60 Faith Leaders Sign Letter Telling GOP Not To Raise Taxes On 24 Million Americans
Cross posted from Politics 2012 - thanks babylonsister
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/02/630071/60-faith-leaders-sign-letter-telling-gop-not-to-raise-taxes-on-24-million-americans/
Faith leaders spoke out against GOP tax plan at news conference Wednesday
By Travis Waldron on Aug 2, 2012 at 2:15 pm
A coalition of faith leaders released a letter ahead of yesterdays symbolic House tax vote telling Republicans not to allow the expiration of two tax credits that, together, would raise taxes on more than 15 million Americans. In the letter, the faith leaders called for extensions of the 2009 expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, two provisions Republicans allow to expire in the bill they approved.
The GOPs plan to let the expanded tax credits expire, the letter said, was simply unconscionable:
These tax credits help families meet basic needs, reduce poverty, and remove barriers to work. It is hypocritical for lawmakers who talk about family values to abandon improvements in these effective, family-supporting programs. Failing to extend the improved tax credits would jeopardize the economic security and well-being of more than 15 million families and more than 36 million children within those families. This is simply unconscionable.
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This isnt the first time that faith leaders have criticized Republican policies. An assortment of faith leaders panned the House GOPs budget, calling it an immoral disaster that robs the poor. This summer, Sister Simone Campbell, one of this letters signers, led the Nuns On A Bus tour across the country to protest GOPs cuts to programs that help the poor and middle class.
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