Fasting for a Just Federal Budget
Posted by Michael McKenna on Tuesday, April 12, 2011
I fasted for 24 hours last week.
Along with Share Our Strength’s executive director Billy Shore and dozens of other members of our No Kid Hungry team, I fasted as a form of protest with the proposed House budget that hits the poor hardest through cuts to critical parts of the safety net.
The other morning I said the Pledge of Allegiance with a classroom full of 6th graders at a Maryland middle school that’s participating in the Partnership to End Childhood Hunger’s First Class Breakfast Initiative. Those kids and thousands of others in Anne Arundel County are eating breakfast in the classroom, which is leading to happier, healthier students. At that moment, I was so proud of our country that cares for children by providing free breakfasts and lunches for those that are eligible so that they can all learn on an even playing field.
But later that same day, I attended a briefing about the federal budget that left me feeling deeply saddened about the crisis facing this country. The mood was heavy as advocates who have spent their whole careers fighting for the voiceless faced the prospect of losing all of those hard-won gains. I left thinking about the line in the pledge that says “with liberty and justice for all.” Because the proposals in the Ryan budget are not about liberty or justice.
Not liberty, no. Because it shackles students, seniors, and veterans with long-term restraints on their potential as fruitful and healthy Americans. Right now Share Our Strength is helping children and youth get access to nutrition where they live, learn, and play, pre-K through high school. But if the Ryan budget passes, those kids won’t be going to college because the Pell Grants that would help them pay for it won’t be available.
Not justice, no. What is just about 2/3 of the 4 trillion dollars in cuts in the proposed budget coming from programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP benefits, when that “savings” is being handed back out to millionaires and corporations as tax cuts? Don’t believe me? Look at this chart. When you add the spending cuts with the lost revenue from more tax cuts to the superrich, you realize that the total deficit reduction over ten years is really $155 billion, not over $4 trillion as promised.
[Update: The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities revised their analysis from which we got some of the data for this post. On Wednesday afternoon (4/13), CBPP posted this blog post, saying that Chairman Ryan’s office released new details about savings in the leadership’s budget plan. Total real spending cuts then is $4.5 trillion, offset by $4.2 trillion in tax cuts. Real deficit reduction over ten years is actually $380 billion instead of the $155 billion originally reported by CBPP.]
I want America to reduce the deficit because not doing so will affect our long-term growth as a nation. But there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. And asking the poor to pay more than their fair share of deficit reduction while the rich keeping raking it in is the wrong way to do it.
If you are upset by this then we can send a message to Chairman Ryan! SNAP benefits stand to lose 127 billion dollars in his proposal, which means 8 million Americans would need to be cut from a program that not only helps families keep hunger at bay, but also helps local grocers and businesses. Send a message telling the chairman to protect SNAP benefits on Share Our Strength’s change.org petition.
April 12, 2011 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: budget, government, school breakfast, schools
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