Catholic Social Teaching & The Fiscal Cliff

One thing I admire about the Catholic Church is its teachings on social issues and social justice. The Church is a global entity and there is much to be critical of in both its doctrines and its practices in modern times, and throughout its history. But, there are a few areas where I could not agree more.  The Church has a long history of developing its teachings on social justice, and a quick review of the evolution of those teachings shows that they have changed over the years, but never in a way that varies much from the core values they have always reflected. Much of the Church’s doctrine in this area comes from the thoughts and writings of early intellectuals like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo. In spite of some evidence to the contrary, the Church has always professed its allegiance to helping the poor, and often done remarkable work to aid the poor.

As I was listening to some political pundits on a Sunday morning talk show I got to thinking about the connection between the big issue of the day (The Fiscal Cliff) and my recollections about Catholic Social Teachings. (On a side note: in my youth I would have been at Sunday Mass during this hour instead of watching TV, but my relationship with the Church has obviously changed) Nonetheless a relationship between these two issues was crystal clear in my mind.  “The Fiscal Cliff” is the name given to a set of government events all scheduled to take place on January 1^st. These events are: 1) The Bush tax cuts on all incomes will expire and old (higher) rates go back into effect, 2) The payroll deduction tax break we got three years ago will vanish, meaning that paychecks will have more taxes taken out, and 3) Massive program cuts will go into effect automatically, based on an agreement (placed in law) - known as the “sequester”. The sequestered cuts were put into place by the Parties themselves to put political pressure on both Parties to get a deal and avoid having to go over the cliff. The sequestered cuts are horrible news for both Parties; there will be massive cuts to social programs Democrats like, and monumental cuts to military programs Republicans like. Many believe that failure to resolve our fiscal problems and going over the cliff will lead to another recession.

The Congress and the President have had about a year and a half to resolve the fiscal issues they created the last time they haggled over the debt ceiling but, of course, they are waiting until the last minute. As of now both sides have shown little movement towards arriving at a compromise. The president wants higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans (among other things) as part of his solution, and the Republicans want to preserve tax breaks for the wealthiest and cut social programs and Entitlement program spending as part of their solution. Both sides seem pretty stuck on their point of view, so little progress is being made as they watch the days pass by. The President believes he should not give up his core position because he won the election campaigning on this very issue, while the Republicans believe their position reflects their constituent’s beliefs and Party doctrine. This is all fairly simple to understand- it’s just that neither side will give in and make room for a deal. All the national polls favor the President’s position and indicate the Republicans need to give in. But they probably won’t.

As the pundits were going over this ground in their panel discussion they began to talk about why the public so overwhelmingly supports the idea of taxing the rich more. That’s when the Catholic teachings hit me. One of the panelist mentioned that over the last thirty (30) years middle-class income has been stagnant- the middle class has not advanced at all. During the same thirty years the wealth of the top 2% of Americans has increased almost 300%. It struck me that our desire to see the rich taxed more is a matter of social justice. The Catholic Church has a saying that “there can be no Peace without Justice”. That is an incredibly profound and accurate statement. I don’t think it is possible for humans to accept peace or negotiate in peace as long as fundamental injustice rules the day. The income disparity in this country today is at its worst level of “unbalance” in our history, and it is fundamentally unjust. I believe this truth was reflected in the results of the last election- many voters connected with the President's message on tax increases for the rich.

The early thinkers in the Catholic Church developed the notion about the injustice of accumulating wealth while others suffered. Those thoughts were first published in an encyclical letter by Pope Leo XIII, in 1891- Rerum Novarum.  This encyclical advocated for Distributism while at the same time condemned the pure capitalist and pure socialist ideologies of the day. Distributism holds that property ownership is a fundamental right and that the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (pure Socialism), or by accomplished individuals (pure Capitalism). Distributism therefore advocates a society marked by widespread property ownership, and according to some economists, maintains that such a system is key to bringing about a just social order. It basically recognizes that income and wealth should be fairly distributed in a fair and just society. Governments achieve this, and manage it through fiscal and social policies.

The idea of economic justice (promoted by Catholic teachings) is at the heart of overwhelming public opinion supporting higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.  Unfortunately the issue of taxing the wealthy more is the primary stumbling block in resolving the fiscal cliff. I’m not sure how many Catholics are aware of the Church’s teachings on this matter, but these teachings can inform the voting public and those making critical decisions. My guess is that many Catholic voters in the U.S. are unaware of the Church’s position. I say that because (for example) the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared the Paul Ryan budget proposals “immoral”, yet many Catholics supported Ryan's candidacy for Vice-President. My point here is that many people of faith profess to vote their moral (faith based) conscience, but in reality tend to pick their positions based on more secular, political  beliefs. For my money making decisions based on secular thinking is just fine- it’s the way I do it. But there are a great many among us who use their religion to guide them in these matters-they just don’t  do it very consistently.  

I’ve never understood how devout Christians can cling so tightly to extremely conservative ideas. In the last thirty years Christianity and conservatism have become almost synonymous. In a country like ours there is tremendous diversity of ideas, and a great many issues over which to disagree. I know that it is impossible to attach comprehensive, all-encompassing labels (religious and political). For instance a good Catholic could never support the more liberal causes having to do with reproductive choice, but could easily support liberal social and fiscal programs if they go by the Church’s teaching on economic justice.  Often candidates and party policies embody mostly liberal or mostly conservative platforms, thus creating a difficult conflict for the faith-based voter in a secular government. Still I see in the story of Jesus (The New Testament) a great deal more material dealing with the poor and the down trodden, and social justice, than I see about sexual or reproductive matters. That says something to me about where the emphasis of Christian teaching lies, and why I never understood the connection between conservatives and Christians. Conservatives of today are all about shrinking the programs that address the issues Jesus spoke about. It is the opposite of Distributism. They tend to focus on some punitive form of accountability (fairly or unfairly applied) more than on the aspects of charity Christians preach.

Today as we stand at yet another manufactured crossroad of fiscal crisis, the core values we hold as a people should give us the guideposts by which we decide such important issues- not political motives driven by greed and favor for the rich. Whether those guideposts are planted in our path by religion or by our unique human conscience, I think we should look deeply into ourselves and our beliefs to arrive at a place marked by social justice. I hope our leaders can do the same.

Thanks for looking in.