Bishops: Rep. Ryan's Budget Plan Fails to Meet Moral Criteria

Rep. Paul Ryan’s House-passed budget plan that would cut food stamps and other assistance programs for the nation’s neediest has enraged the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says the move does not meet certain moral criteria, reports The Hill.

In a letter to the House Agriculture Committee, the bishops say that because the budget disproportionately cuts programs that “serve poor and vulnerable people,” it does not meet certain “moral criteria.”

The bishops asked lawmakers to reject “unacceptable cuts to hunger and nutrition” programs for “moral and human reasons,” arguing in their letter that the spending cuts should be focused on subsidy programs that “disproportionately go to large growers and agribusiness,” The Hill reports.

“Cuts to nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] will hurt hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors, and workers who cannot find employment. These cuts are unjustified and wrong,” says the letter, signed by Bishop Stephen E. Blaire.

The letter was addressed to the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn.

The move follows comments by Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, that his Catholic faith was instrumental in his shaping of the budget, which he claims is consistent with Catholic teaching that government shouldn’t be responsible for lifting its citizens out of poverty, citizens themselves should help each other.