Ministers from Super Committee Congressional Districts Speak Out On Shared Sacrifice

Ministers from the Super Committee's congressional districts Tuesday urged senators and representatives who have pledged not to raise any taxes, even on the wealthy and corporations, to reconsider.

Among the clergy was the Rev. Dan Scheid, rector of St. Augustine's Episcopal Church in Benton Township. In a teleconference call organized by Faith in Public Life, he was one of four pastors asking reconsideration by committee members who have signed anti-tax activist Grover Norquist's pledge to never raise taxes.

The bipartisan Super Committee, which arose out of the debt ceiling crisis, has 12 senators and representatives charged with coming up with a plan by Thanksgiving to reduce the debt by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

The ministers' statements were intended for Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, (and others).

Scheid in the teleconference call said he's in "a city and a state that's lived with the devastating effects of a sour economy that sadly predates the recession the rest of our country is climbing out of now."

Scheid said his parishioners have operated a food pantry for four years, and volunteer at the Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen.

"We see firsthand, week after week and month after month, men and women and children who are hungry and need some help," he said.

Many in desperate need of help are the "working poor," and the least able to absorb any additional burdens or cuts in services, he said.

One such parishioner is a "cook at the community hospital," Scheid said. "She works hard, but she still has to wait for over an hour, twice a month, for a couple bags of groceries from our church basement to help her make it from paycheck to paycheck.

"Is this the type of person we as Americans want to saddle with more responsibility than she can already bear as the Super Committee finds $1.2 trillion for deficit reduction? How about my working-class and middle-class and retired parishioners who staff our food pantry? Is it up to them as well to suffer cuts in services to come up with this $1.2 trillion package?

"Or should we ask for shared sacrifice in finding this money by asking fellow Americans who have been abundantly blessed with high incomes to contribute more of a fair share through an increase in their taxes?"

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/09/21/local_news/6594244.txt

P.S. The above picture is from the food pantry at St. Augustine Episcopal in Benton Township.