ROI: Be Careful What You Cut!

Why cuts to Tax Credits cost us all


When it comes to fixing the deficit, be careful what you cut.

Eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit now would increase child poverty by 23 percent in the future.

And since poor children are more likely to drop out of high school, they are less likely to find steady work as adults.

Not to mention that paying for each year of high school dropouts costs us more than $125 billion over the course of their lifetimes.

.

Debt increases by Presidential Administrations

Just for the record:

Reagan 186%,

Bush 54%

Clinton 41%

Bush II 72%

Obama 23%.

Source Congressional Budget Office.

Hunger fast

Jim Wallis, leader of Sojourners, recently announced a hunger fast to bring attention to the "moral choices" being made today in Washington, DC as Congress works on the national budget.  Wallis has long maintained that all budgets are moral documents forcing a national or personal discussion.  To learn more about the fast and how to join it click here.

Here's part of a report that Jim shared on Thursday with his online community.  He asks provocative questions.  For those of us who live and work among the urban poor, the questions are more than understandable. 

What do you think?

The message of the fast gets clearer each day — fasting tends to focus you, and the message is that a budget is about the choices we make. This fast is not just about cutting spending, but about the values that will determine our priorities and decisions. Should we cut $8.5 billion for low-income housing, or $8.5 billion in mortgage tax deductions for second vacation homes? Should we cut $11.2 billion in early childhood programs for poor kids, or $11.5 billion in tax cuts for millionaires’ estates? Should we cut $2.5 billion in home heating assistance in winter months, or $2.5 billion in tax breaks for oil companies and off-shore drilling? This debate isn’t about scarcity as much as it is about choices.

Jim Wallis

Sojourners