Volume 25, Number 1    April 2003

 

Budget a disaster for human needs

At press time, both House and Senate were passing FY 2004 budget resolutions with massive cuts to programs like Medicaid, food stamps, farm programs, education, housing, TANF (welfare), child care, student loans and veterans. The budget is astounding because it results in a $1.8 trillion deficit (Congressional Budget Office), fails to include money to pay for the Iraq war (Bush's request for $75 billion is for THIS year which ends in October), and retains huge tax cuts for the wealthy (though the Senate wisely cut them it half).

NETWORK, the national Catholic social justice lobby, makes it easy to contact your legislators. Go to www.networklobby.org and click on legislative action center. Enter your zip code and send messages to your senators and representatives. Timely sample letters geared to the weekly congressional timetable are there for your immediate use.