The budget battle's narrow terms

It's great to see David Beckmann convince Mark Bittman to join the fast against attempts to cut federal programs
that help the poor and the hungry. Bittman's dismissal of the religious element
of the effort by Bread for the World and others--"I doubt God will intervene
here"--betrays his unfamiliarity with Christian thought. (I'm tempted to send him
one of my ELCA "God's work, our hands" fridge magnets.) But thanks to Bittman's
involvement, now even the Nation is
giving the progressive evangelical effort positive coverage.

I'm ambivalent about using the prophets to (somewhat awkwardly)
prooftext a publicity stunt. It raises complicated questions about the
relationship between a spiritual fast and a political hunger strike. But right
now those questions seem a lot less important than the fact that apparently the
only way to evade a government shutdown--not such a great thing, though there are worse things--is for the Democrats
to give the Republicans what they want: major cuts to non-defense discretionary
spending. That would be devastating for a lot of vulnerable people.

There's nothing like a divided-government budget fight to
highlight the insanity of U.S. politics. In a time of tenuous economic
recovery, we should be having a serious debate about our complicated policy
options. Do we need more stimulus before we turn to the deficit problem? If
not, should we tackle the deficit by cutting spending, raising taxes or some
combination? If we go with just cuts, which parts of the budget should they
come from?