CONGRESS TO THE RESCUE

The estimated cost of full reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region is $200 billion unless, of course, Halliburton has cost-overruns).

Our glorious Congress rides to the rescue of the Gulf States by cutting into the lean and ignoring the fat.

Instead of cutting back on the tax cuts for the wealthest one-percent of the country (which would save us an estimated $327 billion), they have chosen to cut back on vital national services (programs for the people).

They plan to cut:

$225 billion from Medicare (the last-resort health insurance program for the very poor).
$200 billion from Medicare (the health care safety net for the elderly and the disabled).
$25 billion from the Centers for Disease Control.
$6.7 billion from school lunches for poor children.
$7.5 billion from programs to fight global AIDS.
$5.5 billion to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
$4.8 billion to eliminate all funding for the Safe and Drug-Free schools program.
$3.6 billion to eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.
$8.5 billion to eliminate all subsidized loans to graduate students.
$2.5 billion from Amtrak.
$2.5 billion to eliminate the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.
$417 million to eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency.

They call this plan "Operation Offset". This plan is not about "offsetting" or rebuilding, it's about exploiting this crisis to push their longstanding goals for America. And this goal is, as conservative movement leader Grover Norquist puts it "to get government down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub".

I think I hear the water running now.

The California Curmudgeon.