A movie sequel title it is not. And it's not a touring Broadway show. The Nuns On The Bus tour is exactly that. But, these Catholic sisters are on a crusade to put social issues, and the consequences of Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's budget, in the spotlight.
"We know how terribly important it is that the American public understand the problems — the huge problems — in the House-passed budget and that we need to educate the American people," Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, told msnbc’s Andrea Mitchell. Campbell's group, also known as NETWORK, is on a mission to protect "our nation's soul" from being "corrupted further by the House-Ryan budget."
On Monday, sisters from this group will hit the road on a 15-day pilgrimage through Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to spread the word.
Campbell called Ryan's Medicare-killing bill "immoral" for its impact on the poor and those who have "fallen through the cracks of our rather fractured tenuous economy." In a press release, NETWORK listed the ways in which the Ryan budget causes "harm" to Americans:
• Undermining the food stamp program (SNAP) at a time when millions need it to feed their families• Beginning to shift Medicare to a voucher program, thus driving more seniors into poverty • Giving large tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of protections for struggling families• Drastically cutting funding for health insurance programs for low-income people, causing millions to lose access to healthcare • Increasing Pentagon spending while cutting programs that serve people in need — despite the Pentagon saying there are military programs that should be cut.
Back in April, the Vatican chastised the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the nation's largest group of Catholic nuns, for spending too much time and energy caring for the very poor instead of fighting against issues like abortion and marriage equality.