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President to the Union: Let's cut to the chase, not to the core

30 Jan 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s readings reveal a God who shows favor for those on the lower end of most of the social scales by which societies tend to measure people--wealth, education, resources. While acknowledging the need to cut the federal deficit in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama also defended government’s traditional role in fostering social development. “I recognize that some in this chamber have already proposed deeper cuts, and I’m willing to eliminate what we can honestly afford to do without. But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable,” said Obama, staking out an opening position in what is likely to be an epic budget battle this spring. Obama outlined what he called a plan to “win the future” by investing strategically in critical areas like education, high-speed rail, clean-energy technology, and high-speed Internet to help the United States weather the unsettling impact of globalization and the challenge from emerging powers like China and India. “Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine,” warned the president, buoyed by recent polls showing his approval ratings moving up. “It may feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long until you feel the impact.” “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world,” he said. “We have to make America the best place on earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government. That’s how our people will prosper.” Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, delivered the official Republican response, in which he criticized the president for doing too little to attack the deficit. Source: Articles by Sheryl Gay Stolberg for the New York Times and Glenn Thrush and Carrie Budoff Brown for Politico

barack obama state of the union paul ryan
Debt ceiling poker--the cards are on the table

17 Apr 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“At the name of Jesus every knee should bend,” says the Palm Sunday reading from the Letter to the Philippians. The weight of the mounting national debt threatens to bring the United States to its knees, financially speaking. Fresh off last week’s budget showdown, Republicans and Democrats now face off with competing visions on how to staunch the red ink. The stakes this time are much higher--potential government default if the debt ceiling is not raised this spring. Last week Republicans led by Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.), chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee, unveiled a plan they say would cut more than $5 trillion from the deficit over 10 years with major cuts to the nation's signature health-care programs for the elderly and the poor. Meanwhile, six senators have formed a bipartisan group to work on their own plan to rein in long-term deficits by making changes to Medicare and Medicaid and examining a fundamental overhaul of the tax system that would yield additional revenue. On Wednesday President Barack Obama jumped into the fray with his vision for deficit reduction in a speech at George Washington University. The president indicated a willingness to work with Republicans but also indicated stark differences over how to conquer trillions of dollars of debt. His goal, say observers, is to stake out a middle ground that calls for shared sacrifice. His plan calls for tax increases on higher-income Americans, closing of tax loopholes, and reductions in entitlement and defense spending. “As a country that values fairness,” said Obama in calling for an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, “wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. This is not because we begrudge those who’ve done well--we rightly celebrate their success. “Rather, it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefitted most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back,” said Obama. “Moreover, this belief has not hindered the success of those at the top of the income scale, who continue to do better and better with each passing year.” While the president is likely to be criticized from all sides for his middle-ground approach, 64 senators, evenly split between the two parties, wrote to Obama last month pressing him to lead a bipartisan effort to slash the nation’s debt through spending cuts and tax increases. “I continue to believe that if we start from a bipartisan basis, we’ve got a better chance of actually getting the job done,” said Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia, a leader of the Senate bipartisan effort. Source: Articles by Jim Juhnhenn for the Associated Press and Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Hans Nichols for Bloomberg.com

taxes budget paul ryan national debt budget cuts republicans democrats medicare medicaid barack obama mark warner
Voters care about Medicare

29 May 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In his farewell discourse to his worried disciples in this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus promises not to abandon them, vowing to send an Advocate. A Republican proposal to cut Medicare coverage has many seniors worried they will be abandoned, but advocates for the plan said it will do no such thing. Election results this week may suggest voter backlash to the plan to privatize Medicare. Democrats portrayed their victory on Tuesday to fill an open congressional seat in a Republican-leaning district in New York as a referendum on Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's medicare-reform package, and on Wednesday Democrats scheduled a vote in the Senate to force Republicans in that chamber to take a stand on the plan. Ryan defended his proposal, saying, "Trying to scare seniors and turning these things into political weapons, what that ends up doing is inflicting political paralysis." In an Internet video released on Wednesday, Ryan argued that his plan would tame galloping healthcare costs and ensure that Medicare does not run out of money in the decades to come. Gene Sperling, President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, said Democrats were open to ideas to reform Medicare but they would not support other areas of the Ryan plan that cut food assistance and healthcare for the poor. "I think the current House Republican Medicare plan is just very, very poorly designed," he said. Source: Articles by Andy Sullivan and Alister Bull for Reuters and Jennifer Steinhauer for the New York Times

medicare democrats republicans paul ryan health care costs gene sperling
Catholics debate ethical bottom line of GOP budget cuts

