UMNS: Church and state collided March 8 as leaders of five mainline Protestant denominations, including a United Methodist executive, blasted President Bush's federal budget plan, denouncing proposed cuts in programs for the poor and tax breaks for the wealthy.
“The 2006 federal budget that President Bush has sent to Capitol Hill is unjust,†the group said in a statement released at a press conference in Washington. It criticized the White House, charging that the budget would move 300,000 people off food stamps, cut day care for 300,000 children and reduce funding for Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for low-income people, by $45 billion over the next 10 years.
“For even as it reduces aid to those in poverty, this budget showers presents on the rich,†the church leaders said. “If passed in its current form, it would make permanent tax cuts that have bestowed nearly three-quarters of the ‘relief' on one-fifth of the country. Jesus makes clear that perpetrating economic injustice is among the gravest of sins. If passed in its current form, it would take Jesus' teaching on economic justice and stand it on its head.â€Â
