In the News: David Beckmann on Faith and the Fiscal Cliff

Photo: David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World.

While the economic consequences associated with falling off of the so-called fiscal cliff are being debated, the morality of budget decisions has not been widely discussed, says Bread for the World president David Beckmann in an op-ed piece in The Hill:

At the core of the budget debate is a deeply moral issue. We must prioritize those in need, especially during the season of Advent. If Congress and the president can reach a deal that meets these criteria, they will have our full support.

Beckmann also recently spoke to MSNBC about faith and the fiscal cliff, and the lack of conversation about poor and hungry people in current negotiations, in a Dec. 11 piece.

“It’s really extraordinary that the two political parties don’t talk much about poor people,” Beckmann told MSNBC.  “The Republican Party generally doesn’t. They have other priorities, certainly other than protecting programs for poor people.”

And President Obama, Beckmann said, has done a good job protecting certain programs, “but he doesn’t like to use the word poverty, so he calls them, ‘people who want to be middle-class.”

But the Good Book, Beckmann noted, is clear: “God does talk about poor people… The New Testament says a nation will be judged by whether or not we take care of poor people and how we treat people in prison.”

Bread for the World views the federal budget as a moral document prioritizing our national values. The respective budget proposals from President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner fail to include the principle that deficit reduction should not increase poverty.

For a side-by-side look at the proposals from President Obama and Speaker Boehner, and how those proposals would affect programs that help poor and hungry people, take a look at Bread's new fiscal cliff fact sheet. We also ask that you contact your members of Congress and tell them that any budget deal must include a circle of protection around programs that address hunger and poverty, in the United States and abroad.