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Money for Napalm but not for Food Stamps
By Mike Whitney
11/18/05 "ICH
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The Republican dominated House passed a five year budget-plan in the
early hours of Friday morning which savages programs for the poor,
college students and disease control.
The bill tosses 220,000 people off food stamps, allow states to jack
up the cost of co-payments for poor Medicaid beneficiaries, squeeze
students with loans, and cut aid to child-support programs.
Republican’s felt they were being magnanimous when they dumped a
provision that would have “denied free school lunches to about
40,000 children whose parents would lose their food stamps.”
The milk of human kindness flows from the Republican Congress like
blood from a turnip.
Let’s be clear, the Food stamps program only provides for an
estimated 300,000 people. The new bill knocks 220,000 people off the
program, leaving a paltry 80,000 still qualifying for assistance.
Is 80,000 the maximum number of people we can feed in the richest
country on earth?!? Meanwhile, we are spending $6 billion a month to
kill Iraqis in their homes and cities.
Go figure.
The bill is an outrage and the men who signed it should be chained
to a back-hoe and dragged down Pennsylvania Ave.
It took a second vote to pass the bill, but that had nothing to do
with moral qualms about leaving their fellow man without enough food
to eat. No, it failed to pass because it didn’t contain the
pork-nuggets that congressman require in an election year. After
those tidbits were reentered into the bill, it sailed through
without a hitch.
All the same, this proves an important point. The conservative
strategy to plunge the nation into debt to reduce the size of
government to where it can be “drowned in a bathtub” has fallen on
hard times. If last night is any indication, the last tax dollar
ever collected will go for some useless project (like the Alaska
“bridge to nowhere”) that will perpetuate the career of a
waffle-bottom Washington politico.
Grover Norquist take note!
The bill does nothing to reduce spending or deficits as Republicans
claim. As the Washington Post states, “Congressional Budget
Office…estimated last night that all the changes shaved just 2
percent off the cuts initially targeted at anti-poverty programs.”
2%?
Still, the congress would rather take the food out of the mouths of
children to pay for the white phosphorus they’re dropping on Iraqis.
Do we need to remind ourselves that 50% of every tax dollar goes to
a gluttonous Defense Dept that is currently conducting the largest
terrorist training camp in the world? (Iraq)
Oh, yeah, and the bill also cuts $976 million out of health care
programs, including $249 million reduction to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. In other words, critical resources
for the bird-flu epidemic are being stripped to compensate for the
lavish tax cuts that are provided to friends of George Bush.
Funding for college would be cut as well, with “Pell grants frozen
for the fourth year in a row.” (NY Times)
Is this what Republicans call debt reduction; a ruthless raping of
the social safety net? The House bill is an example of a nation that
has turned inward and is devouring itself. It does nothing to mop up
the red ink. It is a complete sham, designed to hurt the people in
our society who most need our help.
Compassionate conservative?
Bah, humbug!
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