A Portrait Painted with Check Stubs

No man’s portrait can be painted without a study of his check stubs. They give a revelation of his character.

The nation’s budget is equally revealing about the character of the nation. The budget presented by President Reagan suggests a social disintegration and a spiritual decay. Incidentally, the President’s own check book the year before he became President is shocking. His income, on his tax form, was listed at over $200,000. His philanthropic giving to churches, colleges, United Way, museums, hospitals, health research and other charitable activities was about $1,000, or one-half (1/2) of one percent of his income. The Internal Revenue Service would normally expect $8,000 to $10,000 in gifts by a person with that income.

Look at the changes in the Federal budget from 1980 to Mr. Reagan’s proposals for 1986.

Military expenditures are up $93,000,000,000 or 55%.

Social Security and Medicare are up $58,000,000,000 or 31%.

Other human service programs, and all other government expenses, are down $50,000,000,000 or 17%.

Interest on the national debt is up $65,000,000,000 or 95%.

The Interest on the national debt is $131,000,000,000 or almost as much as the scheduled deficit. It results from the fact that Reaganism has increased the debt by $600,000,000,000 in his four short years in office. He has accomplished this by his income tax reductions, primarily in the upper brackets for his wealthy cronies and backers, in an amount equal to the increase in the national debt. If he had not rammed through that tax cut we would not be paying that increased interest bill of $65,000,000,000 a year for years to come.

Instead of getting adequate income in taxes, the government gets it through borrowing from those with enough left over after living expenses to lend it the money. Then the government pays interest on those loans to increase the lenders’ wealth. In the words of the old song, “The rich get richer, and the poor get ….”

The attitude of the administration is demonstrated by a remark by Donald Regan, the President’s chief adviser. He said, in a conversation, that many Catholic nuns who manage hospitals “don’t have their heads screwed on tight.” He means that these women who have dedicated their lives to the relief of pain, suffering and misery, just aren’t mentally competent. He later apologized for saying what he said, but didn’t deny that he thinks it.

The priorities of the administration were set forth clearly by one of its supporters who voiced his approval of Reagan because “now he can afford to go on ski trips and wear designer jeans,” presumably as a result of lowered taxes and increased dividends from defense contractors. To such, the prophet Amos speaks:

“Woe to them that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall; … who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin in Joseph.” (Amos 6:4-6)

Reagan has never reduced the size of government nor its expense. Every budget has been higher than the preceding one. What he has done is to shift money around to cut back help for the homeless, the hapless, the helpless and the hungry. The money thus saved he throws away on million dollar missiles that won’t hit where they are aimed, and six hundred dollar toilet seats. He is the most extravagant spendthrift President the country has ever known – a smiling joking playboy using borrowed money to buy military toys which don’t and won’t work.

To sharpen the point, Reagan’s Education Secretary, in announcing elimination of some finds for college education, and cutting back of other funds, says some middle class families will be hurt, but “like the rain it ‘falls on the just and the unjust’”. Like so many in the administration he quotes Biblical phrases with no understanding. When Jesus originally used the phrase he meant that God sends his refreshing showers on both the just and the unjust. Secretary William Bennett uses it to justify sending acid rain on the less affluent and the needy.

There is no question about it; the deficits in the federal budget must be reduced. Four years of Reagan deficits have put an intolerable burden on the American people. But the deficit reduction program must be fair. The President’s proposals show a callous disregard for the poor and the powerless, while catering to “those who are at ease in Zion.” (Amos 6:1)

The character painted by the budget priorities is not an attractive one. But it is the character of its sponsor who shares one-half of one percent of his income with philanthropy, and who proposes a spiritual ly impoverished and ethically cancerous budget for the nation. Is this a fair picture of America?