Friday, September 23, 2005
Congress has a Plan to Cut the Deficit!
Hint: It doesn’t include getting rid of tax cuts for the rich! What it does include is tons and tons of cuts to social and energy programs, all of which will benefit the industries that will “pick up the slack in these troubled times”. This has my blood boiling. It’s simple addition by subtraction: cut the programs people need and they’re forced to send their money to whatever industry owns a Congressman. I’m so sick of the lack of representation in this country, of how we’re viewed as sponges to be squeezed of every single dollar we own.Or, this is an attempt to write an awful amendment that will get shot down so the Republicans can say "oh well we tried to be fiscally responsible but the LIEberal Dumb-o-crats blocked it".
Seriously, though, some of this stuff is absolutely outrageous. In summary, the Republican committee's idea of fiscal responsibility is to spend all your (taxpayer) money on war and cut any investment into the future of America.
As an exercise, I’ve grouped these ideas by the industries they stand to benefit, and bolded the really, REALLY outrageous stuff (there’s just too much to choose from):
- Raising Medicaid Co-Pays
- Raising Medicare premiums
- Increasing Allowable Co-pays in Medicaid
- Delay the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill for One year
- Level Funding for Community Health Centers
- Reduce Funding for the Centers for Disease Control
- Eliminate Subsidized Loans to Graduate Students
- Tie Rent Subsidies for One Person to Cost of Efficiency Apartments
- Eliminate the Export-Import Bank and OPIC
- Limit the Repayment Period of Export Credit Guarantees
- Impose a Fee on the GSEs Investment Portfolio
- Require GSEs to Register with the SEC and Pay Fees
- Eliminate the ITA's Trade Promotion Activates
- Eliminate the Foreign Market Development Program
- Eliminate the Market Access Program
- Eliminate the Export Enhancement Program
- Eliminate grants for energy conservation
- Eliminate Energy Star
- Eliminate the Next Generation of High-Speed Rail
- Reduce Federal Subsidies for Amtrak
- Eliminate the New Starts Transit Program
- Level Funding DOE Departmental Administration Funding
- Level Funding for FAA Operations
- Eliminate the Applied Research for Renewable Energy Sources Program
- Eliminate the Clean Coal Technology Program
- Eliminate the FreedomCAR Program
- Reduce DOE Environmental Management
- Eliminate the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
- Eliminate the National Parks Heritage Areas and Statutory Aid
- Limit Future Enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program
- Eliminate the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
- Eliminate the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
- Eliminate the Economic Development Administration
- Reduce Bureau of Land Management Construction
- Reduce Fish and Wildlife Construction
- Eliminate Funding for the Forest Service’s Economic Action Program
- Reduce Funds for the Water Quality Cooperative Agreement
- Reduce Funds for Forest Service Capital Improvements
- Eliminate Payments to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
- Eliminate the Research Initiative for Future Agriculture Systems
- Eliminate the NSF’s Math and Science Program
- Level Funding for Global AIDS Initiative
- Eliminate the Science to Achieve Results Program
- Eliminate the Even Start Program
- Eliminate Teen Funding Portion of Title X Family Planning
- Eliminate Childless Adult Coverage in SCHIP
- Reduce Funding for Department of Education Administration
- Level Funding for the African Development Foundation
- Level Funding for the Peace Corps
- Eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency
- Eliminate Fiscal Assistance to District of Columbia
- Eliminate Presidential Election Campaign Fund
- Eliminate Federal Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- Eliminate Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
- Eliminate Funding for National Endowment for Humanities
- Reduce Funds for Bureau of Indian Affairs School Construction
- Eliminate Native Hawaiian Funding
Uhm, how, exactly, is this a Representative Democracy?
Read or Post a Comment
We have a representative Plutocracy/Oligarchy. The United CEO's of America.