President Bush's Budget
Well, I had nothing to do this morning so I was watching C Span coverage of the Senate Budget Committee hearing.
I think it's outrageous that the budget is only going to grant about 1/10 of what the Coast Guard has asked for to fight against terrorism. The budget further cuts hundreds of millions in funding to "first responders" like fire fighters, paramedics, and customs officials.
Those are the people who protect us, and we’re going to gut their funding?
I remember all that rhetoric about how he’d look after fire fighters blah blah after 9/11, but I guess that's out the window now.
I know we have to make cuts somewhere, but that should be one of the last places to cut. So now we've riled up the terrorists by attacking Iraq, and our first responders won't be as able to mount an adequate response when they hit us back here at home. Fucking great. I feel so much safer now.
The Committee chairman, a Republican from Oklahoma, also sounded very worried about the Iraqi and Afghani war costs compounded with the new corporate welfare prescription drug plan costs. He warned everyone not to take seriously the $87 billion estimate for the Iraqi war, and estimated the two wars could cost up to 1.1 trillion in total. The prescription drug "plan" is also estimated to cost another 130 billion over the previous estimate of 400 billion. I can name two conservative Republican Senators who seemed happy with the budget, and the rest also seemed worried.
Indeed, this is exactly the right time to send a man to Mars:
The man who rubber stamped this budget.
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