Good news for the rich: New GOP budget vs. Jesus of Nazareth [View all]

[rug]

Posted at 04:10 PM ET, 03/20/2012
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Jesus announces his ministry as “Good News for the Poor” (Luke 4:18). House Republicans have released their budget and one thing is clear: this budget is “good news for the rich” and bad news for the poor and middle class.

Prominent religious leaders immediately issued a statement, “denouncing” the GOP budget for “its immoral cuts and irresponsible tax breaks for millionaires and corporate special interests.”

These religious leaders are exactly right to condemn this budget as “immoral.” This year’s GOP budget, like last year’s, is far more revealing of the ‘Gospel According to Ayn Rand’ than of the values held by Jesus of Nazareth. The new budget keeps the Bush tax cuts in place, and reduces tax rates to only 2, 10 and 25 percent, though who exactly pays what rate is not revealed. Medicare ends in its current form, corporate tax rates are also cut, Health Care Reform is gone, and student loans are reduced to 2008 levels. What kind of choice does that present to Americans?

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is on the stump for this new GOP budget in campaign style. There is a déjà vu feeling to this, as many of the so-called solutions are the same, the favor the rich and balance the budget on the poor and middle class ideas that were revealed last year. Ryan claims this will create jobs, but will it?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/good-news-for-the-rich-new-gop-budget-vs-jesus-of-nazareth/2012/03/20/gIQAxPf1PS_blog.html

Here's the statement.

http://halfinten.org/uploads/support_files/FaithLeadersQuotes_%282%29.pdf