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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Compassionate Conservatism RIP

The Moose mourns the official passing of conservative compassion.

The prime reason that the Moose is not an elephant is that the GOP is theologically devoted to comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. The blessed sacrament of the high church of the Republican Party is the permanent elimination of the estate tax.

A war against terror is no deterrent to the crusade on behalf of the comfortable. The Bushies broke a historical precedent by cutting taxes during wartime so that the donors could be reimbursed. However, these erstwhile conservatives were not limited government types. They expanded the welfare state on behalf of their friends in the drug industry and passed more pork than is contained in a Jimmy Dean sausage factory.

One day, the plutocratic Republicans awoke from their slumber and discovered that they had put America even more in debt to foreigners who reside in Communist China and Saudi Arabia. They decided that "the deficit must be cut!" So, are they going after corporate welfare or rolling back the tax cuts on trust fund heirs? Of course not, they are attacking the benefits for the most vulnerable in our society.

The Washington Post reports,

"The food stamp cuts in the House measure would knock nearly 300,000 people off nutritional assistance programs, including 70,000 legal immigrants, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Those immigrants would lose their benefits because the House measure would require legal immigrants to live in the United States for seven years before becoming eligible to receive food stamps, rather than the current five years.

"About 40,000 children would lose eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches, the CBO estimated."

Along with these cuts for legal immigrants are reductions in Medicaid and other safety net programs. And this from a Party whose President never vetoed a pork barrel spending bill.

This is the biggest scandal in Washington - the redistribution of wealth upward during wartime while slashing programs for the poor. It is a profoundly obscene budget.
-- Posted at 8:15 AM | Link to this post | Email this post