rev. Dr. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance. “As a moral document, the federal budget should not, and cannot, be built on the backs of the poor, the elderly and future generations.”
Don Parker, the spokesperson for TIA, explained later that people of faith will continue their efforts even after the rally has ended.
"There will continue to be individual efforts for people of good will to lobby, and there will continue to be joint efforts to keep the nation focused on the issue. That way, more and more people can become aware that the budget is immoral,” said Parker on Wednesday. “In order to be a compassionate nation, we need to have a budget that is compassionate to people in need not just the wealthy.”
