All you bloggers out there, please stay with this story, and cram it down their martini-pickled throats over and over. A good society does not treat its citizens like this, even if they are indeed poor and can't treat the Repubs to their two-martini lunches.
Republicans are going ahead with long-standing plans to trim Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits, even though party moderates are balking at cutting programs that aid the poor while hundreds of thousands are homeless from Hurricane Katrina.The amount of savings -- no more than $35 billion spread over five years -- is modest at best, but it is the first time in eight years that Congress has shown any seriousness about reining in the automatic growth of such benefit programs.
Republican leaders have decided to delay the budget-cutting effort for at least a few weeks following widespread complaints that the government reacted too slowly in coming to the aid of Katrina's victims. When the effort resumes next month, there's less likelihood it will succeed because of Katrina's affect on the political landscape.
The proposed cuts pale when compared to the unprecedented price tag of the Katrina relief and recovery. In the past week alone Congress has appropriated $62 billion to deal with the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. The government is spending more than a $1 billion a day on the relief effort.
For the GOP's fiscal conservatives, however, it's as important as ever for lawmakers to take whatever opportunity they can to cut spending. Recent acts by Congress, including a huge highway bill larded with hometown projects, have reinforced Congress' reputation with the GOP base for playing loose with taxpayers' money.
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