The budget cuts proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan reduce taxes on the wealthiest Americans and lower spending for many social service programs and for Medicare. During their 9 state tour, the nuns are documenting the work being done at Catholics churches and charities…services that would lose funding under Ryan’s proposal.  At a stop at St. Augustine’s in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, Sister Simone Campbell called Ryan’s budget immoral. Campbell praised the churches efforts.

Campbell:  “What we’re finding are these amazing, responsible programs everywhere we go of serving people in need. Here at St. Augustine’s, caring for the deaf and the blind, and worshiping together. It’s those kinds of opportunities to touch real people, and we’re taking these stories back to D.C.”

Sister Corita Ambros heads St. Augustine’s hunger center, which feeds more than 500 people a day. She worries about more cuts to programs that have already been reduced.

Ambros:  “A hunger center is not just a place where people come to eat, it’s also a place where people come for services, and we try to provide that. Many of these people have alcohol problems, and the funding for those programs are being cut, and how can were get them help if we can’t get them into programs?”

The Nuns on the Bus agree that the budget deficit needs to be closed. Sister Campbell says the nation’s budget mess started when the government cut taxes and…as she phrases it…. put two wars on a credit card. And she offers a different solution than the one the G.O.P. has proposed.

Campbell:  “We believe that wealth people like hedge fund folks who make millions of dollars should not pay lower taxes than the middle class. That’s wrong, they’re benefiting tremendously from our economy so they should invest in it. We also believe a responsible way forward is to clean up some of the Defense Department abuses. They have no bid contracts for a lot of the services, that means there’s no competition. What happened to the free market?”

Campbell also believes the nation’s economy could be improved by investing in lower income people.

Campbell:  “And pent up demand in this country is not at the top. There may be pent up demand for off shore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, but we don’t need that, we need to invest in our nation. So we need to get money to where there’s need, and that’s toward the bottom. So if they have more money they’ll spend it, that will boost production and that’ll improve the economy.”