Democrats join faith leaders to denounce Trump's budget bill

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1 of 6 | Sen. Cory Booker, D-NY, said Tuesday he "transformed my agitation into legislation," as faith leaders and lawmakers gathered for a 'Moral Budget Vigil' at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to urge protection of Medicaid, SNAP and other vital programs. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
June 10 (UPI) -- Democratic senators joined hundreds of faith leaders on the Capitol steps Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to denounce SNAP and Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's massive budget proposal.
The event -- called the "Moral Budget Vigil" and organized by the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice, Sojourners, Skinner Leadership Institute and the National African American Clergy Network -- included prayers, song and scripture. A meeting with Democratic senators followed.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is also a reverend at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, criticized the budget for "giving wealthy people a tax cut."
"Show me your budget and I'll show you who you think matters and who does not -- who you think is dispensable," Warnock said. "My mind and my imagination and my heart had been arrested by the heartbeat of children who should not lose their food and who should not lose healthcare in order to give wealthy people a tax cut."
The budget, which the White House calls the "Big, Beautiful Bill," cleared the U.S. House in May by a narrow margin. It would make Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent and could add trillions to the national debt, according to analysts.
Faith leaders claim the bill would also cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program -- or SNAP -- and Medicaid coverage for millions of low-income children, families and people with disabilities.
Trump has said he only wants to eliminate "waste, fraud and abuse" from the Medicaid program and would not make direct cuts to benefits. The bill also calls for changes to SNAP by imposing stricter work requirements.
The Rev. Jim Wallis, who advised the Obama administration, called the budget plan a "big, bad bill," which he argued would "take 60 million people off of health care."
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware claimed the bill "literally takes the food from the mouths of hungry children to pass an enormous tax cut for the very wealthiest and is the definition of an immoral bill before this Congress."
Warnock, who calls it the "Big Ugly Bill," recounted how he protested another Trump budget bill eight years ago with prayer and song inside the Capitol rotunda.
"As I stood there, I said then what I want to say today: That a budget is not just a fiscal document, it is a moral document."
Warnock was arrested during that protest in 2017 and credited the Capitol Police for being professional.
"Here I am eight years later, having transformed my agitation into legislation," Warnock added. "I'm here today because I still know how to agitate -- I still know how to protest. I'm not a senator who used to be a pastor. I'm a pastor in the Senate."
"If we raise our voices together, we can beat this."