Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Who Will Speak for the Poor in Metro Detroit?

I expected to wake up and find an editorial in the Detroit News or Free Press about the impending Senate bill, but nary a single word was printed. That's okay, though, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette articulates their opinion very well.
The same administration that gave us spying on Americans, good news bought and paid for in the Iraqi press and a costly war built on elusive rationales now wants to reduce the deficit on the backs of the poor. Americans deserve better -- and the Senate should say so today by voting no.

The poor citizens of Michigan thank you Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and to our metro Detroit newspapers I send a hearty raspberry!

UPDATE: Bah, Humbug. Dick Cheney - aka Scrooge - cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate today, which passed a bill to trim nearly $40 billion from federal spending over five years, including cuts to social welfare programs such as health care for the elderly and poor. So much for compassionate conservatism.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I put this in my own comment thread (in reply to your comment there) but it seems appropriate to add it here too:

As this article points out,

Republicans could not contain their pride that for the first time in nearly a decade they had managed to restrain federal spending levels for mandatory entitlement programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and student loans, as a means to reduce the deficit.

The gleefully cut spending for needed social programs while simultaneously approving:

"...70 billion in capital gains tax cuts for the wealthy..."

Even as someone who will benefit from the tax cuts, I find the modern day GOP utterly lacking in anything approaching "compassion," not to mention "conservatism."

Kathy said...

Thanks for the link, Midwestern. I agree that the modern day GOP utterly lacks anything approaching compassion, not to mention conservatism. How can they live with themselves? How can they honestly think they did the right thing? I agree we need to reduce spending, but not on the backs of people who don't have two nickels to rub together.