On the side of the needy

Let’s talk about charity.
What should the federal government be doing to help those less well off? It’s an appropriate question as the nation enters the season of giving, when even the grumpiest among us silence the inner Scrooge and drop a few coppers into the donation kettle.
The congressional superommittee’s recent failure to reach compromise on how to trim the national debt, be it by raising taxes on the wealthy, cutting spending or some combination of the two, provides the perfect backdrop.
Government, Republicans endlessly intone, should do less, not more for the unfortunate. Leave the food pantries and the homeless shelters to the churches and the do-gooders.
This is wishful thinking, and judging by new polling data, most Americans seem to see right through it. Seven in 10 Americans oppose cutting funds for social programs aimed at helping the poor, according to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute. Moreover, 67 percent of those polled said that government should do more to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

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