Recently I watched a “60 Minutes” expose about American children suffering from poverty and homelessness. It made me ashamed of our country and our leaders.
How do we expect these children to do well in school? How can they do their homework without a home or enough to eat? A child poverty rate of 25 percent is over the top. How do our elected representatives and their cohorts intend to address this problem?
After bailing out Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, there is no excuse for this rate of child poverty.
Rev. Jim Wallis of “Sojourners” asks, “What would Jesus cut?” Would Jesus cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new mothers and children? Would Jesus cut $1.3 billion from community health care centers, depriving nearly 11 million low-income people of health care? Would Jesus send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year? These are all GOP proposals.
The nation’s richest banks have dodged $300 billion in taxes to federal and state governments. Bank of America is receiving a tax refund of $666 million for 2010, according to its annual report. Not as much as its $3.5 billion refund reported for 2009. Wells Fargo received a $4 billion federal income tax refund for 2009 and paid 7.5 percent of its pre-tax income for 2010. Hedge fund managers have their income taxed at 15 percent while many hardworking men and women pay 23 percent.
As for the deficit: pass a Financial Speculation Tax, cut the obscene military budget and end the billions given annually to Israel; its childhood poverty rate is nothing compared to ours.
Arthur Donart, Ph.D.
Thomson, Ill.
