Last Thursday (5.10.12) the House of Representatives took another whack at slashing the social safety net, ensuring that millions of members of our communities would go hungry, live on the streets, be in more crowded classrooms, be unable to work for lack of daycare, and become sicker as Medicaid funding would be more limited. All of this while working to ensure that those with the greatest incomes will still receive the highest percentage tax breaks given.

Of course, we trust that Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012 (H.R. 5652) will neither be passed by the Senate, nor signed into law by the president. But the leadership and many members of the House are putting their true values out for all of us to see. Remember, the budget is a moral document, and where you put your money shows what you value.

This legislation is not the only an attack on those who are vulnerable, who are ill or have lost jobs. The most recent budgets, and certainly the Budget Control Act of 2011 (which kept us from exceeding the debt limit) have resulted in attacks of the lowest-wage earners.

Check the chart (EFFECTS OF PROPOSED FUNDING CHANGES IN 2013), which compares what would have happened as a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (Sequestration) and what is occurring in the appropriations negotiations being deliberated in the House and Senate right now. As things change, the chart will be updated.