Speaking of money . . .

. . . is not something our homilists always (ever?) like to do, but in light of this week's budget mess in Albany, perhaps we can ask that someone in a pulpit speak up on our behalf. Someone might use, as the basis of a homily, this article by Jim Wallis of Sojourners, who wrote last year:

We must proclaim that budgets are moral documents - and current proposals fall short.

And who went on to state:

Your witness is needed at this crucial time to urge a better moral and political logic for our nation - toward a vision for a new America. In the name of social conscience, fiscal responsibility, equality of opportunity, protection of communities, and the very idea of a common good, it is time for the moral center of American public opinion to stand up and say, "Enough!"

Or someone might quote from some of the items we posted previously, or even from more recent items, such as this from Newsday:

What will we do with a drunken sailor - make that a cash-guzzling legislature on an election-year spending binge?

We asked that question last Sunday, as lawmakers seemed ready to add billions of dollars to Gov. George Pataki's already overly generous budget proposal - and to open up potentially huge budget deficits. And this week we got the answer: Nothing. Neither sharp criticism nor a sense of civic responsibility was enough to rein them in.

Or this from the Middletown Times Herald-Record:

What is driving this excessive generosity is the availability of a budget surplus of $2 billion to $4 billion and legislators' instinctual drive to give away money in election years. This drive is so powerful, it makes incumbent politicians ignore the fact that they have rigged the system so that it is virtually impossible for them to lose their seats. They just have to give money away.

Or even something from the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic organization devoted to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York City and New York State government.