Sunday, March 06, 2005

Bush to Poor: Drop Dead

By Will Durst, AlterNet.
Posted February 22, 2005.

You know what surprises me most about Bush’s new budget proposal? I’ll tell you what surprises me most about Bush’s new budget proposal. What surprises me most about Bush’s new Budget Proposal is that the front gates of the White House aren’t being knocked down by legions of outraged clergy armed with spiked bats and pitchforks and acetylene torches screaming for the head of any of the leering corporate lackeys possessing even the remotest of roles in submitting this moral crime against humanity to Congress. And that the ruling class lets Bush get away with this potentially revolutionary, inciting crap. That’s what surprises me most about Bush’s new budget proposal.

And I don’t use the term “ruling class” lightly. His tax cuts for the rich: not only do they remain in defiance of the largest deficit EVER, but King Leerer intends to fight to make them permanent. HOWEVER, for any program involving anybody who isn’t rich: oh yes, cuts do exist. Severe cuts. Cuts o’plenty. Cuts to the bone, unless those bones happen to be located in the vicinity of the cholesterol laden limb of a fat cat.

Apparently the plan is to balance the budget on the nutritionally-deprived, uninsured backs of the inadequately-medicated poor. That’s the deal: budget cuts if you’re not rich, tax cuts if you are. Less money for those who don’t have any and more to those who do. That’s how President Fredo says we’re going to get out of the giant deficit hole he’s dug. You can’t put it any more simply. Rich people richer. Poor people poorer.

Here’s just a sample of what he plans for our future with a handy reminder of why. Because you can’t hear it too much. For those of you with a strong stomach and a low threshold of infuriation, feel free to read on. For the rest of you, this might be a good time to check out your horoscope or some of the cheerier comic strips like Family Circus.

*Tighter restrictions on Food Stamp eligibility so rich people can have more money.

*Federal Drug Administration inspection teams sacked so rich people can have more money.

*Highway and infrastructure improvement budgets slashed so rich people can have more money.

*An 11 percent reduction in Homeland Security funds available to state and local coordination efforts so rich people can have more money.

*$250 million cut from programs to train child care doctors and other health care professionals so rich people can have more money.

*Small Business Administration cut from $3.3 billion to $.6 billion so rich people can have more money.

*Increase on charges for Veterans’ health care so rich people can have more money.

*Cutting Federal Foster Care Programs so rich people can have more money.

*Cutting Medicaid and Medicare benefits so rich people can have more money.

*Ending community services block grants, a $637 million program that helps pay for community action agencies founded more than 35 years ago as part of the fight against poverty so rich people can have more money.

*Proposed cuts in aid to farmers, seniors, children, students, cops, veterans, the homeless, the hungry, the environment, Amtrak, AND the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so rich people can have more money.

*Gutting the low-income home energy assistance program which is mostly used by the elderly. That’s right friends, he’s cutting winter heating subsidies to the elderly so rich people can have more money. What are we now: The Gorgar People? Let’s just cut to the chase. You hit 65, we ship you to the Aleutian Islands and place you on an ice floe with matches and a pointy stick. If you’re a Republican, we take away the stick, because it’s considered an entitlement. Did the political comic Will Durst mention most of these cuts are necessary to insure that rich people can have more money? Because he meant to mention most of these cuts are necessary to insure that rich people can have more money. And the poor less.