Almost every month, as the calendar winds down, I start getting calls in my office on the phone or in person from people who have more month than money. “Pastor, I’ve run out of money for food, and don’t get paid until the first of next month. I’ve got two kids, and need some help.” The specifics of the conversation vary, but the underlying substance does not.

Now, though, I’ve been hearing a different item tacked on at the end: “Pastor, you follow the news out of DC pretty well. Am I going to get my Social Security check next week?”

Making matters worse, DC seems hell-bent on budget cuts, right at the time the economy needs government spending more than ever. For the folks coming into my office lately, this is more than a mistake. It’s a disaster.

These days you can get an original Xbox — with a few games thrown in — for about $40 bucks. The poor have it so damn easy in this country.

It takes a special kind of bully to target the most vulnerable and neediest families in society, which millionaire politicians like to argue are draining America’s treasury. I am referring to Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), who recently introduced a bill that would require states to implement drug testing of applicants for and recipients of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

Tomorrow is May 1, and college graduation season is almost upon us. Seniors everywhere are writing their last papers, taking their last exams, preparing for the end of their college careers, and probably crying about the employment situation. College placement officers might as well be grief counselors.

For the last three years, the unemployment picture has been Ugly with a capital U, especially for those graduating from college. The Economic Policy Institute’s new paper “Class of 2011: Young workers face a dire labor market without a safety net” is a depressingly accurate take on what they face.

Glad I’m not a commencement speaker this year.

42% of the millionaires in a recent Fidelity survey don’t feel wealthy. Seriously.

Maybe they should talk to the folks in Minnesota whom the GOP wants to prohibit from having more than $20 in cash in their pockets, or the family and friends of the Costa Mesa CA maintenance worker who committed suicide after getting a layoff notice.

As Paul Krugman noted, these are “the forgotten millions” — not to be confused with the poor, suffering millionaires. Poor babies. Poor, sad, miserable, suffering, pitiable babies.

Given the avoidance of the economic crisis and its impact on American families in this week’s State of the Union speech, isn’t “winning the future” just a corporate branding exercise to differentiate America Inc. from India Ltd. and China Corp.?

The DOD website features an article about a speech by Jeh Johnson, DOD General Counsel, that seems to say King would approved of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, in part because the world is a more complicated place these days.

Sorry, but theologically speaking, that’s crap. As King’s “A Time to Break Silence” speech lays out in detail, there’s no asterisk to King’s commitment to non-violence and his disdain for war.

For the DOD to suggest otherwise is offensive as hell.

For me this year, I think I’ll skip the discussions of pilgrims and native Americans dining at Plymouth. I’m more caught up in the shift from Thanksgiving as a bunch of local harvest festivals to Thanksgiving as a national holiday — an act undertaken in the midst of the bloody battles of the Civil War. Indeed, on this day of thanksgiving in the midst of massive economic turmoil, I give thanks for those things which transcend haves/have nots or winners/losers, and bind us together in our shared humanity.

David Cay Johnston has a must-read piece on what the most recent payroll tax data shows about growing income inequality. He shows that total wages have fallen 5% since 2007, largely because so many fewer people are making any income.

Technology makes it easier for entertainers and top execs to maximize their pay, while deregulation allowed the banksters to command huge salaries.