In other happy news, Tom Delay got himself indicted. Hey, it's a grand jury from TEXAS for crying out loud...how can you possibly cry "Democratic conspiracy"?
In other less happy news, some group of conservative House Republicans calling themselves the "Republican Study Committee" are rolling out a plan called Operation Offset in order to pay for hurricane relief efforts by making spending cuts in other areas. Now, I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but let's see what kind of things these guys want to cut...:
-Eliminate Subsidized Loans to Graduate Students (hey, who needs scientists and doctors anyway? They'll probably just teach our kids about that evil theory of evolution.)
-Increase Medicare Part B Premium from 25% to 30% (who needs old people?)
-Eliminate all kinds of foreign aid, and level expenditures on the Peace Corps and the Global Aids initiative. (We can bomb the bejeezus out of 'em, but heaven forbid we give them a little cash to feed their kids and raise them to the standard of living of a decent, peaceful nation. My favorite quote from this section: "Current military obligations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including U.S. peacekeeping efforts in the region, are not deducted from what the U.N. assesses the U.S. in dues." Maybe because the UN said, "hey, we don't think you should invade Iraq?")
And it just goes on and on, getting rid of things like the National Science Foundation's Math and Science Program, community grants for energy conservation, federal grants for wastewater infrastructure, NASA's moon/Mars initiative (which I think is just a cool idea), the Neighboorhood Reinvestment Corporation, National Parks Heritage Areas, the Minority Business Development Agency, grants for Safe and Drug Free Schools, the teen portion of Title X Family Planning, funding for AmeriCorps, federal fiscal assitance to DC, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (you know, the $3 you can check on your 1040 form for the closest thing we have to fair campaign financing), federal funding for PBS ("CPB and PBS continue to use federal funding to pay for questionable programming, such as a documentary on sex education funded by the Playboy Foundation," which confuses me, since, if it was funded by the Playboy Foundation, how did federal money pay for it?), funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and so on and so forth to the point of making me ill. They also want to reduce funding for a number if useful environmental and social programs. (If I worked for some sort of national non-profit organization dedicated to the well-being of our nation's children, that list up there would set off some bells and whistles in my head....)
Basically, if any program is a semi-worthwhile investment in the country's future or culture, it seems to have made the list. And to be fair, there are some things on their plan that deserve to be cut. And a lot of things that deserve at least a good heated debate about their value. But to try and pass off this agenda as part of hurricane relief? Disgusting.
Hm...just re-read this. I'm getting more and more liberal in my old age.
In other less happy news, some group of conservative House Republicans calling themselves the "Republican Study Committee" are rolling out a plan called Operation Offset in order to pay for hurricane relief efforts by making spending cuts in other areas. Now, I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but let's see what kind of things these guys want to cut...:
-Eliminate Subsidized Loans to Graduate Students (hey, who needs scientists and doctors anyway? They'll probably just teach our kids about that evil theory of evolution.)
-Increase Medicare Part B Premium from 25% to 30% (who needs old people?)
-Eliminate all kinds of foreign aid, and level expenditures on the Peace Corps and the Global Aids initiative. (We can bomb the bejeezus out of 'em, but heaven forbid we give them a little cash to feed their kids and raise them to the standard of living of a decent, peaceful nation. My favorite quote from this section: "Current military obligations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including U.S. peacekeeping efforts in the region, are not deducted from what the U.N. assesses the U.S. in dues." Maybe because the UN said, "hey, we don't think you should invade Iraq?")
And it just goes on and on, getting rid of things like the National Science Foundation's Math and Science Program, community grants for energy conservation, federal grants for wastewater infrastructure, NASA's moon/Mars initiative (which I think is just a cool idea), the Neighboorhood Reinvestment Corporation, National Parks Heritage Areas, the Minority Business Development Agency, grants for Safe and Drug Free Schools, the teen portion of Title X Family Planning, funding for AmeriCorps, federal fiscal assitance to DC, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (you know, the $3 you can check on your 1040 form for the closest thing we have to fair campaign financing), federal funding for PBS ("CPB and PBS continue to use federal funding to pay for questionable programming, such as a documentary on sex education funded by the Playboy Foundation," which confuses me, since, if it was funded by the Playboy Foundation, how did federal money pay for it?), funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and so on and so forth to the point of making me ill. They also want to reduce funding for a number if useful environmental and social programs. (If I worked for some sort of national non-profit organization dedicated to the well-being of our nation's children, that list up there would set off some bells and whistles in my head....)
Basically, if any program is a semi-worthwhile investment in the country's future or culture, it seems to have made the list. And to be fair, there are some things on their plan that deserve to be cut. And a lot of things that deserve at least a good heated debate about their value. But to try and pass off this agenda as part of hurricane relief? Disgusting.
Hm...just re-read this. I'm getting more and more liberal in my old age.
posted by Chris at 10:29 PM
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