wfn.org | United Methodists share objections to tax cut proposal

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

April 6, 2001     News media contact: Joretta Purdue *(202)
546-8722*Washington   10-21-71B{162}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Several United Methodist executives have joined other
religious leaders in decrying President Bush's tax cut proposal, which is
making its way through Congress.

An April 5 statement by the Religious Community for Responsible Tax Policy
includes the signatures of four United Methodists, together with executives
of Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Jewish, Quaker, United Church of Christ,
Mennonite and ecumenical organizations.

"As millions of people - parents and children, the elderly, people with
disabilities and the working poor - are driven to seek charity to meet their
most basic needs, we are appalled that the focus of attention in this
congressional session is not on meeting their needs; rather, it is on tax
cuts that will mostly benefit the affluent," the church leaders said in the
document.

Polls show that the American people do not want a tax cut if it means cuts
in spending for social programs, the leaders state. 

The document was signed by Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, ecumenical officer of
the United Methodist Council of Bishops; James E. Winkler, staff executive
of the church's Board of Church and Society; and Lois Dauway, staff
executive for the Section of Christian Social Responsibility of the Women's
Division, Board of Global Ministries.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, staff head of the National Council of Churches of Christ
and a United Methodist, also signed the document and moderated a press
conference on its release.

"While unemployment is at an all-time low, millions of people work at wages
so low that they cannot support their families," the group said. "They are
the ones who will suffer the most as the economy weakens."

The declaration marks the first action taken by the new Religious Community
for Responsible Tax Policy. The group said it supports the president's
proposal to allow non-itemizers to claim a tax deduction for charitable
contributions, in the belief that the provision will encourage people to
give more to charities.

"But we do not believe that charitable contributions should be expected to
replace government investment," the group stated.

The organization said it also favors increasing the child tax credit and
making it refundable to families that are too poor to pay income tax but
that pay other federal taxes. "We also support an expansion of the Earned
Income Tax Credit," the group wrote.

"Responsible tax policy," the group said, "should be structured so that the
poorest households benefit." 
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United Methodist News Service
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