National Advocacy Groups: Deficit Reduction Cannot Increase Poverty

June 27, 2011 - Posted by Tyler Lewis

Leaders from 25 prominent national religious, civil rights, charitable, economic research, and low-income advocacy organizations are urging the White House and leaders of both parties in the House and Senate to ensure that any deficit reduction plan does not cut programs for low-income families and does not increase poverty.

In a letter sent today, the groups say that the policymakers "must address future deficits and put our nation on a sustainable fiscal course. But that need not — and should not — entail increasing poverty and hardship or inequality, as various past deficit reduction packages demonstrate."

The letter states:

"Any agreement on deficit reduction should neither cut low-income assistance programs directly nor subject these programs to cuts under automatic enforcement mechanisms. Cuts to programs that help low-income people meet their basic needs or provide them with opportunity to obtain decent education and employment would inevitably increase poverty and hardship.

The major bipartisan deficit reduction packages of recent decades have adhered to the principle we espouse here. In fact, all deficit reduction packages enacted in the 1990s reduced poverty and helped the disadvantaged even as they shrank deficits. In addition, every automatic budget cut mechanism of the past quarter-century has exempted core low-income assistance programs from any automatic across-the-board cuts triggered when budget targets or fiscal restraint rules were missed or violated."

The letter was signed by leaders from the following organizations: Alliance for Children and Families, Alliance to End Hunger, Bread for the World, Center for American Progress, Center for Community Change, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Children's Defense Fund, CLASP, Coalition on Human Needs, Families USA, Feeding America, Food Research and Action Center, Half in Ten, Independent Sector, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, National Employment Law Project, National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Women's Law Center, PICO National Network Steering Committee, Share Our Strength, Sojourners, United Neighborhood Centers of America, and United Way Worldwide.