Rev. Jennifer Butler and Gordon Whitman: The moral case for preserving the safety net

AFP

As cracks form among CEOs and Republican Members of Congress over their hardline anti-tax position in the fiscal showdown, religious leaders from across the ideological spectrum have been united in supporting new revenue over additional spending cuts. And they’re speaking for their people. A strong majority of religious Americans favor letting the Bush tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans expire. Even reliably conservative groups, such as white evangelical Protestants, are evenly divided on the issue.

McDonnell announces School Safety Task Force

AFP

While the nation continues to mourn the horrific and senseless murders that took place at the hands of a lone gunman in Newtown, Conn., Gov. Bob McDonnell on Monday announced a state plan to review school safety in Virginia at all levels and to identify statewide and locality, school division, college and university resource needs to ensure that we are doing everything humanly possible to keep our children, young people and educators safe while they are in the classroom.

Nan Grogan Orrock: Reshaping Pentagon spending

AFP

With the campaigns over, our leaders must roll up their sleeves and get to work on the serious financial decisions facing the nation. Congress has known for more than a year that automatic budget cuts and tax increases loom in January, but they’ve left all the work to be done at the last minute. They need to hear from us that we expect them to make a balanced deal to preserve programs that strengthen our nation while making sensible budget cuts to programs that are wasteful or unnecessary.