It will go in the mail tomorrow - to the President, my Senators & Representative, and the majority & minority leaders in both the House & the Senate.
The 2012 budget debate is about to begin. This will not only be a debate about how much we spend and whether to cut $10 billion or $60 billion from spending. This will be a fundamental debate about the role of government in our society. It will be a battle of diametrically opposed values and principles rather than a search for common ground.
I believe that the government has a vital role to play in protecting the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the unemployed, the sick and the elderly. These responsibilities are currently embodied in PPACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, SNAP, WIC, Title X and other “welfare” programs. They are being directly attacked by the GOP in the budget proposal about to be passed by the House.
I call on each of you to clearly and unequivocally reject the GOP budget and move forward with tax and spending policies that recognize our responsibility to care for all people and the government’s authority to collect taxes to finance those essential responsibilities.
Why do I believe this?
Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” require basic guarantees of food, shelter, clothing, medical care and the other minimum requirements of a healthy life.
Constitution of the United States:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The establishment of justice, the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and out children require the same basic guarantees.
Isaiah 58:
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
Matthew 25:
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
These are just a few of the authorities that tell us that we a clear responsibility to care for all people. I also believe that the government has the authority and the responsibility to collect the necessary tax revenue to fulfill these responsibilities. Instead of doing so, we have fallen into a practice of deficit financing, while:
• Major corporations (GE, for just one example) with record profits and record cash reserves pay no US income taxes
• Big oil and agriculture get billions in tax subsidies
• Income concentration is the greatest since 1928. The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976.
• CEO pay is up 27% while most salaries are up only 2%. Median pay has gone down in the last decade.
• The highest incomes have some of the lowest effective tax rates because of deductions, credits, regressive social security taxes and preferential treatment of investment income
• The richest families further concentrate wealth in mutigenerational dynasties because of the recent elimination of estate taxes
• The 2010 net worth of the Forbes 400 was $1.37 Trillion, Forbes reported in September 2010 – more than the lowest 60% of Americans combined.
This is a wealthy country. We have close to the world’s highest per capita income, wealth and GDP. We have food, money and other resources to take good care of the entire population. The only problem we have is that we have allowed most of that wealth to accumulate in the hands of a very few individuals, and we have not exercised government’s authority to collect taxes to finance its responsibilities. I believe that there should be a distribution of income and wealth, and that hard work, talent or just plain good luck should allow some to do better than others – but not to the extreme degree we see in the United States today.
The GOP budget about to be passed in the House embodies the opposite beliefs. It is clear in their budget that the GOP accepts no responsibility for the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the unemployed, the sick and the elderly. Their budget is an all out attack on these very classes, by defunding PPACA and dismantling Medicare and Medicaid. We’ve been promised that this is just a start and that Social Security is next. Their belief is obviously that the few people with wealth are entitled to keep all of what they have and accumulate even more, while the rest of the country is on their own to survive as best they can. These are not the values that made this country great and they are not the values we need to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”.
The founding fathers concluded the Declaration of Independence by stating “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Unfortunately, the GOP no longer believes that “Our Fortunes” need to be used for the common good. I cannot agree.
There is no common ground between these two beliefs. It is not an area for compromise. The 2012 budget, and the 2012 election that will follow, are a battle for the fundamental values of this country. I call on each of you to clearly and unequivocally reject the GOP budget proposal and move forward with tax and spending policies that recognize our responsibility to care for all people and the government’s authority to collect taxes to finance those essential responsibilities.
Sincerely,