Senator Reverend Warnock joined national faith leaders on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to bear witness to the GOP tax bill that would reward the wealthiest Americans with tax cuts while targeting the most vulnerable with cuts to health care
“Pentecost Witness for A Moral Budget” brought together faith leaders, policymakers, and activists to pray, speak up on behalf of marginalized Georgians and Americans, and advocate for a moral budget
In his remarks, Senator Warnock recalled how he was arrested in 2017 protesting the last GOP reconciliation bill, only to be back again as a U.S. Senator fighting for working families in this latest legislative fight
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) spoke out against cruel cuts to working families in the GOP tax bill during a gathering on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with clergy and faith leaders moved by a moral conscience. The gathering, dubbed “Pentecost Witness for A Moral Budget”, was aimed at speaking up for the country’s most vulnerable—the very people the Senator’s faith calls on him to protect. The Senator and faith leaders decried how vulnerable Georgians and Americans are under real and dire threat in a moment that serves as a test to both their faith and our democracy. As the legislation text stands currently, the GOP tax bill being rammed through Congress by Washington Republicans would cut $800 billion from Medicaid, leaving 16 million more Americans uninsured, including an estimated 750,000 Georgians.
“I came to the Capitol in 2017 when they were trying to pass a tax cut for the wealthiest of the wealthy. […] I got arrested that day. Here I am, eight years later, having transformed my agitation into legislation, my protest into public policy. But I’m here today because I still know how to agitate. I still know how to protest. I’m not a Senator who used to be a pastor. I’m a pastor in the Senate. And so, here’s what we have come to do today. If this budget were an EKG, it would suggest that many of my colleagues have a heart problem. And we have gathered today to perform moral surgery because our children deserve better. They are talking about waste, fraud, and abuse. There is not enough waste, fraud, and abuse to cut $800 billion from Medicaid. That means some people will not get covered. Seniors, and veterans, and children. $300 billion out of SNAP. That means they are taking food out of the hungry mouths of children in order to give people like Elon Musk a tax cut,” said Senator Warnock at the faith-based rally.
Faith leaders and policymakers attending the gathering were praying, testifying, storytelling, reading Scripture verses about people experiencing poverty in the Bible and standing for justice, as well as advocating for a moral budget.
The public witness event was led by Reverend Jim Wallis, the founding Director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice, as well as Reverend Adam Taylor of Sojourners and Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner with the National African American Clergy Network. Senator Warnock was also joined by Senate colleagues Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
A transcript of Senator Warnock’s remarks can be found below:
Hello everybody. Thank you all so very much for standing on the Capitol steps in this moral moment in America. And I have to tell you that as I stand here today with my friend Jim Wallace, and with the Reverend Barbara Williams Skinner, and so many others, this feels like deja vu.
Because they were trying to pass a reconciliation bill in 2017 during the first Trump administration. And when they were trying to pass that bill, I was not a United States Senator. I came to the Capitol in 2017 when they were trying to pass a tax cut for the wealthiest of the wealthy. I came with clergy, including the Reverend Barbara Williams Skinner. And as I stood there, I said then what I want to say today: that a budget is not just a fiscal document, it’s a moral document. Show me your budget, and I’ll show you who you think matters and who does not. Who you think is dispensable.
And we stood there in 2017 making the same point. I was with the Reverend Doctor William Barber, and I said, “Which one of us is getting arrested today? You or me?” I got the short straw. I got arrested that day. And the Capitol police, they were professional, they didn’t mishandle me, and they deserve credit for doing what we asked them to do. But what they didn’t understand that day as they said, “Pastor, if you don’t stop praying, if you don’t stop singing in the rotunda of the Capitol, we’re going to have to arrest you.” What they didn’t understand is that I had already been arrested. My mind and my imagination and my heart had been arrested by the heartbeat of children who should not lose their food and who should not lose their health care in order to give wealthy people a tax cut.
And so they arrested me that day in 2017. Here I am, eight years later, having transformed my agitation into legislation, my protest into public policy. But I’m here today because I still know how to agitate. I still know how to protest. I’m not a Senator who used to be a pastor. I’m a pastor in the Senate. And so, here’s what we have come to do today. If this budget were an EKG, it would suggest that many of my colleagues have a heart problem. And we have gathered today to perform moral surgery because our children deserve better. They are talking about waste, fraud, and abuse. There is not enough waste, fraud, and abuse to cut $800 billion from Medicaid. That means some people will not get covered. Seniors, and veterans, and children. $300 billion out of SNAP. That means they are taking food out of the hungry mouths of children in order to give people like Elon Musk a tax cut. And the folks who vote for this will be in someone’s church next Sunday. I have a scripture for them: Away with your noise. Away with your songs. I will not hear them. I hate your festivals. I hate your solemn gatherings. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
God is not impressed by you quoting scripture. God is not impressed by you showing up to church on Sunday. The acid test of your faith is the depth of your commitment to the least and left out of God’s hungry children. In closing, and nobody believes a Baptist preacher when he says in closing, let me just say this to you: in this dark moment in our country, we know what they are trying to do to Medicaid. We know what they are trying to do to SNAP. We know what they are trying to do to federal workers. We know there are starving people abroad right now—children—through their cuts to USAID. But there is something else they are doing that is even more sinister. They are trying to weaponize despair. They are trying to convince you that they have already won and so you need not fight. This is what you must resist. You must resist the despair that is so deep that you stop fighting. Because when we fight, we win. Are you ready to stand up in this moral moment? Are you ready to stand up for our children? Are you ready to stand up for the elderly? Are you ready to stand up for the seniors and those who are struggling? Are you ready to stand up for the best in the American spirit? So let’s stick together, let’s pray together, let’s work together, let’s fight together. Truth crushed to Earth will rise again.
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