"Congress is back in session, and it's gunning for the American poor"

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Gunning for the Poor

By Harold Meyerson

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Congress is back in session, and it's gunning for the American poor.
A revolt of House conservatives has persuaded that body's Republican leadership to offset the increased federal spending going to rebuild the Hurricane Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast by reductions in Medicaid, food stamps and other programs for the indigent. If things go according to plan, this week the House will begin to cut $50 billion from those efforts.

The emerging Republican response to Katrina, apparently, is to comfort the drenched poor and afflict the dry. For a moment last week, it looked as though the Republicans were going to enact across-the-board spending cuts.

That, however, would have meant less money for defense contractors and the highway industry and other contributors to congressional Republicans' campaigns. GOP committee chairmen made that point so forcefully that the idea was scrapped.

The beauty of taking the cuts out of Medicaid and student loan programs, by happy contrast, is that it doesn't reduce the flow of funds to the Republican campaign committees by a single dime.

[NorCalDem]

1. I fucking love it!

They'll cut Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs to fund the rebuilding effort in New Orleans. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a huge problem because they're simply changing the flow of money. However, in this case I'm sure the money going to "rebuild" NOLA is in the form of no-bid contracts to large "engineering firms" like Halliburton and the Shaw Group.

They're taking money out of the coffers and basically giving it rich CEO's instead of the sick and elderly. What wonderful times we live in!

[wordpix]

2. I can't wait to see these fuckers marched off to jail

[dajoki]

7. Welcome to DU wordpix

[dajoki]

3. Unfortunately...

that's the way those dirty bastards do business.

[sam sarrha]

4. we may soon be a nation of shanty towns worse than Mexico/india

the Mexicans will be sneaking across the mexican boarder go'n south

[dajoki]

5. we could go...

along or hit Canada.

[sam sarrha]

10. Canada would machine gun the likes of us sneaking across the border...

[dajoki]

11. ya think so?

they like our money.

[DBoon]

6. The illegal Irish immigrants have already started to go home

High cost of living in US, no affordable health care, combined with a booming Irish economy have caused many to return.

I always thought that we will know when we have hit bottom when US born Anglos try to sneak into Mexico to find work.

[cantstandbush]

8. It behooves the Dems to register the American poor and get them to

the polls. Take a page from the old Civil Rights movement and the recent Republican movement to register the evangelicals.

[dajoki]

9. remember...

we were accused of buying votes? but you are correct, the more poor people at the polls will not only help dems, but also help themselves.

[PurityOfEssence]

12. Repeal of the estate tax would "CHIEFLY" benefit the rich?

It would ONLY benefit the extremely rich. What kind of shitty reportage is that?

[txaslftist]

14. It would ONLY benefit the rich.

The richest 20,000 families.

[txaslftist]

13. No Republican goes unchallenged. No seat is safe.

Not now, not ever. We need to not only get them out of congress, we need to exile them to Corfu.