On February 13th, President Obama released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2013. The document is complex, technical, and 256 pages long. It includes funding levels for all government departments and programs from the Department of Defense to the Environmental Protection Agency. Obama’s budget is theoretically the basis for the House appropriation process but the Republican-controlled House of Representatives will likely propose a budget that is significantly different, much as was done last year.

Please pray for our leaders that they will seek wisdom and justice as they work to build an economic strategy that will improve the quality of our lives and make us a blessing to our neighbors.

The Obama budget includes the principle of the “Buffett rule,” the tax regulation that would mandate that persons earning over a million dollars would pay no less than 30 percent in federal taxes. This is likely intended to highlight Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s recent tax return release in which it was revealed that he paid an effective 13.9 percent tax rate in 2010.

The budget follows closely from Obama’s recent State of the Union address highlighting the need for U.S. manufacturing to lead the way in economic recovery and emphasizing increased spending in job training, education, and access to college. It also assumes that the “sequester,” requiring cuts to both human needs and military programs, is revoked but it includes a similar amount of deficit reduction through increased revenues, such as the Buffett rule, and the streamlining of other programs.

The Department of Agriculture budget is maintained or increased for nutrition programs such as SNAP (food stamps) and WIC, which have been increasingly important in meeting basic needs during the economic downturn. The budget proposes to find revenue in Agriculture by eliminating direct payments to farmers, 50 percent of which have been going to farmers with more than $100,000 in annual income (page 28).  A reduction in crop insurance subsidies is also included, along with better targeting in agricultural conservation assistance.

While many positive steps are taken by this budget proposal there are always difficult choices made. One example of this is an increase in the minimum rent paid by those receiving federal housing assistance. Public housing associations have previously had the discretion to charge a minimum rent of between $0 and $50. There will now be a mandated minimum of $75. This increase is meant to account for inflation since the setting of the minimum in 1998 but will impact those who are the most vulnerable to homelessness and represents a large percentage of the income of those who qualify to pay the minimum rent.

No doubt this budget will be but the first proposal in a long season of debates over our nation’s priorities. Please pray for our leaders that they will seek wisdom and justice as they work to build an economic strategy that will improve the quality of our lives and make us a blessing to our neighbors.

This is an excellent time to speak with your elected officials about the values that you would like to see represented in the budget and to encourage them to build a budget that supports life-giving programs and care for the vulnerable in the U.S. and around the world.

Here is the Office of Management and Budget's overview of President Obama’s budget.

Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office has resources on U.S. Economic Justice, and the Federal Budget.