wfn.org | AFSC LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO PRESERVE ECONOMIC SECURITY

["Jenny Shields" <JShields@afsc.org>]

AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE LAUNCHES SOS! SAVE OUR SERVICES
CAMPAIGN

Warns Proposed Federal Budget Cuts Threatens Economic Health
and Security for Millions of Americans

PHILADELPHIA, PA (February 7) - The stage is set for one of the most
heated budget debates in years.

"Today President Bush has presented a budget to Congress that eliminates
or severely cuts dozens of programs," states Mary Ellen McNish, head of
the international social justice organization, The American Friends
Service Committee. "Shouldn't our nation commit ourselves anew to our
Constitution's promise to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity?"

This year's budget decisions will have profound and lasting
consequences.  Cuts to federal programs - like food stamps, Medicaid,
and public housing - will endanger the already precarious economic
security of millions of U.S families.	Cuts in federal aid to education
and changes to the rules governing Social Security, the tax code, and
eligibility for basic services will lock in increasing inequality and
poverty in the United States, where 36 million people already struggle
to survive at the poverty level.

To call attention to this growing threat to economic security, the
American Friends Service Committee, an international social justice
organization, launches Save Our Services (SOS!), a campaign that upholds
budget fairness. SOS! supports a federal budget that strengthens
programs vital to the health and well-being of millions of Americans and
defends equal rights, economic security, and opportunity.

"Millions of Americans can't find jobs and millions of workers can't
make ends meet because of low wages," says SOS! campaign director,
Roberta Spivek.  "As people of conscience, we cannot accept a budget
that changes the rules governing Social Security, the tax code, and
eligibility for basic services in ways that increase inequality and
poverty."

The recent U.S. presidential election exposed a fundamental rift between
those who support the privatization and shrinking of Social Security and
other federal programs, and those who support a strong public-sector
role in providing for the common good.

At stake are competing visions of good society.

"Our country faces a fundamental choice," McNish adds.	"Should the
United States revert to a pre-New Deal era where people are left to fend
for themselves in the face of poverty, low wages, sickness, old age, and
increasingly insecure jobs in the global economy?"

SOS! opposes an "Ownership Society" that means less opportunity for the
many and more ownership by the few.  It supports the vision of a good
society embraced in the Constitution in which government plays a vital
role in establishing justice and promoting the general welfare.

The effort, led by AFSC organizers in California, New Hampshire, New
York, West Virginia and other states, includes a new online "blog" where
people can share their visions of a good society and budget priorities,
and public advocacy for a budget that reflects widely shared values.  A
free action kit will be available on the campaign's website.

"Budget cuts to Medicaid, housing assistance, education, and other vital
programs will harm millions of Americans," says Martha Yager, an AFSC
field organizer in Concord, New Hampshire. Yager, who organizes winter
emergency shelters, warns, "Our state can't afford any more cuts that
will lead to increased hunger, homelessness, and hardship."

The American Friends Service Committee, a co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel
Peace Prize, is a Quaker-based nonprofit organization that includes
people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and
humanitarian service.  SOS! is an initiative of AFSC's U.S. Economic
Justice Program, which helps communities organize to achieve economic
security and human rights.

The Service Committee has regional offices in Atlanta, Baltimore,
Chicago, Des Moines, New York City, Pasadena, San Francisco, Cambridge,
Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington, and in 22 countries of the world.
# # #

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that
includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice,
peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the
worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome
violence and injustice.

Contact: Janis D. Shields, Director Media and Public Relations
(215)	241-7060 AFTER HOURS: (302) 545-6596