Legislative Action Message

FCNL: Budgets Must Be Moral Documents All Americans should be deeply concerned about the values reflected in the President’s budget request submitted to Congress earlier this week. For the next few days, newspapers across the country will be reporting the details of this budget. That offers us an opportunity to write letters to the editor questioning whether the federal budget is the best reflection of our nation’s values. We believe it is not: This budget promises endless war and increasing insecurity. This budget will only make life harder for many on the edge of poverty. This budget promises only increasing disparity in wealth, incomes, and opportunities between the haves and the have nots. This budget ignores ominous trends in the degradation and depletion of the earth’s resources. Congress must stand up and challenge these misplaced priorities. The President’s budget priorities do not reflect the values shared by most Americans. Act Now: Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper while the president’s budget is in the news. Express your concern that the President’s budget priorities do not reflect your values. Talk about how the President’s budget priorities will harm your community. Congress now has the responsibility to either accept the budget the President has proposed or rewrite it. Congress should rewrite it. In your letter, call upon your members of Congress BY NAME to provide leadership and draft a budget that better reflects our nation’s core values. (Your representative and senators read newspapers in their districts very closely) You can send your letter directly from FCNL’s web site: Go to http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=6950511&type=ME for a sample letter. Background: In introducing his budget proposal this week, the President called upon all Americans to recognize the need to sacrifice in a time of war. But the plan he presented clearly places the greatest burden of sacrifice on those who can afford it least and on those who have no say in today’s debate – future generations. Poor and low-income households are being asked to sacrifice the most through reduced government aid and services. Low- and middle-income households today and future generations will pay the price of inadequate and reduced investments in education, health care, energy conservation and renewable energy, scientific research, and public health and safety. Future generations are being asked to pay the mounting trillions in government debt and for the cumulative degradation and depletion of our environment and natural resources. Seniors will pay the price for today’s tax cuts in the decades ahead when Congress finds it does not have the resources to meet the nation’s obligations under the Medicare and Social Security Systems. All this while the President proposes to grant the wealthiest few permanent tax cuts totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years. For information on how the President’s budget will affect your state, visit the National Priorities Project web site at http://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget. For more information on how to write a letter to the editor go to http://www.fcnl.org/getin/resources/letters_editor.htm. _______________________________________ The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign, http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/index.htm Contact Congress and the Administration: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/. Order FCNL publications and "War is Not the Answer" campaign bumper stickers and yard signs: http://www.fcnl.org/newinfo/special_pub.htm http://www.fcnl.org/iraq-war.htm ________________________________________ Friends Committee on National Legislation 245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795 fcnl@fcnl.org * http://www.fcnl.org/ phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330 We seek a world free of war and the threat of war We seek a society with equity and justice for all We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled We seek an earth restored.