Few things are more unholy than politicians who trumpet “God” at every opportunity, yet legislate in ways that would make even the Almighty blush. That’s what’s happening now in Washington as God-touting Republicans are exploiting a fiscal mess of their own creation, twisting it into an attack on the poor and using it as an illogical excuse for enacting their most ungodly agenda.
Would God approve of their planned cuts to social services for poor and middle-class Americans who absolutely depend upon them, while leaving in place the Bush tax cuts that helped lead to the widest disparity between rich and poor since the Gilded Age? It’s easy for them to curry favor with the rich and powerful while cutting essentials for the poor and voiceless.
Republican cuts to food stamps, shelter and heating assistance, and education and training mainly affect the poor, a defenseless group, one without full wallets and the sway they provide. Cuts to investments in infrastructure, research and development and small businesses will diminish life for us all.
Just as enough of their constituents caught on to the pain of their proposed cuts to Medicare, Republicans switched course and focused on Medicaid, a program that provides services mostly to — you guessed it, the poor, the disabled and the elderly. God shrugged.
Many of these politicians undoubtedly perform many acts of individual godliness, whether through random acts of kindness or charitable contributions or a million other ways. But for some reason they form a coalition that prizes personal power over united action for the greater good. Certainly, what is good and godly on an individual basis is ever more so on a collective one.
An old Spanish proverb goes, “The rich break the laws, and the poor are punished for it.” But in today’s America, the rich rarely need to break the laws.
Instead, they just make them.
Richard Frank Dawahare 5/13/11
