Bush's Budget

[Kire]

Y'gotta love when Bush proposes a budget that doesn't include the 2 biggest costs, Iraq and Social Security reform.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/07/bush.budget.ap/index.html

Oh yeah, and all the cuts are going to kill the poor...cuz remember kids, if you're poor, you deserve to be poor!

"Overall, the administration projected saving $8.2 billion in agriculture programs over the next decade including trimming food stamp payments to the poor by $1.1 billion.

Other programs set for reductions include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy Department; several health programs under the Health and Human Services Department and federal subsidies for Amtrak.

About one-third of the programs subject to elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program."

In all, the president proposed $137 billion less over the next 10 years than previously forecast for mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Administration makes for health care. The administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.

Many of the spending cuts in the plan are repeats of efforts the administration has proposed and Congress has rejected previously."

[Alex]

I don't know what to say.

:(

This is terrible.

[Kire]

In all honesty, I'm kinda numb, cuz nothing really surprises me anymore.

[Alex]

Exactly. It's just been a steady descent.

[RPGD]

'Tis abominable, in spite of it being a move that dosen't really surprise me.

[Funk Daddy]

I don't let what Bush does get to me: I've stopped reading the newspaper and watching the news. For four years I want to have no idea what he's done. If a terrorist or IRS person shows up at my door, then I'll figure it's time to clean up the mess Dubya has thrown in my life.

[Kefka Jr.]

Yeah, pretty much my view, though as an unregistered minor, it's easier for me, so I've gotta commend you on perseverance.

[Funk Daddy]

Oh, and throw in a draft notice to my previous post.

[Kire]

Sure, ya say that now, but before you know it, you'll be flying a plane into a mountain range with radiation poisoning.

[Alzar]

This is all God's fault, y'know.

God hates the poor.

[Czechs Mex]

Man, why can't we go back to the simpler times when God just hated gays and *********ion.

And I'm pretty much not surprised by anything Bush does anymore. His entire way of thinking sickens me.

[Alex]

I can say that I'm part of this "poor" population, so it kind of hits home.

Starting last year with a new bill, I was denied medical care from local HMO's, dental care from most dentists, and now he's taking food from my mouth.

But I guess it's my fault for having poor parents. Sorry for stealing your tax-dollars, guys.


Budget cuts from schools > Less education > Uneducated youths > Poor adults.



Nothing in the current agenda makes any sense at all. It just ****es me off.

[IRC]

He's also killing the Hubble Telescope.
http://us.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/02/07/budget.nasa.ap/index.html

[Nixon]

I hear you. Being low income means the Bush administration will take more of your money while cutting the programs aimed at helping you get ahead. Then he turns around and gives wealthy people (like himself and his family and all his big business buddies) tax breaks. If only all those poor people had been born into rich families, they'd have nothing to complain about!

Bush recently cut funds for pell grants, which help people pay for college tuition and books. It's how Dave was able to afford to go to school, and now it's being denied to people that need it.

That and a million other good reasons make you wonder why anyone voted for this guy... again.

[The Toecutter]

If the poor don't like it, they can buy their own politicians!

Bush = big government


$200 billion a year in corporate welfare
$100+ billion a year is unnaccounted for in defense spending(Department of Defense acknowledges they cannot account for at least 25% of spending)
$40 billion a year blown on a Homeland Security Agency that does nothing but strip away our constitutional rights
$40 billion a year blown on a useless drug war that does nothing but strip away our constitutional rights
$50 billion a year blown on the FBI, DEA, NSA, CIA, and other useless and unconstitutional beuarocracies
$120 billion a year blown on an illegal war for oil
$300 billion a year blown on national debt interest that could instead be frozen just to keep up with inflation


That's $850+ billion a year that could be cut from the budget, without cutting out social security, Pell Grants, Education, Medicare, Medicaid, or TANF.

I say shrink this damn government down to a size small enough to drown in a bathtub, and create a HUGE taxcut, starting from the bottom up. The rich don't need it. There'd be enough to go around so that any family making < $60k a year would pay no federal income taxes. Get a balanced budget amendment passed, an amendment for a federal living wage passed, and put $500 billion a year towards paying off the national debt. Once it is payed off, make sure deficet spending is illegal.

[IRC]

That's nice to say but how would you expect to make that happen?

[Alex]

Maybe Bush reads the boards.

[archerarmored]

compassion for people sucks, get over it

[The Toecutter]

That's nice to say but how would you expect to make that happen?

It won't, as theoretically possible as it is.

Unless somehow third parties manage to get in power. No reason not to aim for it though.

[SirTMagus]

Whatever, dudes.

I'm just waiting for Terry Gilliam sci-fi movies like Brazil and 12 Monkeys to happen.

[IRC]

I need to see Brazil. What's it about?

[Czechs Mex]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/

Sam Lowry is a harried technocrat in a futuristic society that is needlessly convoluted and inefficient. He dreams of a life where he can fly away from technology and overpowering bureaucracy, and spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. While trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of one Harry Buttle, Lowry meets the woman he is always chasing in his dreams, Jill Layton. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has fingered him responsible for a rash of terrorist bombings, and both Sam and Jill's lives are put in danger.

I just saw this a couple months ago. It's awesome.

[SirTMagus]

UGH. Maaaaan, I just summarized this exact movie for my comely young Japanese friend over dinner tonight. Then she slapped me in the face with her pizza.

Well, as they say, here we go again: Keira Knightley's father from Pirates of the Caribbean, Jonathan Pryce, gets tangled up in a government conspiracy in the near future that involves Robert De Niro, Ian Holm and Michael Palin, a guy from Monty Python. It's wacky, weird and altogether brilliant.

My summary sucks. Sucks balls, even. See the movie, dude.

edit: WAY TO GO, CZECHS! IRC, don't bother clicking the link! Go in cold. Watch the movie au naturale. Parlay voo.

[IRC]

What's this about getting slapped with pizza?