About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation. – Will Rogers
We’re about to find out how the United States House of Representatives reacts to prayer. Today, at 11:00 a.m, various members of the clergy will lead a “Family Pray-In” at the office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). The event, which is jointly sponsored by Our DC and National People’s Action, is intended to pressure lawmakers to ask corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share before the sequester kicks in. The sequester is a series of automatic across the board spending cuts slated to begin on March 1 unless Congress acts.
Our DC is a nonprofit organization that has as one of its aims “to increase awareness of misdirected corporate and government job creation policies that stifle new job creation.” Similarly, founded in 1972, National People’s Action defines its core purpose as “to develop the ideas, talent, and organizations that will help reclaim our democracy and advance racial and economic justice.”
The two groups will come together today with protesters led by clergy to occupy Speaker Boehner’s office in an hour-long family pray-in. Expected to attend are pastors and members of their congregations from across country, including the District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Boehner’s home state of Ohio.
The event, which is clearly a reaction to the planned sequestration cuts, also targets tax parity. Those in attendance will, according to a statement released from the group, pray for lawmakers to “pay their fair share” by:
- Ending tax breaks for moving profits and American jobs offshore;
- End taxpayer handouts for corporate polluters like the oil and gas industry;
- Implement a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street trading and speculation.
Whether or not you endorse that specific agenda, almost everyone agrees that the economic facts are worrisome. Our debt levels are high. The economy is sluggish. And at current levels, we’re proposing to spend more than we’re taking in – though whether that’s the fault of heavy-handed budgets or historic lows in tax collections is debatable. So raise taxes or cut spending? Or maybe a little of both? One thing is for sure: the current pattern of spending is not sustainable. And to that, many would simply say, “Amen.”
