Reform of federal spending must properly balance responsibilities to current and future generations.

Concern for future generations must start with the dignity of the person and fully recognize the essential right of future generations to exist and be provided with opportunities to flourish.

• Debt and the Birth Dearth
  
• ObamaCare and the Threat to Human Dignity 
• Europe’s Choice: Populate or Perish

Because we owe the next generation economic opportunity, comprehensive budget reform is necessary.

Entitlement reform must be the first priority and any call for budget reform that does not make this clear point is deeply flawed. Given the current levels of spending, entitlement reform is essential for completing a path to balanced budgets and economic opportunity for all.

• America’s Uncontrolled Debt and Spending is the Real ‘Waterloo’
• It Still Needs Fixing
• The Fiscal Responsibility of Mall Rats and Bureaucrats

The role of civil society is primary in assisting those in need.

Business and economic institutions bear the primary responsibility for creating wealth and are the usual way God has provided for us to meet our material needs. Efforts to address poverty by churches, charities, and other non-governmental organizations are also entitled to respect and celebration by society. The unique contribution of these institutions must be respected and enhanced in the budget reform process.

• Local Churches Hard Hit as Recession Spreads
• Stewardship and the Human Vocation to Work
• Scrooge and the Ghosts of Charity

The role of the federal government must reflect its limits as expressed in the U.S. Constitution.

Because of the gravity of our spending and debt crisis, it is incumbent to ask again and again basic questions about the role of government, at federal as well as state and local levels. While no federal spending measures should be immune from cuts, our funding priorities should reflect the constitutional responsibilities and duties of the federal government.

• Back to Budget Basics
• Deficit Denial, American-Style
• Do Less with Less: What the History of Federal Debt and Tax Leverage Teaches

PowerBlog Posts

• Samuel Gregg: America’s Gerontocracy
• The Real Both/And Budget Solution
• Editorial: Intergenerational Ethics and Economics
• The Belgic Confession and Political Justice
• Debt and the Demands of Progress
• Opportunity, the Pursuit of Happiness, and Intergenerational Justice
• ‘Intergenerational Justice’ Later Today with Paul Edwards
• Christ’s Kingdom and the Federal Government
• Audio: Ballor and Strauss on Intergenerational Justice
• Five Things
• What Would Jesus Cut? Who’s Asking, the Pharisees?
• Rev. Sirico: The Church as the Bride of Caesar
• Circle of Protection Subordinates Religion to Politics
• Praying for More Tax Revenue?
• The Welfare State and the Moral High Ground
• What Would Jesus Cut…from the Constitution?
• Principles for Budget Reform
• More Thoughts on ‘Christian Poverty in the Age of Prosperity’
• Material Poverty, Spiritual Poverty, and Tony Campolo
• Jeff Jacoby: Jesus won’t tell them what to cut

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Additional Reading

Video

Rev. Sirico on EWTN’s ‘World Over’—The Morality of the Federal Budget

Highlight: The Church should not Relinquish Responsibility in favor of Government Programs
Full event: America's Long-Term Budget Crisis and "A Call for Intergenerational Justice"

Audio