This weekend, America suffered a setback when the Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,  51-49. The bill contains tax cuts for the rich and big corporations, temporary tax cuts for the middle class, little to no benefits for low-income working families, and repeal of the ACA's mandate. In fact, a  new report from the Tax Policy Center (and this accompanying  interview) explains bad the tax bill for low-income children and families. Worst of all, if a final bill passes, leaders will soon push for deep cuts to anti-poverty services to pay for the new tax cuts for the wealthiest (in fact,  they are already doing it).

If you or you and your spouse make less than $10,000 a year, under the Senate tax bill, you will need to pay $80 more in taxes in 2019.

If you make more than $1,000,000 a year, you will pay $59,615 less in taxes that year.

Eight years later, everyone making $75,000 or less will be paying for this massive redistribution of wealth from poor and working class people to the wealthy 1% of the population.   (Statistics from Congressional Budget Numbers - article)

Now the House and Senate must work out a compromise bill (see a comparison of both the House and Senate bills vs. current law  here). It is likely the House and Senate will vote on a conference agreement in the next week, but the outcome is not set. Members of Congress need to hear from you once again telling them to reject whatever bill they come up with.

TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to call your senators and representative telling them to oppose any final tax bill that gives tax cuts to the wealthy that hurts families and puts anti-poverty programs at risk. Once you call, please urge everyone you know via e-mail and social media to call as well. Let's melt those phone lines telling members of Congress no tax cuts for the wealthy. Call House members at  (877) 795-7862 and both Senators at  (888) 516-5820 and leave this message:

My name is ______________ and I am a constituent from ___________________ and a faithful Presbyterian. I am exasperated that the House and Senate are poised to pass a final tax bill that massive tax cuts to the rich and big corporations, while putting anti-poverty programs such as Medicaid and SNAP, at risk. Jesus called us to care for the poor, and this tax bill lines the pockets of the rich. This is wrong. Low-income Americans should not be required to finance tax cuts for the rich. Please tell Rep./Sen. __________________ to put working families first by voting NO on the final tax bill. Will you give him/her that message today?

The Rev. T. Denise Anderson, Co-Moderator of the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), added her voice today to the many faith leaders present for the launch of  The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival in Washington, D.C. Owing its name to the Poor People's Campaign instituted 50 years ago today by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the call seeks to unite "tens of thousands of people across the country to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation's distorted morality."

Speaking at the United Methodist Building, home to many denominational justice and advocacy offices, Anderson and leaders from other Christian denominations, the Unitarian-Universalist Association and the Union for Reform Judaism, pledged their denominations' support for the campaign, calling recent legislation - including the Republican tax reform bill - an affront to poor and working-class Americans.

"At our 222nd General Assembly (2016) the PC(USA) made a number of social justice commitments to include measures to dismantle racism, to address climate change and to engage with a new civil rights movement," she said, noting the overture from the Presbytery of the Cascades that "called on choosing to be a church committed to the gospel of Matthew 25."

Anderson said the overture "called our denomination to recommit ourselves at all levels of our church to locate ourselves with the poor, to advocate with all of our voice for the poor and to seek opportunities to take risks for and with the poor." Therefore, she affirmed, "we will stand on the right side of faith, on the right side of morality, on the right side of history and affirm our participation in the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival."

Campaign organizers are urging poor and disenfranchised people, clergy and moral leaders to engage in direct action at statehouses and the U.S. Capitol next spring as part of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Organizers said they will draw on the unfinished work of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign, reigniting the effort led by civil rights organizations, labor, tenant unions, farm workers, Native American elders and grassroots organizers to foster a moral revolution of values.

Expected to be a multi-year effort, The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will intensify starting Mother's Day 2018, with six weeks of direct action and civil disobedience across at least 25 states and the District of Columbia, leading up to a mass mobilization at the U.S. Capitol June 21. Each week will focus on a different injustice, beginning with child poverty, and will include specific policy goals and a voter education program to advance a moral agenda at the state and federal levels.

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The Rev. Dr. William Barber II, campaign co-chair, added, "We must transform the moral narrative in this country. We went through the most expensive presidential campaign in U.S. history in 2016 without a single serious discussion of poverty and systemic racism. Now we are witnessing an emboldened attack on the poor and an exacerbation of systemic racism, ecological devastation and the war economy that demands a response. Black, white, brown red, yellow, young, old, male, female, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and those not of religion but with deep moral convictions must build a long-term, agenda-based movement rooted in non-violent direct action and voter mobilization. This is not about saving any party, but about saving the soul of America."

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The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is co-organized by Repairers of the Breach, a social justice organization founded by the Rev. Barber; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary; and scores of local and national grassroots groups across the country.