"Compassionate Conservatives" Target Budget Cuts That Would Hurt The Poor

[JABBS]

Remember, they like to call themselves the party of "compassionate conservatives."

Just as the House Agriculture Committee last week "was drafting budget-cutting legislation that could knock 295,000 people off food stamps, the Agriculture Department released findings that 529,000 more Americans went hungry last year than in 2003.

But in spite of the juxtaposition, rest assured, the party of "compassionate conservatives" plan to move ahead with the cuts. Why? Because after $2 trillion of deficits spawned by five bloated Bush Administration budgets, they've decided an argument could be made that the GOP is no longer the party of fiscal conservatives.

And don't forget, mid-term elections are just around the corner. The House conservatives figure they can offer the false pretense that they're fiscally sound, and all it takes is screwing over a subset of the population that is unlikely to vote Republican under any circumstances.

To reverse the bloat, the House Republicans want to cut $50 billion from the budget over 10 years. Later this week. the House Budget Committee is expected to take up eight different bills that will rewrite welfare laws, curb federal support of state child-support enforcement, reverse a court-mandated expansion of foster-care programs, and make significant changes to Medicaid, such as allowing states to add co-payments and premiums for families just above the poverty line. Of that amount, the food stamp cuts total approximately $844 million.

It's a drop in the budget when compared to the over-the-top deficits created since 2001 by our Republican-led leadership. But hey, these congressmen face re-election! Who cares if a few poor people get hurt? There are commercials to cut! Talking points to create! Majorities to preserve!

Some Republicans won't go on board. House Republican moderates have grown increasingly queasy about what one of their leaders, Michael Castle (R-DE), calls an unbalanced package, too weighted toward cutting programs for the poor.

But that reality doesn't stop the conservative leadership from offering empty spin to cover-up their pro-corporate budget plans. Consider this misguided statement from House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL): “Democrats have failed to find ways to keep our children from bearing the burden of a skyrocketing deficit.” The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.

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Of course, while conservatives look to cut welfare and other programs benefiting the poor, they won't consider touching welfare and other programs that benefit some extremely profitable corporations.

For example, conservatives aren't looking to trim any of the $14.5 billion of tax breaks, loan guarantees and other subsidies over 10 years they approved in July for the electricity, coal, nuclear, natural gas and oil industries.

Or how about farm subsidies? That has cost $69 billion over the past 10 years, with the majority going to a small number of large farm operators, concentrated in a handful of districts represented by (surprise, surprise) "a Who's Who on the agriculture committees in Congress."

"The whole system is tilted to a handful of big farm operations, and everybody else comes up short," Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, told the Washington Post.

Those that call themselves "compassionate conservatives" would never think to touch their fat-cat supporters. It's much easier to spin the "economic benefits" of helping huge corporations fatten their bottom lines.

The neediest among us? These "compassionate conservatives" simply don't care.

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This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[shoelace414]

1. Dont forget they Cut $50bil spending and cut taxes $70bil

they can't even reduce the deficit right.

[panichol]

2. Compassionate conservatism-an empty shell

These two words were conscripted by the repugs to make the less-informed part of the populace believe that they were making changes. It is as meaningless as Rush Limbladder claiming that the Repugs don't respresent the elite. The conservatives have only one main goal and that is to keep the have-nots in their place.