Republican Budget Cuts: A Cynical Look

House Republicans have come out with their list of spending cuts, which amount to $2.5 trillion.

Many of the cuts are to programs with which Republicans have traditionally had problems. Some of these cuts include:

$445 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS and NPR)

At least they are staying true to their word after the uproar over the firing of Juan Williams. Besides, 50% of Americans find PBS to be the most trusted name in news and we need to make sure that Fox News gets back their rightfully copy-written slogan.

$1.565 billion from Amtrak

It's not like any Yankees use it anyway.

$95 million from beach replenishment

This will hurt anyone living near the shore (including my family in the summer). Plus, many beaches in the northeast which are Federally protected wildlife preserves becase they are natural breeding grounds for the Piping Plover (an endangered species of birds) and are, thus, required to have a certain amount of beach size. (For further comments I have made on this, see: http://fordhamdems.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-i-do-not-get-tea-parties.html.) But that is what people and animals get for living and mating near a beach.

$2.5 billion from Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants

This a nice heave-ho to the metropolitan capitals of the nation that need trains for their commutes. We want to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, yet our federal budget is pushing us to all get cars that run on foreign oil. It all makes perfect sense.

$900 million from "Obamacare"

Of course, besides the CBO is filled with liars.

$318 million Title X Family Planning

We must prevent family planning because it is against God's will. As the immoral Department of Heath and Human Services puts it:

Over the past 40 years, Title X family planning clinics have played a critical role in ensuring access to a broad range of family planning and related preventive health services for millions of low-income or uninsured individuals and others. In addition to contraceptive services and related counseling, Title X-supported clinics provide a number of related preventive health services such as: patient education and counseling; breast and pelvic examinations; breast and cervical cancer screening according to nationally recognized standards of care; sexually transmitted disease (STD) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention education, counseling, testing and referral; and pregnancy diagnosis and counseling. By law, Title X funds may not be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning. (source:http://www.hhs.gov/opa/familyplanning/index.html

Funding for testing for STDs and breast and cervical cancer is against everything we stand for as a Judeo-Christian nation!

$1.27 billion from Applied Research at the Department of Energy

Republicans hate both DOEs and we must not find any solutions to ending our dependence on foreign oil! Republicans have made that abundantly clear.

$293 million from Economic Development Administration

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Republican plan to end the economic recession, as shown here, is to cut funding to the groups that would help us. It makes perfect sense!

$52 million from the Energy Star Program

By this point, it seems that the Republicans have made it abundantly clear that we must consume as much energy as possible. "Drill, Baby, Drill," perhaps?

Repealing the Davis-Bacon Act, which will save $1 billion annually

The Davis-Beacon Act, simply, requires that established wages, overtime, and benefits for all federal public works projects are to be paid. It has to be repealed, this bill is overtly socialist.

$150 million from subsidies for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

D.C. residents can be taxed, but don't deserve a vote in Congress and most certainly do not deserve any form of public transportation.

$210 million from General Assistance to District of Columbia

Again, DC residents deserve to be taxed without anything in return. That is why they are not a state.

$420 million from the Legal Services Corporation

Because no one deserves a fair trial no has the right to an attorney, regardless if they can afford one.

$530 million from Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization

God created the weather so we could be forced to have to endure it. Weatherization interferes with His plan.

$27 million from the Ready to Learn TV program

Educational television for young children is just plain old wrong. Besides, what has Sesame Street or Barney taught anyone?

$167.5 million each from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities

Because the belief that investing in arts and sciences go hand-in-glove is poppycock. Da Vinci never made any contributions to science and Gustave Eiffel never got the idea for his tower in Paris by investigating the structure of human bones. Believing either would be preposterous.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/house-gop-gets-specific-on-cuts_n_811557.html

Juan Williams Firing Helped Maintain NPR Image

The controversy of the week this time is the firing of Juan Williams from NPR after he said on the O'Reilly Factor:

Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality. I mean, look Bill [O'Reilly], I'm not a bigot, you know the kind of books I've written on the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous. Now, I remember also that when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week. He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts. But I think there are people who want to somehow remind us all as President Bush did after 9/11, it's not a war against Islam.

Sarah Palin and her crew are saying that it is proof of how the 'liberal media' is trying to stay politically correct. House Minority Leader John Boehner has called on Congress to stop funding the National Public Radio. I do understand their argument, but the opponents of the firing seem to forget one thing: NPR is a brand first and foremost.

NPR is a company with an image to maintain, if one of their commentators says something that can endanger the image they worked to build, I agree that they have the right (and need) to fire the employee in order to maintain the image. Just because NPR is publicly funded does not mean that it is not indifferent from any other company. Just like most employers, NPR expects its employees to say things that would not reflect poorly on NPR. Yes, Williams' words were his own opinion, but as the saying goes "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all." NPR, I assume, wants to keep a pro-Islam image; if an employee says something publicly like what Williams did, it endangers that image.

In social media, there is an adage: "it takes hundreds of posts to build a reputation, but just one to ruin it."