Well, here we are, one day before funding runs out unless our esteemed members of Congress get their act together. The Rev. William Barber will again be standing in the U.S. Capitol with other clergy and lay persons calling on Congress to restore Medicaid cuts that were made so billionaires could get more tax breaks.
He called on Mike Johnson, who says he is a Christian, to look at what the Medicaid cuts will do to people. To people like Suvya, who has cerebral palsy, who cannot walk and uses a wheelchair to get around. So what did that great Christian do? He had her arrested as she prayed in the Capitol Rotunda. Clearly a domestic terrorist threat.
Restoring cuts to Medicaid will also help autistic children and people old enough to be grandparents who need medications and now will go short shrift on them. The so-called waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal budget can be found in fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks for billionaires. How many of us could survive a medical catastrophe? Time to tell our representatives that we will not forget how they voted.
Prayer for the Day
Claiming to follow your command to help the poor, O God,
Our elected leaders hide behind hide behind their own shadows;
Claiming to have the well-being of the Nation in mind,
They favor those who give bribes disguised as contributions.
How long, O Lord, will people suffer and die,
Because greedy robber kings hold the power of the purse?
In the name of the One who calls us to justice,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
Policymakers have made clear that they are willing to sacrifice the poor for the consolidation of power, and it is the job of clergy and moral leaders to challenge that narrative in the public square.
Rev. William Barber
Approximately 16 million people could end up uninsured due to the OBBBA, causing massive disruptions in health care. Congress is making historic cuts to essential services to give tax cuts to the wealthy. And disabled people and other vulnerable communities will likely bear the greatest burden.
Center for American Progress
Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees. Who write oppressive statutes,
To turn aside the needy from justice, and rob the poor of my people of their right,
That widows may be your spoil, and that you make the orphans your prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment, in the calamity that will come?
To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth,
So as not to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain?
Isaiah 10: 1-4