The budget bill explains why the Moose is not a Republican.
The Moose left the GOP because it is committed to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. That reality is reflected in the recently passed budget bill. In order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, pork barrel spending and the resultant deficit, the GOP eager beavers in Congress slashed programs for low income Americans.
E.J. Dionne ably documents the Republican plutocratic behavior in today's Washington Post. He writes,
"Lord knows, a housecleaning in the Capitol is definitely in order. But the Abramoff scandal is just part of the corruption of our political system. There is another level of special-interest influence that cannot be handled by prosecutors: Only the voters can render a judgment on a politics of favoritism that has created a new Gilded Age. It's clear that the national government has placed itself squarely on the side of the wealthy, the privileged and the connected...
"Rarely does a single action by Congress serve as so powerful an example of how the system is working. The recent budget bill, which squeaked through the House and Senate just before Christmas, is a road map of insider dealing. It shows that when choices have to be made, the interests of the poor and the middle class fall before the wishes of interest groups with powerful lobbies and awesome piles of campaign money to distribute."
Particularly egregious are the cuts in the Medicaid program. At a time when Republicans have no aversion to government spending when it assists their corporate masters or aids in their re-election efforts, it is an outrage and a travesty that the least among us are forced to bear the burden.
Philosophically, the Moose favors a strong safety net and a sturdy web of national security. Folks who held these views used to comprise the mainstream of the Democratic Party. We need a party that is willing both to fight poverty and our terrorist foe with equal passion.
More on that later... -- | 
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