With the arrival of the 109th Congress in Washington, the capital will not only get a new crop of freshman pols, but a new round of battles over federal budget and tax policies.
While members of both parties will portray this process as a gallant fight for fiscal prudence or the rights of the dispossessed, the truth is a little less romantic. The long and involved passage of the federal budget is designed to enhance the power of our political class. It is a more or less an openly conducted scam, by which the members of the House and the Senate battle to divide the pie in ways that favor their constituents and themselves.
Having taxed us as much as they can get away with, both major political parties then dole out bits and pieces of the available revenue to a citizenry that must sit up and beg for some of their own money, and then take credit for the crumbs thrown our way.
The question that interests me is whether or not the representatives of national Jewish organizations – who want more federal dollars for programs which benefit Jewish agencies that deal with the poor, the elderly and others in need – should be among those leaving scorched earth behind them in the latest edition of this nasty partisan process.
Jewish social-welfare agencies, like their secular and religious counterparts of other faiths, are deeply dependent on federal tax dollars. Any cuts in government outlays to these causes has a tremendous impact on local Jewish philanthropic work around the country. But there’s more to the budget debate than just the scramble for dollars. There’s the question of how many dollars are to be divided. And that’s where the question of tax cuts comes in.
Because if, due to a decision on the part of Congress, less of the citizenry’s income is to be requisitioned by the government, then that may mean less crumbs for the obliging representatives and senators to dole out to their grateful constituents.
So does that mean Jewish and other religious groups that support charities that are at least partly subsidized by the government have an obligation to oppose tax cuts?
According to some, the answer is yes.
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has consistently taken that position. So have liberal Jewish commentators such as Leonard Fein and Douglas Bloomfield. They not only assert that tax cuts are bad for Jewish agencies, they say they violate Jewish values.
Mark Pelavin of the RAC wrote last year that admonitions in the Torah to “open our hands to the poor and the needy among us” constitutes a “mandate which compels us to oppose” the 2004 Republican budget proposals, and “to support only a budget that enables the government to invest in critical programs that benefit Americans of all income levels.”
They’ll likely take the same stand on proposals to make previous Bush-sponsored tax cuts permanent.
Should the rest of the Jewish community follow their lead?
The answer here is no, and for a number of reasons.
First, it is just plain foolish for any religious group to intervene in what is a highly partisan process.
The majority of Jews may vote for Democrats, but that does not mean it is smart for Jewish organizations to burn their bridges to the party that controls both houses of Congress and the White House, especially at a time when life-and-death issues – such as support for Israel and the rise in worldwide anti-Semitism – are on the table.
You can, if you want, define virtually anything as a “Jewish issue.” But are we really sure that supporting more government spending in general, is, as a matter of principle, a Jewish interest?