At the UJA Young Leadership Conference: Jewish Community Must Deal with Effect of Gramm-rudman Act O

The Jewish community will have to deal with the effects the attempts to balance the federal budget will have on both the Jewish poor and the general community, Ellen Whitman, legislative director of the Council of Jewish Federations, stressed Monday.

Whitman discussed the issue on a panel which included Reps. Ron Wyden (D. Ore.) and Larry Craig (R. Idaho) during the United Jewish Appeal’s Fifth National Young Leadership Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

She stressed that not only are there an estimated 750,000 Jews in the United States who live below, at, or just above the poverty line but that the “self-interest of the Jewish community is best protected by the well-being of the general community.” According to the Department of Labor, the federal poverty line for a family of four is $10,650.

Craig, who is a leader in the effort to adopt a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, said the American people must decide if they want to pay for programs that would cost more than the government’s revenues.

All three panelists agreed on the need to reduce the federal deficit. Wyden said the issue was how to do it. He noted that the Gramm-Rudman act requires that if deficit reduction targets are not met by Congress, then automatic reductions are made, half from the military budget and half from domestic programs.

REAGAN’S BUDGET TERMED UNFAIR

But Wyden charged that the budget proposed by President Reagan increases military spending by $33 billion while cutting domestic programs by $23 billion. He said there was no fairness in this budget since most of the cuts hit the poorest sectors of society. Wyden, the first Jew ever elected to Congress from Oregon, said Jews have traditionally supported help for the poor, the educationally disadvantaged and the elderly.

He also noted that Jewish Federations would lose millions of dollars they now received from the federal government, which means that they would have to either raise more funds or see many programs disappear.

Whitman also stressed this point, noting that the Federations, along with other private social agencies, have been the “deliverers of services” funded by the federal government. The Federations have received a quarter to a half billion dollars of federal funds annually, she said.

“We are not meeting the needs today let alone what is going to happen over the next few years as we strive, as we must, to balance the federal budget,” Whitman said.

UNDERSTANDING THE BUDGET ISSUE IS A MUST

She stressed the need for Jewish leaders to become knowledgeable about this issue just as they are on the Middle East and Soviet Jewry.

Describing the Jewish Poor, Whitman said they are single parents, the elderly, families, college educated people who cannot find jobs and white collar workers. She said one group is the “new poor” who over the last four-to-five years could not meet the four necessities of life: housing, food, utilities and medication.

The other group of Jewish poor was called the “invisible poor” who, since the Great Society legislation of the 1960’s, was living on government programs but now needs help because of cutbacks. She said Federations are just beginning outreach programs to find them.