Budgets are moral decisions

At the UAW, we've long believed that government budgets are also moral documents that show our commitment -- or lack thereof -- to aiding people who desperately need help. In this opinion piece, the Rev. Jim Wallis of the Sojourner's social justice group points out that the poor have no voice in the debate among powerful lobbying forces in Washington:

Here is the missing principle still absent in our current debate:

We must agree not to reduce deficits in ways that further increase poverty and economic inequality by placing the heaviest burdens on those who are already suffering the most.

Religious leaders do believe that massive deficits are moral issues, and that we must not saddle future generations with crippling debt. But we believe that how we resolve deficits also is a moral issue. And our society must not take more from those who already have so much less than the rest of us.