During the 2004 presidential and state election campaigns, Republicans wooed voters by suggesting they were more moral and more God-fearing than their Democratic opponents.
While inaccurate and alarmingly divisive, the strategy apparently paid off on Election Day.
Just over three months later, the national and state GOP finds itself being judged as “immoral” and “sinful” for backing proposed budget cuts that would devastate many programs that serve the elderly, the poor and young Americans who seek a college education.
On Friday, March 4, thousands of Missourians plan to descend on Jefferson City to show Gov. Matt Blunt and the Republican-controlled state House and Senate that slashing the budget in such fashion simply is not moral.
“Balancing the budget on the backs of the poor is sinful,” the Rev. James T. Morris trumpeted at a press conference on Tuesday, denouncing proposed budget cuts.
Representatives of 28 diverse religions, faiths and churches joined at Christ Church Cathedral on Tuesday morning to “speak today with a united voice in opposition to Gov. Blunt’s proposed $600 million cuts.”
“We share the governor’s concern for our state’s fiscal troubles,” said Rev. Morris, vice president of the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis.
“But we do not believe the problems could be solved by simply eliminating those programs and services which Medicaid provides for the poor, the marginalized and most vulnerable.”
A spokesman for Blunt’s office told the Post-Dispatch that “the governor’s welfare reforms are essential and to ensure it is sustainable.”
This is the same governor who last weekend said Democrats “only live in places where nobody wants to live anymore.”
The Rev. Suzanne Meyer of the First Unitarian Church said Republicans “made family and moral values an issue in the last election. Now Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders must call them into account.”
A loud round of applause interrupted Meyer as she chided Republicans for forgetting campaign promises so quickly.
Morris said that the budget cuts are not a Democratic or Republican issue.
“This is a human rights issue. It’s an issue of decency, fairness, compassion and justice.”
According to Missouri Budget Project statistics, Blunt’s 2006 proposed budget buts would more than double the number of people with no access to health care. Missouri ranks 39th among the states, based on the funds from state general revenue spent on Medicaid. The state generates 83 cents for every 17 cents it spends on Medicaid.
“The proposed cuts have very real economic consequences. These are job-killing cuts,” according to Amy Blouin, executive director of Missouri Budget Project.
“You cannot propose to create a stronger business environment and cut more than $600 million from the state’s healthcare industry and receive a positive result.”
Blunt’s proposed cuts come just as President Bush’s proposed budget would slash Community Service Block Grants (CSBG).
According to Elaine West, executive director of the Missouri Association for Community Action, the loss of CSBG “would basically destroy the best comprehensive system we have for getting families the assistance they need to get through emergencies and hard times so they can regain their self-sufficiency.”
West said that 19 regional Community Action Agencies are actively creating vital partnerships between private and public sector resources to weave a network of support for families in every county of the state.
Last Sunday, hundreds of people attended an ACORN-sponsored rally at Lane Tabernacle in St. Louis to begin a petition drive against the cuts proposed in state and federal Medicaid program.
The organization hopes to gather 89,000 signatures, which is the predicted number of Missourians who will lose their health insurance under the cuts.
Morris said he is in contact with similar interfaith groups throughout the state, and they are planning to attend the rally in Jefferson City on March 4. He said more details on the rally would be released “in the next few days.”
In the meantime, Morris said concerned Missourians should “flood the capital phone lines with calls to your legislators and write them to inform them of your displeasure.”
Assault on TRIO funding
While Blunt and Bush’s respective budgets would cause hardship and misery for those who cannot help themselves, the federal budget also has targeted TRIO programs.
TRIO programs are designed to identify promising students, prepare them to do college-level work, strengthen math and science, provide tutoring and support services to students once they reach campus and provide information on academic and financial aid opportunities.
Many of the programs help first-generation college students, high-school and middle-school students understand the process of finding financial aid and managing a college career, according to Celerstine Johnson, assistant provost in charge of Saint Louis University’s student educational services.
“Bush wants to cut the TRIO programs and replace them with No Child Left Behind,” she said. “The proposed cuts would end opportunities for students to have access to higher education.”
She said without the TRIO programs, the graduation of many outstanding African-American students “would not have happened.”
Johnson said SLU has about 650 students in both Talent Search and Upward Bound programs, adding that both Saint Louis Community College and Harris-Stowe State College have students in the programs, too.
Students in the Upward Bound program are four times more likely to earn an undergraduate degree than students from similar backgrounds who did not participate in TRIO. Nearly 20 percent of all black and Hispanic freshmen who entered college in 1981 received assistance through the TRIO Talent Search or EOC programs. Students in the TRIO Student Support Services program are more than twice as likely to remain in college than those students from similar backgrounds who did not participate in the program.
Nationally, more than 2,700 projects are hosted at more than 1,200 postsecondary institutions and more than 100 community agencies. TRIO programs currently serve nearly 873,000 low-income Americans. Many programs serve students in grades six through 12. Also enrolled in TRIO programs are 16,000 students with disabilities and more than 25,000 U.S. veterans.
Since 1965, more than 10.5 million Americans n 67 percent from poor and working families n have benefited from the services of the TRIO pre-college and college programs.
On Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25-26, SLU will join a national celebration to honor the students that succeeded in college with the support of TRIO programs. The programs include Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science, Veterans Upward Bound, Student Support Services, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program and the Educational Opportunity Centers.
Part of the SLU celebration will be a rededication of a memorial for Ronald E. McNair, the second African American to fly in space. Nationally recognized for his work in the field of laser physics, McNair was selected by NASA for the space shuttle program in 1978 and was a mission specialist aboard the 1984 flight of the space shuttle Challenger. After his death in the Challenger accident in 1986, Congress funded the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program in his honor.
Also, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Mayor Carl Officer have declared Feb. 25 TRIO Day in East St. Louis. Some 270 high school students and Sen. James Clayborne are expected to attend. For information, call (618) 482-6978.
