Maybe a Little Humane Vitae for the Rest of Us
Reading the combined editorial pages of the Sunday Free Press and Detroit News is always a treat. The juxtaposition of the pro business News and the more populist Free Press always proves interesting and today was no exception.
As every Michigander knows, the state is in the midst of a budget crisis which has begat a budget battle. On one side sits Governor Granholm, who proposes balancing the budget with a mix of budget cuts and increased taxes. On the other side is the state Republican Party whose plan involves only budget cuts and who oppose any tax increases. Today the water of the state GOP was carried by News editorialist Nolan Finley. Finley, a libretarian, argued that state residents cannot shoulder any more taxation and that the Governors' plan only benefited "unions and special interests."
Meanwhile, on the Free Press editorial page a group called Catholics for the Common Good argued that the state cannot balance its budget by further cutting vital programs such as Medicaide, education, foster care and education spending. These programs -- and these are the programs at issue-- the CCG argued, have already been paired to the bone and further cuts would only imperil the millions of Michiganders who rely on them. Michigan residents should all sacrifice for the common good and nothing would be gained by creating a virtual third world state on the Great Lakes.
Two points arise. First kudos to the CCG for resurrecting the idea of the common good. While you would never know it from the recent state of things, Catholicism used to be a fighting faith when it came to social justice. From the 1930s through the 1950s (the so called Golden Age of American Catholicism), the Church was a strong supporter of organized labor, social welfare spending and progressive taxation. This spirit waned in the 1960s when Catholics -- with notable exceptions (some named Berrigan) -- largely sat out the civil rights and anti war movements. By the 1980s many Catholics had shifted to the Republican Party and adopted that party's beliefs that the poor are poor because of their indolence, social welfare programs only rob the poor of their "initiative," the income of the rich should be spared taxation because their investment would "trickle down" on the rest of us, and government should be shrunk to the size of a small rodent. From 1980 until the present, Catholic social activism was limited to outlawing abortion, enforcing sexual abstinence and making sure homosexuals remained the object of scorn and discrimination. (Three issues on which, oddly, the gospels are nearly silent.) Perhaps the CCG is just the beginning of a movement within the Church to embrace the Sermon the Mount with the same gusto it embraced the Republican Party platforms of 1980 through 2002. (Catholic voters shifted a bit toward John Kerry in 2004 perhaps in recognition of the fact that they could not trumpet a "culture of life" while making preemptive war in Iraq. At least not with a straight face.)
Point two. At the same time the CCG was rousing the dormant concept of the common good, Nolan Finley would have us believe that children in foster care, prisoners in jail, recipients of Medicaide, families with children in the public schools and unionized wokers are just "special interests." As the CCG pointed out -- they are not. They are all of us.
For too long, the Finleys of the world have led us to believe that even the smallest investment in the lives of people other than ourselves was, if not creeping socialism, at least a serious threat to our economic vitality. Not so Nolan, look at Germany, look at France (both of whose economies are growing faster than ours) and look at Minnesota (whose income tax is nearly double ours and whose economic landscape makes us look like Bangladesh). For too long, we have let the Finleys of the world define "special interest" in way that excludes the uber wealthy and their constant search for less taxation and greater privilege and amazingly excludes anyone who relies on any benefits administered by the state -- which is virtually all of us at one time or another.
Huzzah to the CCG for putting the lie to this shibboleth.
As every Michigander knows, the state is in the midst of a budget crisis which has begat a budget battle. On one side sits Governor Granholm, who proposes balancing the budget with a mix of budget cuts and increased taxes. On the other side is the state Republican Party whose plan involves only budget cuts and who oppose any tax increases. Today the water of the state GOP was carried by News editorialist Nolan Finley. Finley, a libretarian, argued that state residents cannot shoulder any more taxation and that the Governors' plan only benefited "unions and special interests."
Meanwhile, on the Free Press editorial page a group called Catholics for the Common Good argued that the state cannot balance its budget by further cutting vital programs such as Medicaide, education, foster care and education spending. These programs -- and these are the programs at issue-- the CCG argued, have already been paired to the bone and further cuts would only imperil the millions of Michiganders who rely on them. Michigan residents should all sacrifice for the common good and nothing would be gained by creating a virtual third world state on the Great Lakes.
Two points arise. First kudos to the CCG for resurrecting the idea of the common good. While you would never know it from the recent state of things, Catholicism used to be a fighting faith when it came to social justice. From the 1930s through the 1950s (the so called Golden Age of American Catholicism), the Church was a strong supporter of organized labor, social welfare spending and progressive taxation. This spirit waned in the 1960s when Catholics -- with notable exceptions (some named Berrigan) -- largely sat out the civil rights and anti war movements. By the 1980s many Catholics had shifted to the Republican Party and adopted that party's beliefs that the poor are poor because of their indolence, social welfare programs only rob the poor of their "initiative," the income of the rich should be spared taxation because their investment would "trickle down" on the rest of us, and government should be shrunk to the size of a small rodent. From 1980 until the present, Catholic social activism was limited to outlawing abortion, enforcing sexual abstinence and making sure homosexuals remained the object of scorn and discrimination. (Three issues on which, oddly, the gospels are nearly silent.) Perhaps the CCG is just the beginning of a movement within the Church to embrace the Sermon the Mount with the same gusto it embraced the Republican Party platforms of 1980 through 2002. (Catholic voters shifted a bit toward John Kerry in 2004 perhaps in recognition of the fact that they could not trumpet a "culture of life" while making preemptive war in Iraq. At least not with a straight face.)
Point two. At the same time the CCG was rousing the dormant concept of the common good, Nolan Finley would have us believe that children in foster care, prisoners in jail, recipients of Medicaide, families with children in the public schools and unionized wokers are just "special interests." As the CCG pointed out -- they are not. They are all of us.
For too long, the Finleys of the world have led us to believe that even the smallest investment in the lives of people other than ourselves was, if not creeping socialism, at least a serious threat to our economic vitality. Not so Nolan, look at Germany, look at France (both of whose economies are growing faster than ours) and look at Minnesota (whose income tax is nearly double ours and whose economic landscape makes us look like Bangladesh). For too long, we have let the Finleys of the world define "special interest" in way that excludes the uber wealthy and their constant search for less taxation and greater privilege and amazingly excludes anyone who relies on any benefits administered by the state -- which is virtually all of us at one time or another.
Huzzah to the CCG for putting the lie to this shibboleth.
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posted by Jack Reed at 1:00 AM
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