Will the President’s Fiscal Year 2018 Budget help you, your
family, and our common good? Those are my questions as I pick my way through the Budget.
The Budget has been released. I’ve read the
official White House FACT SHEET. I'll be quoting from it, start here:
“. . .we must restore the greatness of our Nation. . . .” (Emphasis
mine.)
That’s the ultimate goal invoked for the Budget. It’s a moral goal, an over-riding moral good, and achieving that goal is the end toward which the national budget is crafted. (I note here that the budget and its goal is an extension of his 2016 presidential campaign, which ran under the same slogan.)
Well, as Jim Wallis of Sojourners says, “We say that a budget
is a moral document.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Wallis and in that vein I suggest that you ask, “Is
the president’s budget proposal moving us toward greater common good?” That's the primary moral question for a national budget according to my ethics teachers.
Let's get right down to earth here. I’ll pose some questions—like ones that you might have. Will
the federal Budget help the common good? Let's bring the Budget down to where you live. Will the federal Budget help your family achieve peace and happiness as Americans?
Question: how many vacations
(weekend vacations plus one- or two- week vacations) has your family taken in
the past five years? Is your ability to afford vacations increasing, decreasing
or stable?
Answer: To take my family as representative, our ability to
afford vacations has not changed over the past ten years. I think the President
doesn’t need to restore the nation to greatness in regard to this aspect of
life.
Question: ask the same
question in a different context. Are you more or less able to take paid
vacation time than residents of other countries?
Answer: American workers get
about 20 days paid vacation after 25 years of tenure. Workers in other
developed nations get 20 days of paid vacation by law regardless of how many
years they’ve worked. In this respect the U.S. has never achieved greatness.
So, is the White House proposing legal mandates for paid vacations? You can safely bet that the answer is “no.” But if the answer were “yes,” the U.S. might achieve greatness in regard to paid vacation time. The Budget fails this simple test.
Question: The Fact Sheet
talks about supplying more jobs. So let’s look at a job-related question: is the
unemployment rate higher, lower, or equal to the same rate for May, 2010, seven
years ago?
Answer: In May 2017: the unemployment
rate was reported as 4.3%. In May 2010: unemployment
rate was 9.6%. Chances are doubled that someone in your family was unemployed seven
years ago than now. The American economy is doing very well, for persons
seeking work. The Fact Sheet is airy fairy on unemployment.
Question: is the U.S. held
down by a stagnant economy, as claimed in the Fact Sheet? I don’t experience
our economy to be stagnant. Do you and your family? Are you living alright, or
even living well, on your income right now? Do you own investments? Are they
doing okay? Major stock indexes are making new highs. The Budget is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
Another Question the Fact
Sheet omits, but it's pertinent: is your Mom making as much as your Dad?
Under Senators Bernie
Sander’s and Senator Patty Murray’s “Raise the Wage Act 2017” proposal, “. . .over 11.6 million working
parents would receive higher pay. Nearly a third of working mothers (7.6
million) would receive a raise and almost half of all working single mothers
(3.6 million) would receive a raise.” http://www.epi.org/publication/lets-give-moms-a-raise-this-mothers-day/
If my wife were working for less than $15 an
hour right now, I’d say that women workers are not getting equal pay. The statistics above prove that a lot of women are in that category and need help. The government
should help the underpaid women but that obligation isn’t recognized in the 2018 proposed Budget. The Budget ignores a real prolem.
The 2018 Budget Fact Sheet is loaded with a lot of great value-words, like “Reform,” “Provide a Path,” Reduce Improper Payments” and so forth. Its skillful use such terms makes beguiling reading. But don't be deceived. Look under the surface, as my questions have forced me to do, and it seems like propaganda language because the budgetary facts don't line up with the high-falutin' terms.
The 2018 Budget Fact Sheet is loaded with a lot of great value-words, like “Reform,” “Provide a Path,” Reduce Improper Payments” and so forth. Its skillful use such terms makes beguiling reading. But don't be deceived. Look under the surface, as my questions have forced me to do, and it seems like propaganda language because the budgetary facts don't line up with the high-falutin' terms.
The primary moral value, "the common good," is
the most relevant value term for thinking about this or any federal budget. Does the budget move us closer to reaching the common good?
The president’s budget
will probably cost you and most other families. Unless your family happens to be in the elite
highest income bracket. Then the budget will help you by lowering your federal
income tax each year.
If you’re a single parent
with three or more dependent children, you’ll actually pay more.
Who will gain most from
the budget and its associated tax proposal? Re. taxes due, the most wealthy
and most corporations will benefit most. Corporate tax rates will be lowered from a top tax rate
of 35% to 15%.http://www.grbj.com/blogs/1-banking-finance/post/88099-president-trumps-proposed-tax-reform.
Pope Francis and other ethics teachers prompt us to ask how well is the government budget enhancing the
common good”.
"The Common Good" is forward-looking and includes justice as a
principle.
In comparison, "Restoring the Greatness of our Nation" is backward-looking, vague
and subject to multiple interpretations. What, exactly, does it mean?
It allows that re-allocating the nation's wealth via tax savings toward the already-wealthy is its means to the end.
In that respect, the Budget as
a tool to increase the common good is a shocking step backward.
Conclusion: whatever budget is
ultimately adopted for 2018, it’s got to be a lot different than the president’s
proposal or it won’t move us toward the common good.
P.S. I sure wish this post had been more fun for you to read and me to write. It's not enjoyable to be an American right now, watching the trashing of our common value system and the ripping-off of our lower and middle range classes via the federal Budget.
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