CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 1, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- "If a dividing line between unfair and immoral exists, President Bush has crossed it with his proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut," said Rev. Ron Stief, head of the Washington Office of the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.
"It will widen the gap between the poor and the wealthy, and squander an opportunity to rebuild desperately needed low- and middle-income support programs with our new federal surplus. For the President to propose a tax cut of this magnitude right after our nation has finally dug out from under the $300-billion-a-year deficits of the Reagan Administration is like waking up to a recurring nightmare you thought had gone away."
The United Church of Christ (UCC) has more than 1.4 million members and 6,000 congregations nationwide. It was formed in 1957 by the union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Its forbears have a history of being early advocates for justice and have a tradition of engaging the tough issues of the day. Each congregation has the autonomy to make its own decisions.
The Justice and Witness Ministries of the UCC has joined a national campaign of nearly 200 organizations, which is announcing broad opposition to the tax-cut plan at a planned March 1 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC. In addition, the UCC has recently sent out an Action Alert urging its members to call Congress and oppose provisions of the tax cut that primarily benefit the wealthy.
According to the Citizens for Tax Justice, the President's proposal amounts to a transfer of wealth from everyday working people to the richest one percent. The top one percent of income earners garners 36 percent of the tax cuts, though they pay only 20 percent of all federal taxes.
At the other end of the income scale, a family of four earning $28,215, which currently pays no federal income taxes, gets no tax cut under the Bush plan. Yet this is precisely the kind of family that needs help the most. The problem of persistent poverty is best symbolized by the minimum wage worker in Los Angeles who would have to work an average of 120 hours a week to afford the going rental rate of $900 a month on a two-bedroom apartment. This tax cut does virtually nothing to help them.
"President Bush believes we can afford a tax cut for the wealthy. Many religious leaders, however, do not," said the Rev. Stief. "The President's budget that was previewed before Congress on Feb. 27 shows that public spending on education, health care, child care and a mix of other needed programs has been squeezed out to make room for the tax cuts."
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CONTACT: United Church of Christ
Ron Buford, PR Manager
(216) 736-2180
E-Mail: bufordr@ucc.org