Pennies

The Rude Pundit asks:

How about just a minute or two of perspective?
Amount to bailout AIG - at least $85 billion
Amount to bailout Citibank - at least $45 billion
Amount to bailout Bank of America - at least $45 billion, with guarantees on $118 billion in loans
Amount the Bush administration overpaid for bailed-out bank assets - $78 billion

Proposed cuts to President Obama's economic stimulus bill (currently being debated by 20 "centrist" senators):
$1.1 billion to Head Start
$24.8 billion to states for budget shortfalls in education programs
$15 billion to states for additional education funding
$2 billion to Child Care Development Block Grants
$150 million to funding for programs in the Violence Against Women Act

Oh, and, hell, let's just throw this in:
Amount of just two years of George W. Bush's tax cuts: roughly $500 billion (adjusting for interest). Two-thirds of that came from tax cuts on the top 20% of wage earners.
(Note: this leaves out the cost of operations in Iraq because, well, does it need to be said?)

Education funding is seed money for better paying jobs and a larger tax base. Assistance for families to help with child care has a direct impact on the ability of people to work. And, really, even talking about cutting $150 million in a bill like this is like saying, "If I stop putting nickels in the gumball machine, I'll be able to buy that car."

"Nickels in the gumball machine." That's what we're talking about here. Besides the fact that education, the welfare of children, help for working families, and preventing violence against women aren't just laudatory goals, but vital to the smooth functioning, ethics, self-image, and future of any human society, besides the fact that any so-called "Christian"--as these Republican assholes claim to be-- has an obligation to help those less fortunate (and so does any other human being, at least in my book), besides the fact that that these are programs that will help stimulate the economy, which is what this bill is all about...it's not that damn much money, especially compared to the sinkhole that is Iraq.

What this is really about is, as the Rude Pundit correctly identifies, is class warfare. The evidence is clear: the Republican party is the tool of the wealthy, the greedy, and the selfish. The are ideologically opposed to helping people who make less than $250,000 a year. They are politically committed to widening the gap between rich and poor. In a classic Pavlovian response to this any every fiscal problem, they consistently offer tax cuts, tax cuts which help the wealthy, and offer nothing or less than nothing--middle-class tax increases in their latest scheme, for example--for average working Americans. The Republican party looks at the economic recovery bill not as a mean to get more Americans back to work, but as a political ploy by the Democrats to strengthen and widen the voters loyalty to their party, and the party's way to create a "permanent" Democratic majority in Congress. In other words, they're still robbing the poor to give to the rich, still obstructing economic, social, and political progress in this country, and still playing partisan games with America's future.

The Repugs complain about "wasteful spending." I submit that the only wasteful spending I can find is their paychecks. Cut them off at the knees.