Photo by Alexandra Stevenson
Less than three months after signing into law a tax bill that drastically cuts taxes for the wealthy and large corporations, President Trump proposed a budget that will cut billions from key programs that are fundamental to helping empower and uplift the poor. To read it is to see why our nation needs a Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival.
When you look at poverty in this country there are 8 million more poor whites than poor blacks. More than 95 million Americans (nearly 30 percent of the total population) are either in poverty or considered “low-income” (below twice the poverty line). Many of these people rely on the very programs President Trump is proposing to cut in order to meet their basic needs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicare, and Medicaid.
The White House budget proposes cutting the cash benefits that SNAP recipients receive and replacing them with a government-assembled box of food that would be delivered to poor households. We have an administration that will give trillions in tax welfare to the greedy. They will give billions to banks and say banks are too big to fail. Yet when it comes to the poor, they want to take things away, including their right to select the foods that best meet their needs. The very people who voted Trump into office — poor whites — are the same folks this budget hurts. In 2015, over 40 percent of SNAP recipients were white while 25.7 percent were black, 10.3 were Hispanic, 2.1 percent were Asian and 1.2 percent were Native American. Safety-net programs at-large lifted 6.2 million working-age whites out of poverty in 2014 compared to only 2.8 million blacks and 2.4 million Hispanics.
This immoral budget also expands our national deficit, burdening future generations with the responsibility of paying the bill, and cuts investments to education, medical research, and veterans’ assistance programs. It assumes that the Affordable Care Act will be removed and cuts Medicaid by $1.4 trillion and Medicare by nearly $500 billion over the next ten years. The administration’s infrastructure plan will burden state and local governments with the responsibility of repairing their crumbling infrastructure. Last year I met with moral activists in Flint, MI, where the water has been poisoned by greed, and corrupt politics.The Center for Disease Control found that at least4 million families with children are being exposed to high levels of lead in their water, and USA Today found that millions of the nation’s poor receive water from companies that routinely skip required safety tests. The president’s infrastructure plan does nothing to address the real need for updated roads, bridges, and sanitation systems that are on the verge of collapse.
On the campaign trail, President Trump asked African-American voters, “what the hell do you have to lose?” Now we know. African Americans (as well as many more poor whites) stand to lose Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, affordable health insurance, and much more under his new budget. President Trump & extremists in the Republican-led Congress rely on racist hatred towards communities of color, along with xenophobia and homophobia to try and split poor black, brown, and white voters to keep extremist politicians in office. Once they’re in, they prioritize policies that are detrimental to poor and working class whites in order to cater to the top 1 percent.
How morally bankrupt must a government be to use its power to dehumanize poor people? It is not enough to criticize this budgets priorities and allocations. We must call it what it is: evil in the sight of God.
Micah 2:1–3 says “doom to those who plot evil, who go to bed dreaming up crimes! As soon as it’s morning, they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned. They covet fields and grab them, find homes and take them. They bully the neighbor and his family, see people only for what they can get out of them. God has had enough.”
Indeed, God has had enough. The abuse of the poor and downtrodden has gone on far too long, and it is time for a movement that will stand up and say, “We won’t be silent anymore!” We must stand together against the war being waged on the poor. We must stand up and change the moral narrative in this country. We must do everything in our power to save the heart and soul of this democracy.
Please join us in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival by clicking here.
Repairers of the Breach is a nonpartisan not-for-profit organization that works with diverse religious leaders from every U.S. State and the District of Columbia to develop a prophetic social justice vision rooted in moral analysis, moral articulation, and moral action. To learn more or to donate click here.
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