Catholic bishops have sent several letters to congressional leaders decrying Paul Ryan's proposed 2013 budget, arguing that it savages services for the poor simply to benefit the wealthy.

Multiple letters from members of the Conference of Catholic Bishops were sent out on different aspects of the budgets, including housing, food stamps, agriculture and the Child Tax Credit. The letters remind legislators, most of whom claim to be religiously motivated, of the Church's command to protect and help the poor, and condemn the Ryan budget's complete evisceration of services for the underclass, which in some estimates are cut by up to 90%.

Here's a typical paragraph, from the housing letter by Reverend Stephen Blair:

The Catholic community is one of the largest private providers of housing services for the poor and vulnerable in the country. We shelter the homeless, develop affordable housing for families and people with disabilities, counsel families at risk of foreclosure, and provide housing and care for those at the end of life. At a time when the need for assistance from HUD programs is growing, cutting funds for them could cause thousands of individuals and families to lose their housing and worsen the hardship of thousands more in need of affordable housing.

The letters acknowledge the difficulty inherent in budgeting decisions, but urge Congress to remember that solutions

must require shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and fairly addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs. The House-passed budget resolution fails to meet these moral criteria. We join other Christian leaders in insisting 'a circle of protection' be drawn around essential programs that serve poor and vulnerable people."

The letters are welcome turnaround after Bishps played such a rigid and unproductive role in the debate over contraception. As Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic points out, until now the savage cuts in Ryan's budget had yet to draw the same level of protest from the bishops. 

But the letters have caught the eye of legislators. "I want them to take a bigger look," John Boehner said of the bishops, after admitting they had a moral point. "The bigger look is that if we don’t make these decisions, these programs won’t exist." 

Cohn calls BS:

As Boehner surely knows, that’s not true. The only reasons the programs can’t survive under Republican budgets is that Republicans insist on using some of the money to finance tax cuts for the wealthy—and because Republicans keep opposing attempts to control health care spending by reforming the system itself, rather than simply reducing support for the sick and elderly. That’s precisely what the Bishops are saying when they call for "shared sacrifice."

Copies of the letters can be found here.

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