FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jazmine Steele
202-681-9766
May 23, 2017
SOJOURNERS PRESIDENT JIM WALLIS ON TRUMP’S UNBIBLICAL BUDGET: “WHAT WOULD JESUS CUT?”
Sojourners President and Founder Jim Wallis today sharply criticized the Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal put forth by the Trump Administration.
“The budget released by the Trump Administration is anything but ‘good news’ for the poor,” Wallis said. “It would be terrible news for those whom Jesus called “the least of these,” the central focus in his final sermon that also calls upon “the nations” to protect the most vulnerable.”
Wallis also called on Christians to think about a key question: What would Jesus cut?
“As we look at the priorities outlined in the Trump Administration 2018 budget released today, it’s worth asking again: What would Jesus cut?
“We know what Donald Trump would cut. His budget calls for over $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which takes away health care from about 10 million people.
“His budget would slash the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Social Security Disability Insurance program, Meals on Wheels, and federal funding for Habitat for Humanity. It would worsen hunger in American by cutting SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) by more than 25% and eliminating federal funding for subsidized school lunches.
“President Trump calls for a $43 billion increase in military funding next year, reversing the biblical instruction to beat our swords into plowshares. Instead, the proposed budget cuts would beat plowshares into more swords.
“Leaders in the faith community must stand up to these deeply flawed priorities, to say that the choice to protect the rich instead of the poor in the name of deficit reduction is an immoral one. Demonizing the poor and slashing programs that benefit low-income people – while refusing to scrutinize the much larger subsidies we provide to the wealthy – is hypocritical and cruel.
“The priorities of this budget are not consistent with Christian, Jewish, or Muslim values. They are not only bad economics, they are also bad religion; as we say in the evangelical community they are unbiblical.
“It is now up to Congress to set their own priorities and to present their own budgets. It is therefore time once again to ask our elected officials – especially those who call themselves people of faith – What would Jesus cut?”
Wallis’ full piece on the budget proposal can be found here.