06 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth,” this Sunday’s selection from the First Letter of John exhorts, or as this week's PrepareTheWord reflection says: “Love is not what you say but what you do and intend.” Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, architect of the Republican federal budget plan, has been busy writing columns and giving speeches arguing that the budget expresses values embodied in Catholic social teaching, but Catholic bishops and theologians counter that the proposed cuts to programs aiding the neediest violate core principles of Catholic social teaching. The latest foray occurred last week when Ryan spoke at Georgetown University. He invoked Pope Benedict XVI in defending the budget plan, which contains cuts to federal food aid and Medicaid healthcare for the poor as well as to education grants in order to shrink deficits while preserving defense spending and low tax rates for the wealthy and corporations. "The overarching threat to our whole society today is the exploding federal debt," Ryan said. "The Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has charged that governments, communities, and individuals running up high debt levels are 'living at the expense of future generations' and 'living in untruth.' " The psalmist promises this Sunday that among those who respect the Lord “the lowly shall eat their fill.” Ninety Georgetown faculty members and priests signed a letter rebuking the Ryan budget plan for being antithetical to such values. "We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few," the faculty members wrote. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also issued a statement rebutting Ryan's assertion that his budget expresses Catholic social teaching. Ryan fought back, stating that the bishops’ letter did not represent all American bishops. The USCCB retorted that its statement did, indeed, represent the views of the bishops. “The pope dislikes the debt as much as anyone,” said Father Thomas J. Reese, S.J. of Georgetown after the speech. “But Pope Benedict would not want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. In fact, Pope Benedict, along with the bishops, would have no problem with raising taxes as part of a comprehensive budget solution.” Sources: Articles by Lauren Markoe for Religion News Service and David Lawder for Reuters

benedict xvi thomas reese united states conference of catholic bishops usccb paul ryan budget georgetown university catholic social teaching
Would Ryan budget fight poverty or punish the poor?

19 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“When the poor one called out,” the psalmist says this Sunday, “the Lord heard, and from all his distress he saved him.” Now that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has chosen Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate, Ryan’s budget priorities are coming in for some criticism, including from U.S. Roman Catholic bishops and others who say his budget neglects the needs of the poorest and most distressed among us.Bishops representing the United States Catholic Conference said Ryan’s 2012 GOP budget fails to meet certain “moral criteria” and cuts programs that “serve poor and vulnerable people.” And the Franciscan Action Network (FAN), an organization of Franciscan friars and sisters and lay Franciscans, said Ryan’s “proposal balances the budget on the backs of the poor with cuts to Medicaid, Head Start, Pell Grants, and other vital programs.”Catholic social values “are very, very important,” countered Ryan. “And the preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenets of Catholic social teaching, means don’t keep people poor, don’t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life; help people get out of poverty, out into a life of independence.”But, said Patrick Carolan, executive director of FAN, “with the political conversation now [focused] on ensuring that low-income people are working, the most blatant affront is that the Romney-Ryan budget actually cuts job training programs for low-income people."FAN extended an invitation to all candidates for national office to spend time with Franciscans working alongside the poor “in order to understand what real people are going through.” said Father Joe Nangle, O.F.M. "We ask our political leaders to not sow hatred of the poor, but to speak with compassion. Our national leaders should aim to follow the spirit of the Prayer of St. Francis, which is loved by people of all faiths: ‘Lord, make me a channel of your peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love.’ ” Sources: An article by Deal W. Hudson for The Daily Beast and a pressrelease from Franciscan Action Network (franciscanaction.org)

Poor joe nangle patrick carolan united states catholic conference catholic social teaching mitt romney budget paul ryan republican party franciscan action network