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Jul 27, 2011 | Al Kamen

What Would Jesus Cut?

Diolog - Money[The Washington Post] In Washington, when you’re in crisis mode, when your back is to the wall, when no solution is in sight, you . . . meet.

 

So every interest group in Washington is meeting these days — with President Obama, House Speaker Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Reid, House Majority Leader Cantor and House Minority Leader Pelosi, or with other groups, to influence the debt-ceiling debate.

 

Perhaps the most unusual of the meetings was one Obama had last week with a coalition of Christian religious leaders who urged him not to hammer the poor in trying to reduce the national debt.

 

It is, one participant said, “an unprecedented coalition,” including leaders from the Episcopal Church, the Salvation Army, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ.

 

It’s unprecedented because “we don’t agree on much else,” said John Carr of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

 

The coalition focuses on those Jesus called “the least of these” (Matthew 25:45), which speaks to obligations to look to the less fortunate. One goal is to get lawmakers to consider “What would Jesus cut?” (Actually, to ask the question is probably to answer it.)

 

Read more at Washingtonpost.com.

 

We can’t seem to turn on the radio or television or pick up a newspaper without hearing or seeing more on the current budget crisis so we have included the following contact information for your convenience.

 

For Texas Representatives: www.house.gov/representatives/#state_tx

 

By zipcode: www.house.gov/representatives/

 

For Texas Senators:

Cornyn, John - (R - TX) Class II

517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, DC 20510

202.224.2934

Web Form: cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

 

Hutchison, Kay Bailey - (R - TX) Class I

284 Russell Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, DC 20510

202.224.5922

Web Form: hutchison.senate.gov/?p=email_kay