GOP Cuts Billions from Student Aid, Poor , Elderly

Uh...don't think so. I admit that I haven't seen the numbers, but I would expect that it's the middle class and poor who buy the most products.

 

lower taxes, lower defecit = GREAT!
adding billions to pork barrel projects = STUPID!

at least they cancel each other out, this is about the best I can ask for in this day and age from the chimps running the zoo in DC

 

heh, yeah agreed 100%

Unless the 5% of the population that is considered well off is purchasing billions of dollars of Coke, toothpaste, and socks. every single person who studies the economy will tell you it is the middle class who keeps the economy running. Why do you think gas prices always affect the economy so much? You think the rich care about paying an extra 25 cents for that gallon of gas? of course not, it's the middle class who worries aobut this.

 

I think everyone here agrees that cutting the deficit is a good idea. The question is how this goal will be realized. Cutting student aid programs, that I for example do benefit from, or cutting aid to the poor seems like a foolish way to start. The level of pork barrel spending has gotten out of control lately and has only continued to expand. Cut out the wasteful pet projects that are being attached to everything left and right and then we can start trimming the social welfare stuff but until then, you really dont have much of an argument.

I mean stuff like this in Alaska is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to government waste.

http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/000054.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=769016

 

Apparently people still believe in voodoo, uh i mean, trickle down economics.

 

You do not, I repeat, you do NOT cut education and expect the economy to get better. There is a direct correlation between the quality of education the society receives and the state of the economy

 

We should not have to cut things like this, but we should cut student loans.

link

Alaska's bridge to nowhere.
Visualize a double span, rising to 200 feet above ocean level, going from Ketchikan, Alaska (pop. 14,500) to Gravina Island (pop. 50 on a good day). The only thing of note on the island is Ketchikan's airport, which has six passenger flights most days. Maybe a few more during the summer. The ferries between Ketchikan and the airport run half-filled. And Ketchikan isn't even connected to the North American road system; if you go more than 10 miles from town, you run out of road.

So why does Ketchikan, Alaska need such a huge bridge?

Because Alaska's one lone (Republican) member of the the lower house of Congress, Representative Don Young wants it built. And since Young chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he's in an excellent position to get what he wants. Despite it's US $200 million pricetag, Young's 'bridge to nowhere' has remained in the transporation appropriation bill currently working its way through the Congress, even though the project makes no economic sense and is being proposed at a time when the country faces a massive federal deficit.

"This really is a bridge to nowhere," said Keith Ashdown, a spokesman for the conservative budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Mr Ashdown says the Bush administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in history. "You can't have tax cuts, a war, and all the other legislative plans and then think we won't bust the budgetary dam," he said. [...]

[Ketchikan Borough] mayor, Michael Salazar, argues that the bridge will open up the town to investment, enhance its attraction as a stop-off for cruises on the increasingly popular Alaskan tourist trail, and could be its saviour.

He said: "The environmental lobby always b****es if you change anything. But they probably said the same about the Golden Gate Bridge. Your first impression is 'look how beautiful it is here' and 'won't the bridge spoil the view' but what we need to continue our existence is jobs."


We can hardly wait to see Rep. Young's proposal to build a freeway from Ketchikan to Prince Rupert, British Columbia (pop. 17,000), the closest town connected to the North American road grid. It would only have to cross seven or eight ocean inlets in 100 miles or so. At US $200 million a bridge plus 100 miles of road, just imagine how many jobs the project would create. And don't worry about the cost: our kids will pay for it.

Via UK Telegraph.

 

if insane man's link from washington post is correct, then they are NOT cutting student aid, but rather deciding where the existing bank profits from student loans should go.

 

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/cnhi/mankatofreepress/editorials/local_story_362222419.html

Our view — Congress gets a grade of C

The Free Press

They cut food stamps before the bridge to nowhere. They cut student loan funds and can’t seem to find the money, via a longtime federal program, to back the pensions of bankrupt airline employees.

The 109th Congress gets a C, or average, for its work in 2005. It’s two grades away from failure and two grades away from achieving its potential. Congress might be described as an unambitious student just getting by.

While the challenges of reforming Social Security, funding Hurricane relief in times of growing federal deficits dwarf some of the challenges of the past, Congress and the White House were essentially controlled by one party.

While there are some maverick Republican senators that can upset the agenda from time to time, this Congress could have and should have done better with control of all three branches of government. They’re starting to resemble Democrats on efficiency.

Discounting the substance of what was accomplished or lack thereof, the 109th Congress and the Republican leadership was not able to control even the administration of the proceedings. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, almost single-handedly shut down the government and delayed funding for the troops when he tied provisions for drilling oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve to the defense spending bill. Add to that the House’s decision to limit ways in which ethics investigations can be started, and the game just got easier for those who know how to cheat.

Republicans who voted against arctic maneuvering, including Sen. Norm Coleman, deserve credit for helping to keep the overall grade to C.

Congress took a step in the right direction by passing a deficit reduction bill that cuts about $40 billion over five years, though critics charge it is only a 2.5 percent cut of projected shortfalls totaling $1.6 trillion.

The Senate failed in a more important deficit cutting measure when it deadlocked 50-50 on a “pay as you go” provision in the budget that would require any reduction in federal revenues by tax cuts to be made up for by an equal amount of reduced spending. The bill would have simply extended a good fiscal discipline plan in place since 1985.

If only Congress had as much zeal to save taxpayers money as it does to save credit card companies money. A reform of the bankruptcy code that makes it more difficult for people to file bankruptcy certainly helped credit card companies’ bottom line.

On the positive side, Republicans deserve credit for significantly expanding alternative energy credits for ethanol, biodiesel and hybrid vehicles. They passed some necessary lawsuit reform that reins in an industry that had unreasonable incentives to sue. Congress passed a much needed $286 billion road funding bill even though it contained $50 billion in pork.

And even though arctic oil drilling almost derailed the whole works, close does count in this game. And turning back the proposal by Stevens for drilling in ANWR gave the caribou a little more breathing room.

 

Students, the Poor, and the Elderly inquestion are by far not Republican constituents. Who is surprised here?

 

i fail to see why being outspokenly against western culture is a threat to national security. obviously many who vote for bush would fall into those against 'western culture'. and frankly most europeans would ridicule us for thinking our culture is similar to theirs.

and as far as funding and harboring terrroists..perhaps. but certainly not 9/11 that myth is about as false as your voodoo economics theory.

 

anuff said