Diverse Anti-Poverty & Faith Coalition Calls On Congress to Preserve Budget Priorities Addressing Low-Income & Poor Families
Diverse Anti-Poverty & Faith Coalition Calls On Congress to Preserve Budget Priorities Addressing Low-Income & Poor Families
"Economic Recession Worsening Poverty Crisis in America and Abroad”
AUDIO RECORDING:
WASHINGTON, DC - April 1, 2009 - During a teleconference on Wednesday, April 1st, leaders from Congress, religious denominations, policy institutes and anti-poverty non-profits announced a new initiative to combat the growing domestic and global poverty crisis that is being exacerbated by the world's economic instability. This initiative, called The Mobilization to End Poverty, represents one of the largest and most diverse anti-poverty coalitions that will convene over one thousand faith leaders and activists in Washington, DC this April 26-29. The coalition will advocate with Congress to preserve priorities within the President's budget that assist low-income and poor communities with an emphasis on health care, energy, and education. This group will also call upon the President to affirm his previous commitments to reduce domestic poverty by half in ten years and implement the Millennium Development Goals intended to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015.
INTERVIEWS: All of the spokespeople are available for interviews.
REGISTER: To register for the Mobilization to End Poverty in April please visit: www.sojo.net/mobilization and click on "Press Information”
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DISCUSSION:
REV. JIM WALLIS, Founder and president of Sojourners; the largest network of progressive Christians in the United States
"Poverty is a unifying call for the faith community and we are deeply concerned about this budget and the battle over the budget. It's always been the case that fiscal responsibility is found by cutting out the needs of low-income families and poor people. For the first time in a long time this budget prioritizes the needs of the poor. It begins to put poor people back on the agenda and is part of our long term goals of cutting poverty in half within 10 years and implementing the Millennium Development Goals.”
BOB GREENSTEIN, Founder and executive director of the Center for Budget & Policy Priorities
"When recessions occur people lose their jobs and poverty rises. If you look at the last 3 recessions you can get a range of how much poverty goes up by looking at the correlation between a 1 % increase in unemployment and the change in the poverty rate. Applying those lessons; if the unemployment rate stood at 8.1 % in February and is pretty clearly rising and peaks at 9 %, then the total increase in poverty in the US will be somewhere between 7.5 million and 10.3 million more people living in poverty. Some forecasters expect the unemployment rate to rise past 9 %. So we're looking at very substantial increases in poverty that are made more painful by two significant developments. The first is that many states will be making budget cuts in programs that effect low income people to close budget deficits they are facing due to losses in billions of dollars in state revenue. And secondly, over the past 25 years the United States safety net has been made stronger for the working poor but much weaker for poor people without jobs.
When consumer spending has gone down and workers are laid off you're in a situation that requires more demand for goods and services in the economy. The best way to provide that is to put more money in the pockets of low to moderate income families. People who live pay check to paycheck spend almost every additional dollar they receive whereas research shows that tax cuts that would go at the top end of the income scale would largely be saved than quickly spent. "
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC), House Majority Whip and leader of the House Democrat's Faith Working Group
"What we are debating on the floor and hoping to vote on Thursday is basically a five year budget that is in fact a deficit reduction budget. Those of us who are discussing this need to make that very clear because the one problem we are experiencing is that so many people are focusing on these deficits and how that will play back in their districts. So they are voting in fact for a deficit reduction and at the same time addressing issues that have not been addressed for a long period of time. This budget is a major shift in the right direction. We must all be active advocates for reducing poverty and for making sure that we address the issues on behalf of the poor. We are at a water shed moment in reducing poverty in this country. Eliminating child poverty and reducing poverty by one half over the next ten years are doable goals and we should pursue them and this budget starts us down that road.”
RICHARD STEARNS, president of World Vision, a leading Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide by tackling the causes of poverty.
