Another Tug-of-War Over Poor People’s Needs

To keep the government open, Congress needs to approve an appropriations bill before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Congressional Republicans are likely to move forward with a continuing resolution that ignores Democratic priorities. But they need 60 votes in the Senate, and Senate Democrats will this time insist on concessions from Republicans.

To complicate matters further, President Trump has sent over a package of rescissions that would cut an additional $5 billion from international aid. Congress needs to vote that down by the end of the fiscal year to keep the cuts from going into effect—adding to the hundreds of billions of dollars of legally appropriated funding that Trump has held up, mostly on his own say-so.

It seems likely that we will suffer a government shutdown or two before the current confrontation is resolved.

The Circle of Protection released a letter to Congress Monday. Grounded in biblical teaching about the priority of people we need, we urged Congress to protect and perhaps increase funding for poor and low-income people. We also urged them to push back against Trump’s determination to override appropriations decisions that have been negotiated in Congress and passed into law. You will find the Circle of Protection's letter here.

The Circle coalition of church leaders chose to address the current confrontation at the level of basic principles, leaving it to our political leaders to negotiate the many specific aspects of this complicated confrontation.

But speaking for myself, I’m encouraged that the Democratic leaders of Congress (Schumer and Jeffries) announced this week that they will focus on a fix for a looming health-care provision of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Without this fix, millions of low-wage and part-time workers will face drastically higher health care premiums in January. Four million more Americans are likely to end up without health insurance. Schumer and Jeffries are saying that they won’t deliver the Democratic votes that Republicans need to keep the government open without a fix for this problem. 

There’s likely to be a short-term continuing resolution at the end of this month, and I’m hoping that the Democrats will push for and win a short-term extension of Trump’s pending rescissions package. That would keep Trump’s disrespect for appropriations law and his attack on foreign aid on the table as Congress negotiates an agreement on a longer-term continuing resolution.

A Conversation on Faith and Justice

We have a responsibility to get political when it comes to ending poverty—because we know government programs are crucial to making that happen.

Scripture is clear: God cares about justice in the land. When Moses went to Pharaoh, he didn’t take up a collection of canned goods and blankets. He said, let those slaves go free. That’s politics.

I was delighted to join my colleague and friend Ross Kane for a healthy debate on the role of politics in the church for an episode of his podcast, “Love Your Neighbor.” In addition to hosting his excellent show, Ross is a professor at Virginia Theological Seminary and writes about loving our neighbors as Christian politics. He is the  author of “The Good News of Church Politics.”

🎧 Listen to a short clip from our conversation.

Listen to the full episode here:

https://rosskane.com/2024/06/02/ep-4-political-or-partisan-politics-of-fighting-hunger/

Pushing Uphill

In recent decades, the world and our country have reduced hunger and poverty. But the second  Trump administration—notably his “big, beautiful bill” and the destruction of U.S. international aid—is pushing us into a period of increasing hunger and poverty in our country and worldwide. We know from experience how to reduce poverty, and I’m sure that God wants us to help make it happen. But for the foreseeable future, we will be pushing uphill. 

This post is about Trump’s tax and spending bill and other things that he has done that will increase poverty. It closes with a brief section on hope and activism, including one urgent, high-impact action that anybody with a Republican senator should consider.

The “big, beautiful bill”

Almost every aspect of Trump’s tax-and-spending bill will have negative consequences for poor and low-income people. Most obviously, 17 million people will lose health insurance. The cuts to SNAP food assistance will sharply increase hunger in America. The President and congressional Republicans slashed these programs to help fund tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high-income people.

It’s important to note that the bill has been designed to delay most of the suffering until after next year’s elections, while the tax cuts went into effect immediately. Its commitment to massive deficit spending should stimulate the economy—a sugar high—while the long-term risks of further expanding the federal debt have again been ignored.

The “big, beautiful bill” also ended what the U.S. government has been doing to slow climate change. That’s bad news for all of us, but especially for low-income families. Hurricanes, heat waves, and floods often disproportionately impact low-income Americans. Globally, shifting climate patterns are devastating for poor rural families in the tropics. 

Trump’s big bill also gives him an extra $100 billion for immigration enforcement—yet more abusive arrests of undocumented immigrants, including many people who are working hard to get out of poverty and have committed no crime. Deportation brings great hardship to immigrants and their families. Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV have stressed our religious obligation to show mercy to immigrants. Their counsel is grounded in the law of Moses and Jesus’ special concern for social outcasts.

One harmful administrative action after another

Much of what Trump has done on his own authority is already harming hungry and poor people.   In the first days after his inauguration, he ended funding for international aid and sent DOGE to destroy our country’s lead assistance agency, USAID. The British medical journal Lancet estimates that these actions will cause 14 million deaths around the world over the next five years. I’ve been invited to speak about hunger and poverty at an international conference of faith leaders in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ll need to confess that our nation has abandoned its role as a global leader of progress against hunger and poverty. 

In our own country, increasing opportunity for African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans has contributed to past progress against poverty.  But the current administration has ended federal efforts to protect civil rights for racial minorities and to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.  

Trump’s tariffs will almost surely be a drag on economic growth and increase inflation, and low-income people are least able to cope with macroeconomic problems.

President Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize, but war has continued in Ukraine and intensified in the Middle East. The United States has looked away while Israel has bombed and starved people in Gaza. Just maybe, Trump and Netanyahu will decide that their interests will be served by showing some mercy in Gaza.

Finally, President Trump is pushing the boundaries of his authority. Republicans in Congress and Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court have generally acquiesced. He and his allies in state legislatures are already working to make voting more difficult for people of color and low-income people generally. 

Hope and activism now

Our Creator has built hope into our hearts, and many of us have been encouraged in hope by the Christian gospel of God’s loving intentions for the world.  

Activism can still be impactful—legislative advocacy, helping Democrats get elected in next year’s elections, supporting efforts to protect democracy, and sharing the kind of faith that inspires work for justice.

We have an important opportunity for activism right now. The President has asked Congress to approve a “rescissions bill.” It would retroactively approve the rapid-fire destruction of international aid that DOGE carried out in February and the President’s more recent decision to stop funding for public radio and television. The House has already approved this bill, and it will probably come to the Senate floor next week. Seven Republicans on the Appropriations Committee have publicly expressed support for programs that the Administration stopped. If just four Republicans vote against the rescissions bill, funding for these programs will be restored.