In this week’s SojoMail, Adam Russell Taylor writes that the Bible says whoever is kind to the needy, honors God. But this budget has other ideas: The more we hear about President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill”— his name for the massive budget reconciliation bill that would enshrine into law many of his top priorities —the harder it is to escape the conclusion that there’s something deeply wrong with our nation’s spiritual health. This bill, which passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on a party-line vote, serves as a thermometer — and the reading we’re getting back is telling us that the United States of America is suffering from a dangerous fever. Sojourners has made the case many times that a budget is a moral document. Legislation like Trump’s reconciliation bill is much the same, in that its choices about where the government should spend money and where it should cut spending say a great deal about our nation’s moral values. Just as families make spending choices by balancing their needs and wants, our federal budget reflects who and what we value. It has significant consequences for who goes hungry, who has access to medical care, and who can travel safely, not to mention how many bombs there are for drone strikes or how much rebar for border walls. Viewed in these moral terms, the “big, beautiful bill” is a big, ugly bill that inverts biblical values. |
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