"The president has asked for a $4 billion dollar increase in the foreign affairs budget which is a very strategic part of World Vision's own budget. To put that into perspective, the total humanitarian assistance budget for the world is about 25 billion dollars a year and the total foreign affairs budget is about 49 billion. The humanitarian portion is less than 1 % of the federal budget and is equal to what we've given to the auto industry in the past few months. Since January 2008, the total bailout and stimulus monies passed amount to about 2 trillion dollars and that would fund the humanitarian assistance budget for 80 years. So in the context of these massive stimulus and bailout packages, the 4 billion increase that the president has requested is the equivalent of throwing a five cent tip into the tin cup of the world's poorest 2 billion people who are the most affected by the global economic crisis. We believe that spending 1% of the federal budget to strengthen relations abroad, to strengthen our diplomacy in a challenging world and address the greatest humanitarian challenges of our day is not only the right thing to do but it is the smartest thing to do.”
RAY OFFENHEISER, President of Oxfam America, a non-profit international development and relief agency that works to end global poverty
The global economic downturn is further increasing poverty. The World Bank estimates the economic crisis could trap an additional 53 million people in poverty. While aid alone is not enough for the poorest countries to escape the poverty trap - quality, long-term aid does make a huge difference. Poor governments have used aid to scale up spending on education and health to help fight poverty. And done right, aid can stimulate the global economy, promote global stability, and create goodwill around the world.
We appreciate and support the efforts of Senators Kerry and Lugar to restore cuts made to President Obama's foreign aid budget. Cutting US foreign aid has ramifications for poor people worldwide that US citizens will pay for long after the financial crisis has ended, as cutting foreign aid can result in a lack of preparedness and an increase in the vulnerability of poor communities when disaster strikes.
Now is the time for bold action to achieve a triple win on climate security, energy security, and poverty reduction around the world. We at Oxfam are supporting the Mobilization to End Poverty because we know the tremendous power that individuals motivated by their faith bring to the task of creating a better and more just world for all people; and these are precisely the people who will be part of this conference.
DAVE DONALDSON, Co-Founder of Convoy of Hope, an international compassion organization that specializes in disaster relief, local outreach events, and long-term empowerment programs.
"Jesus called upon us to care for the least of these. Many of our evangelical churches have cared the least and now there is a sea change. I'm seeing compassionate conservatives like myself that are looking to rebrand and expand the pro-life image to protect not only the child in the womb but the child fighting to survive in the slums. Over the past 15 years since the inception of Convoy of Hope, we have watched this sector return to its roots of compassion. But because of the economic downturn we are seeing new faces of people being pushed into poverty. We believe that change comes not from the top down but from the bottom up and the churches are the closest to those living in poverty on the ground. I believe that the Mobilization to End Poverty can help achieve these target goals of poverty reduction.”
REV. SHARON WATKINS, General Minister and President of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a 700,000 member denomination in the United States and Canada.
We're here today to say that you can tell a lot about a nation by its budget. Our national budget is a moral document that should reflect our best values and priorities. As we've said in other contexts, it's about more than Wall Street vs.
People of faith like me are going to be part of the Mobilization to End Poverty because we believe that if we join forces we can cut US poverty in half in ten years. We can offer leadership to the Millennium Development Goals to cut global poverty in half by 2015. Imagine! We want to be sure that Congress imagines it, too, enough to preserve in the president's budget community-building emphasis on health care, energy and education.
You know, when the human body is injured, blood rushes to that place, bringing the healing properties needed repair the wound. When the body that is human community is wounded, God rushes to those places to bring healing. In the wounded places, in the vulnerable places, where children die of treatable disease, where hope dies for lack of jobs and education and health care, that is where God is at work to bring healing. That is where we need to be, too.
We'll be there through a budget that addresses human need, through a coalition of diverse anti-poverty organizations, through neighborhood and faith initiatives - and we're going to get energized and organized through the Mobilization to End Poverty in Washington, D.C. April 26-29.
