"I'm what the world considers to be a phenomenally successful man. And I've failed much more than I've succeeded. And each time I fail, I get my people together, and I say, "Where are we going?" And it starts to get better." - Calvin Trager
Here's the latest missive from Sojourners with an opportunity to speak out against the 2007 federal budget. And the information sojo.net gives you doesn't even include that among the programs cut were Child Survival and Health; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; and the US' international-family-planning program. All three of these key programs were slashed to their lowest levels in at least four years.
Read and click, please. ---------
Quick quiz: From the following choices, who do you think would be most likely to label the latest Bush budget proposal "scandalous" because of cuts to education, health care, and more:
a) Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) b) Howard Dean (D-DNC) c) Michael Moore (D-a theater near you) d) Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
If you guessed d) Sen. Arlen Specter, you are correct, as reported in a Feb. 12 Boston Globe article. Republicans, Democrats, and thousands of people of conscience are raising their voices to call for moral budget priorities. Join them today!
If your gut reaction to this subject line was, "Didn't we do this last year?" then you're paying attention. Yes, a budget resolution has to be passed by Congress each and every year. Yes, this year's budget threatens low- and moderate-income families just like last year's proposals did. And yes, this year - like last year - you and thousands of other people of faith will stand up for the biblical principles of social justice and proclaim that budgets are moral documents. Yes, friends, it's déjà vu all over again. And this year we are even more determined to defeat draconian spending priorities that represent a reversal of our biblical values.
In budget debates, it's easy to get lost in the numbers. A billion in cuts for low-income families here, a billion in tax giveaways for millionaires there. So here's a sampling of what the Bush cuts would mean for real families if they are implemented:
Hunger would increase: 300,000 people would lose their food stamps during the next five years. Moreover, 40,000 children would lose eligibility for the school lunch program.
Working moms would pay the price: Roughly 400,000 children would be left without child care assistance during the next five years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This would be a crushing blow for families trying to work themselves out of poverty.
Millionaires get richer: We have nothing against people who have worked hard and use their talents shrewdly. But cutting programs such as food stamps while offering $639 billion in tax cuts during the next 10 years to people who make more than $1 million - as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports - is not only fiscally unsound, it's morally bankrupt.
Last year, people of faith like you caused an uproar Capitol Hill had never heard before in a budget debate. It was largely because people of faith acted that there were no food stamp cuts in the final budget bill. Moreover, a final budget bill that contained cuts to social programs was nearly defeated in the House and Senate with significant bipartisan opposition because of your voices. We need your prophetic voice again.
EGR resources and connects the church to embrace what one person, one congregation, one diocese and one church can do to make this mission of global reconciliation happen.
Want to find out more ... check our our website at www.e4gr.org.
"Christ's example is being
demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy,
which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here.
If it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest
of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn't,
it will be irrelevant."
- Bono
Episcopalians for 
