Look away now if you are anything but a disenfranchised, Democrat-leaning, fiscal-conservative, pro-child (do NOT read that as pro-life--I think all children deserve chances, not just the unborn), anti-war (do NOT read that as anti-soldier -- these brave men and women are risking their lives daily and deserve my homage and prayers) U.S. citizen. I'm serious. Look away, go somewhere else...
Ok, are we alone here? This morning on the radio, I heard the current Congress's plan to alleviate the suffering due to Katrina, Wilma, and all the other natural disasters that have befallen the nation this late summer and fall. Here's what they are going to do to raise the millions, no billions it will take to rebuild, house, feed, etc. in the wake of the storms:
- Cut a chunk of the funding for Headstart programs. To the tune of millions over several years. God knows that there must be waste in a program so warm and fuzzy -- so off with their heads. Don't let the fact that Headstart serves the very people you are trying to help; the poor of urban(now you can read in here: Democratically held) areas in hardest hit Southern Coastal areas get in the way the feeding frenzy on traditionally Democratic leaning programs.
- Hmm...what else can we cut? Oh, I know, the school lunch program. Those dang lunches have gotten so expensive...lets drop the income threshold on that one so we can exclude some (I think it was)200,000 lower income kids from the federal lunch program. I fill out that form and you can't make more than $26,000 a year in MO to qualify a family of 4 -- hmm, that's $2167.00 a month. All you sponging bums, you can make your own damn lunches! And again, don't let the fact that the school lunch program serves the very people disproportionately affected by these tragic storms affect your opinion on this subject.
- Oh, yes, and let's cut $15,000,000 from the college loan funding over the next 5 years too. Lots of that money goes to Liberal Arts colleges and universities and anything with the L-word in it has to be bad, right?
OK, those are the only 3 they talked about this morning -- they said they'll do more later. To be fair, they did have a Republican on and he said they were looking at it all wrong, that the Republican Congress of the last 5 years (what? It's a "Republican Congress" now? Gosh when did that change? I thought it was the country's congress...yep...can you spell disenfranchised? Used in it's traditional sense meaning that your vote has been taken away) "has spent more on Education than the Clinton era Congress ever did." Disingenuous I think, due to inflation, increased medical insurance costs, and the primarily unfunded mandate that is "No Child Left Behind". Sure they spent more money -- we all do.
Ok. Deep cleansing breath. Now, I've got to go compose my letter to someone powerful.
Ok Ann, here I am. I'm commenting. Stitchy McYarnpants was hilarious. Have you ever visited lileks.com? Similar style of stuff. Anyhow, what an unfortunate mess our country has found itself in. Bleah. I don't think I could do a blog; I don't know if I have enough to say about any one given thing. You know? It would be all over the board. Hmm. What does that say about me?
Posted by: Bridgett | November 22, 2005 at 05:44 PM