Catholic Online reports on criticism of the contrast between President Bushes cuts to social spending and his increases in military spending:
The proposed $2.9 billion U.S. government budget proposed by the Bush Administration is a moral document that misses the mark in reducing poverty, with draconic cuts that will hurt America’s poor families, said the president of the nation’s largest Catholic social service networks.
“The president’s budget misses the mark on reducing poverty in America,” said Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, the day after the fiscal year 2008 budget proposal was released Feb. 5.
“In fact, with cuts to key programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, the president’s budget will only serve to exacerbate the problems facing millions of our nation’s poor families,” Father Snyder said, noting that there are “drastic cuts and changes” to a range of programs that address the health and well-being of low-income families and individuals.
President George W. Bush is seeking to rein in domestic spending as part of a plan to balance the budget in five years without raising taxes while increasing funding for the Iraq war and permanently expanding the military.
The $2.9 trillion budget attempts to tighten spending on health care, education, housing and other domestic programs during the last two years of the Bush Administration. The new budget seeks to reduce the rate of growth in Medicare and Medicaid, cutting $101 billion from both over the next five years.
Yet, Bush’s budget can afford unnecessary trillion dollar oil wars!? Instead of taking care of the hungry, poor, and sick at home, the Bush Administration and neo-conservatives throw trillions of dollars at the type of militarism that makes the world hate the United States, and makes the United States the target of deranged terrorists.
Poor hungry kids go hungry on the streets and senior citizens can’t afford their medication, while the military industry, Big Oil, and Halliburton cash their billion dollar paychecks.
This just goes to show why we cannot trust the government with our money. We cannot rely on the government to solve our problems. If we want to get such necessities as food, clothes, shelter, education, healthcare, safety, and security, we need to do it ourselves. Stop letting this negligent and corrupt government steal our money through taxation! On our own, let’s put our labor and our money towards providing food, clothes, shelter, education, and healthcare to ourselves, our friends, our families, and our communities.
In Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau said:
“Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.”
What do you think?
hungry desperate people will work long hours for very little pay, and complain less.
better than starving!
exploitation makes america rich, and helps al qaeda grow.
more fear more profit. of course bush wont end world hunger.
which democrats running for president have a plan to end world hunger?
i tried this and now i am being levied $1,100 per check and take home less than 300$.
in the meantime they have added more charges. Any suggestions?
Even though I agree that it is a serious problem that our nations children and elderly- let alone all ages in between- are being left behind to suffer exploitation, starvation homelessness, joblessness and lack of medical care; i do not agree with how you propose to solve the issue, nor do i agree with your analysis of the government and its purpose.
the government is the only thing that belongs to the public, not organizations, not churches, not industry and not corporations. what that means is that it is the only thing we comtrol, completely. now, the problem with this country is that no one takes that control, that power and kicks this adminstration out of office. people would rather talk about it than actually do anything-
so, the solution to these social emergencies is forcing out of power the corrupt and incompetent adn putting into power people who will do the bidding of the public- when that happens then increase taxes and re-write the budget to allocate suffiecient funds for public education, public assistance and health care. only then will you reduce the emergencies we face today.
the idea of cutting taxes even further is a conservative argument, and we see how well it works in third world countries where conservativeism reigns. on the other hand social programs have been proven to work well, as seen by sweden and the other scandinavian nations.
your shrot term solution should be impeachement and war charges brought against the entire administration- at the very least bush and cheney. long term needs to be focused on getting away from oil dependancy, leaving democratically elected governments in other nations alone and creating common sense social programs that leave no one out. in the cold.