Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Another Example of Compassionate Conservativism

If you're not quite sold on the prospect that Republicans don't really care about the middle class and the poor, consider this from an editorial in the NYTimes this a.m.:

"The House Agriculture Committee voted on Wednesday to cut $33 billion over the next decade out of food stamps. That would immediately end benefits for two million people, and reduce benefits for the remaining 44 million people who use the program. A family of four would find their benefits lowered by $57 a month beginning in September, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The committee trimmed job training for food-stamp recipients by 72 percent; 280,000 students would no longer be eligible for free meals."

This proposal comes on the heels of the House making a deal to cut military spending as a result of the recent budget deal. Repubs now think that was a bad idea and they'd rather starve poor children than trim a bomber or two. The people who will be affected by these cuts are some of the most vulnerable in our society and, because they have no voice in our government, the Repubs calculate, there won't be much complaint and there will be no price to pay at the ballot box.

This is beyond callous and borders on cruel, but that's hardly unusual for a party that thinks in terms of protecting the rich at any cost to the rest of us, unnecessarily bulking up the military so it can start another war, denying medicine to poor children, invading women's bodies on a religious whim, allowing the country's infrastructure to fall down, trashing the environment in favor of Koch Industries profits, slaughtering wild horses to save a few pennies and on and on and on.

If you don't think these people are cruel and a little on the shaky side, then you're likely one of them. And that's not good for you.


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