Is the Federal Budget a Moral Document?
by Rebecca Sager, ASA Congressional Fellow It is simply immoral for this government to continue to mortgage our children s futures through policies that lead only to growing deficits and deeper national debt. Tomorrow, we will strike a strong blow for fiscal sanity. Rep. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader A recent New York Times article reported on new data about the widening income gap. According to economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, The top 1 percent of Americans those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 are receiving their largest share of national income since 1928. 1 In other words, the richest in America are now the richest they have ever been since immediately before the Great Depression. During the same week that this report was released, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its federal budget resolution for FY 2008, determining how much appropriating committees can spend in 2008. While many would consider the budget a purely fiscal document, there has be
