Brave Senators Stand Up to the Poor

Yesterday our brave Senators gathered up all their courage, gritted their teeth, braced themselves, and stood up to the poorest and most vulnerable American citizens.

After running up the largest deficit in our history, the Senate finally decided to start cutting costs. They’ve spent hundreds of billions financing the Iraqi quagmire. They’ve rubberstamped every multi-billion dollar giveaway to the wealthiest corporations in the world.

And now it’s time to start balancing the budget on the backs of — you guessed it.

They’ve decided to cut health care funding for the poor, elderly and disabled. This is the most shameless, cowardly, pathetic group of legislators this country’s ever seen.

They’re sort of like a high school student who’s constantly getting dissed, ignored and shat on. He’s walking around thinking “I’m just worthless. I don’t count for anything. I might as well just — Wait…Yeah! Here comes that 105-pound scrawny nerd who walks with a limp and wears thick glasses. I’m gonna kick his ass. Then I’ll feel good about myself. I AM somebody!”

Besides making cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, this bill also permits oil drilling in an Alaskan wilderness area — something Republicans have been wetdreaming about for decades.

When combined with the scheduled $70 billion tax cut, this “cost-cutting” measure will still increase the deficit.

When this bill goes to the House, some changes are possible. The brave members of the House are hoping to look even tougher than the Senate and make even deeper cuts. They’ll probably try to reduce funding for food stamps (which were left untouched by the Senate) as well as making even steeper cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.

There’s a chance the House will delete the provision for oil drilling in the Alaska wilderness area. Don’t worry, they didn’t suddenly turn into a bunch of tree huggers or anything like that. Eliminating the provision for oil drilling might be one way to gain a few moderate votes in favor of the budget cuts.