Members of the United States Senate have released their proposed health care plan, all 142 pages of the “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017” developed in secrecy, with a score from the Congressional Budget Office expected early next week. Meanwhile, we know it will reduce Medicaid significantly more than the House bill while cutting taxes for the nation’s wealthiest. A plan that endangers the vulnerable while benefitting the powerful goes against our most fundamental beliefs as people of faith. As experts analyze the bill’s potential impact, calls to Senators Tillis…
New Budget with Old Agenda Falls Short
By now the strategy is familiar – the strategy used by the N.C. General Assembly’s Republican chiefs to try to make a fundamentally flawed state budget appear, well, not that bad. Or at least tolerable. Or better than it could have been and perhaps even worth supporting. Here’s how it works: The Senate proposes a budget that, it almost should go without saying, carries on the Republican campaign to cut taxes. Economic growth allows for some slight spending increases, but on the whole spending is held tightly in check. Meanwhile,…
Senate Health Care Plan — Let’s Keep Calling
As the Senate continues its secret deliberations on a health care plan that will effect all Americans, the potential impact on one of the most vulnerable groups in our society – children – continues to unfold. Indications are that, in their closed-door meetings, the Senators have taken a similar approach to the House of Representatives. The plan that emerged from the House, the American Health Care Act, would cut $800 billion dollars in Medicaid nationwide. As our friends at NC Child point out, those cuts cannot happen without affecting children…
Thursday, June 15 — NC Health Care Call-in Day
The Council’s commitment to health care as a basic justice issue dates back decades. Significant progress toward health care for all was made with the Affordable Care Act, progress toward a beloved community where everyone has enough. Unfortunately, work continues in the U.S. Senate to repeal the ACA with an alternative plan being developed almost entirely in secret. While the ACA was passed by the Senate after roughly 100 public hearings, Republicans in Congress plan to hold zero public hearings before voting on their repeal bill. By avoiding public scrutiny, they…
GA’s Budget Proposals — Harmful not Helpful
The General Assembly leaders meeting to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget are working with two deeply flawed proposals. As our friend Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch explains, the plans range from spiteful to dishonest. He writes in part: Senate leaders included breathtakingly bad policy decisions in their budget including one provision taking food benefits fully funded by the federal government away from 133,000 people and another that bans wind farms in the state. The already bad Senate plan was made even worse in…
Now what? Staying Engaged and Grow the Interfaith Climate Movement
We were already living in a time of profound consequence. President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement means that while the needs of our endangered climate are increasing, the response to global warming is diminishing at the national level. Our actions now, as climate conscious people of faith, matter more than ever. There are a few things you can do right now to help maximize our collective impact as North Carolina’s statewide multi-faith network committed to addressing climate change as a moral issue: Engage your interfaith climate conscious…
Action Alert: May 31, 2017 — GA May Act on Guns
As was feared, some members of the General Assembly may be bringing back legislation that would roll back existing gun safety laws. A version of the previously introduced H.B. 746 is scheduled to be heard in the House Judiciary IV committee on Wednesday. A new version of the bill would likely eliminate North Carolina’s pistol permitting system, among other things. Calls to members of the NC House are urgently needed. This from North Carolinians Against Gun Violence: NCGV has learned that a bill being considered in committee tomorrow would eliminate…
Heal the Sick
For more than two decades, the NC Council of Churches has called for access to health care for all. The score from the Congressional Budget Office makes it undeniably clear that the American Health Care Act takes us farther from that goal. It would put the lives of many at risk and negatively impact the quality of life for others. Its hurried approval by the U.S. House of Representatives before valuable analysis was even available implies that political gamesmanship is more important than people. It is not. The 23 million individuals who would…
2018 Budget Proposal is the Antithesis of our Call
Plenty of analysis is already happening around the 2018 budget proposal out of the White House. The Washington Post provides two helpful graphics here and here. More is being written than most of us can fully absorb, but Politico offers a key observation: On close reading, the budget is less a credible attempt to eliminate, or even pay down, the U.S. debt and more an ideological policy agenda disguised as a program of fiscal responsibility. If the proposal is, as such plans are often described, a place to begin discussion…
For Children, It’s Good News and Bad News from the GA
Last week was a mixed bag for children and youth in terms of activity at the General Assembly. Among accomplishments was further progress on raising the age at which juveniles can be charged as adults in criminal proceedings. North Carolina is the only state where 16- and 17-year-olds are automatically charged as adults. While advocates for children and youth were cheered by the prospect for change in juvenile jurisdiction, the Council and its allies were discouraged and disheartened by a provision in the state Senate’s budget that would cut Supplemental…
Budget’s Big Picture: A Crumbling Core
So, the question as always comes down to one of vision. The elected chieftains who decide how much money North Carolina’s state government will spend, what it will be spent on and how it will be raised must decide not only which programs and services will thrive and which will dwindle. They must decide to what degree the people of this state are truly a community, with an obligation to provide for the common good in the best interests of all. These are the core issues as the General Assembly…
2017 Stand Up Sabbath — June 16-18
About this time two years ago, I accepted the offer to become the next Executive Director of the NC Council of Churches. We agreed that I would spend two weeks with the outgoing ED in June learning the ropes, and then I would really get to work in August. My first day in the office was June 18, 2015. I had heard the news from Charleston that morning when I woke and I knew that event would forever define my first day at the office. The NC Council of Churches…
Raleigh Report — May 10, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [For more information on bills, including committee referrals and re-referrals, texts of bills, procedural histories, and recorded votes, go to the General Assembly website www.ncleg.net.] Newly Introduced Bills EDUCATION Three companion bills would impact food served in schools. H 891, Free Breakfast and Lunch in K-12 Public Schools, would provide funds ($200 million per year) to make free breakfast and free lunch available to all public school students who request it. It would also create a fund to which taxpayers could contribute through a…
House Passage of AHCA — We are Better Than This
The passage of the American Health Care Act by the House of Representatives reflects a political choice on a life-or-death matter. If House members truly believed that this was the best possible plan, they could have held hearings and waited for a new score from the Congressional Budget Office. Supporters would not have been blaming people for being sick or suggesting they move states if they want different coverage. We are better than this. Our partners at the Justice Center have calculated the numbers and explained the impact the AHCA…
Urgent Action Alert: Please Call Congress about Health Care
Our allies at the NC Justice Center have put out the following action alert about efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As people of faith, we believe that we are all equally beloved children of God. The America Health Care Act values some more than others and leaves the most vulnerable among us even more endangered. A vote is imminent. Please call your representative. From the NC Justice Center: TAKE ACTION NOW! Call Congress to Stop Trumpcare 3.0 Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives just negotiated a…