Math and politics of USDA budget just don't add up

[struggle4progress]

By ALAN GUEBERT, For The Globe Gazette

Presidential budget proposals usually are about two things, politics and mathematics. Both elements carry equal weight. <snip>

That simple point, however, has been lost on the Bush administration. Its broader 2006 budget proposals and narrower U.S. Department of Agriculture spending plans contain neither compelling politics nor convincing math.

Overall, the 2006 White House budget is a hall of cracked mirrors noted more for what it excludes — $80 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, the 10-year, $1 trillion "transition cost" of its Social Security reform plan, $1.2 trillion in tax cuts — than what it includes, like slicing $5.7 billion out of USDA over the next decade. <snip>

In rounds on Capitol Hill the day after the budget proposal was released, adds this insider, "Every staff member we met, Republican and Democrat alike, was really (angry). Asking for budget cuts is one thing, we heard over and over, but the policy changes here are just weird." <snip>

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/02/13/business/doc420ec18632374543081931.txt

[vpigrad]

1. Don't we have the right to safe food?

I don't get the idiot repukes that claim we don't. Going to the grocery store shouldn't be a game of Russian roulette. When even more children start dying because of unsafe food, maybe then the people will stand-up and notice Bush's hatred for the common man.

[havocmom]

2. Within days of the Nov election, they repealed the provision requiring

foods to be labeled with country of origin. At that time, about 40% of our food came from other countries. Now, :shrug: how do we tell? No way to be sure you are supporting American growers unless you can buy directly from farmers here.

Multi-national corporations control the gas tanks of America. The junta is setting it up so they will control our bellies damned soon too.

$5.7 billion over ten years is not a big savings for the nation, but cutting that from the USDA is extremely damaging to the nation.

Their aim is the total destruction of this nation. The corporate takeover of the government is unacceptable.