Catholic Bishops, Ryan and Medicare

20 May 2011 |permalink | email article

As the House budget debate intensifies Catholic bishops are weighing in. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, sent Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan a letter Thursday commending his “continued attention” to Catholic social justice concerns.

Dolan, the archbishop of New York who previous served as archbishop of Milwaukee, near Ryan’s Wisconsin district, wrote that “the budget is not just about numbers…budgets are moral statements.”

Ryan sent a letter to Dolan last month on how the church’s social teaching informed his budget. Dolan did not expressly endorse the budget, insisting that he’s a pastor,” not a politician.” But his letter disputes one of the chief rallying cries against the budget – that it would hurt the poor to benefit the rich. Ryan in a statement said that his budget “upholds the dignity of the human person and is especially attention to the long-term concerns of the poor.”

No mention is made in their correspondence about privatizing Medicare and Medicaid, established by the Social Security Act in 1966, key components of Ryan’s plan. Neither is there any hint of Rerum Navarum, the famous encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 which was an open letter to all Catholic bishops that addressed the condition of working people. 

Ryan piously writes about the dignity of the human person and concerns of the poor but he’s clueless about a critical social justice issue – phasing out Medicare for millions of older, middle-class Americans who need it. Bipartisan public opinion runs strongly against Ryan’s plan and may doom the Republican effort to win over seniors in 2012. 

What they said

“He’s got a vulnerability and sweetness. He’s never had an extended opportunity to do this kind of work as an actor.” – Albert Ruddy, the producer of “Cry Macho,” discussing movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and insisting that production of the film commences August 24. Given the unfolding scandal many skeptics are questioning the timetable. Update: Schwarzenegger putting Hollywood comeback on hold!

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC last year Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, observed that women ”inject less libido, less testosterone into” the workplace than men, which seems quite prescient in light of the New York criminal charges facing Dominique Strauss-Kahn, expected to resign soon as head of the International Monetary Fund.

 

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