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"President's New Budget Morally Bankrupt"

Action Alert from United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

The Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) budget that the President sent to Congress in early February is a shameful document that once again seeks to cut $183 billion from domestic programs and entitlements over the next five years.  The price for volunteering for military service is that the President proposes cutting veterans' benefits 13%, or $10 billion.  The cost of being elderly and poor is that housing, child care, home heating fuel support, and child nutrition programs are slated to be cut 13%, or $24 billion.  For those seeking a better life through education and work, job training and education are slated for a 13% cut, $53 billion between now and 2011.

Meanwhile, rewarding wealth continues to be the value that drives this President's budget year after year.  The savings from all of these cuts are given back, and then some, to the wealthy with $285 billion in upper-income tax cuts over the next five years.  Defense contractors are also being rewarded.  The Pentagon will receive a whopping 7% increase over last year's budget.  At $439 billion, (and the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included in this year's budget figures) the Pentagon budget has gone up 45% in the last five years under this President.

The United Church of Christ has long stood for budget principles that prioritize human need over excessive spending on war and tax cuts for the wealthy.  For background on General Synod policy, click http://www.ucc.org/synod/resolutions/gs25-5.pdf  The legislative work of the UCC and many others limited the cuts in last year's budget (FY06) to $39 billion over five years, a large sum but not nearly as much as what the President initially proposed.

To send a message to your members of Congress, asking them to join you in declaring this budget morally bankrupt, click http://www.ucctakeaction.org/action

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