Hide and Sneak
I'm pissed. AGAIN. Hypocrites are starting to wear thin on me, and those asshats sitting on both sides of the aisle are hypocritimus maximus.What on God's green earth possess these people? We are blessed with some truly outstanding examples of humanity in our armed forces. Selfless, disciplined, dedicated, and courageous -- these folks set aside their own dreams and goals, daily joys of seeing children grow, marriages deepen and careers thrive to go around the world, live in conditions that would make most of us stroke out, and possibly get killed. The rest of us, comfy and happy, stressing over whether McDonald's or Taco Bell is the best choice tonight, looking forward to a snuggle with our spouse and some great football this weekend should feel a moral imperative to take care of our caretakers.
Rep. David Obey, D-WI thought so too. He tried an interesting experiment this week:
And so last Wednesday, Obey entered the laboratory of the subcommittee on military construction and proposed an amendment to restore $1 billion of the $1.5 billion President Bush cut from the budget for military family housing.
As Obey noted in an interview, "it's obvious that you have atrocious
barracks for the troops with families and also for the single troops." Wouldn't a Congress that passes resolutions "singing hosannas to the troops" give the same troops decent places to live?But then the experiment kicked in: Obey proposed financing the budget increase by reducing Bush's recent tax cut, but only for the roughly 200,000 Americans who make more than $1 million a year.
Under Obey's amendment, these taxpayers would receive a cut of $83,546 this year -- more than most Americans make annually -- instead of the $88,326 they are currently scheduled to receive.This small contribution to the troops was voted down on a party-line vote. A spokesman for Rep. Joe Knollenberg of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee, said that Obey's amendment was inappropriate -- tax matters are properly dealt with in the Ways and Means Committee, he said -- and that Knollenberg hoped "that additional money would be found" to improve housing for the troops. -- Washington Post
I find these priorities completely screwed up. If I was wealthy enough to qualify for a 88 THOUSAND dollar tax cut, I think taking $4800 less and restoring 2/3 of the cut taken from our service people would sound like an upright thing to do.
In the face of what our service people endure on our behalf, it's barely a start.
Hiding behind procedural rules cuts exactly zero crap with me. Either you care about righting this wrong, or you care about who got you elected and who might get you elected again.
Flaunting selfishness in the face of valor is abominable.
posted by Jet @ 6:10 PM
8 Comments:
The W, Rove and Co have never been about looking out for the common person. It has been about taking care of "their base." That would mean, the wealthy folks who benefit greatly by every policy decision they make or have made. It's not hypocrisy as much as it is chronyism - these folks are only in it for themselves. If they were in it for the common person, they wouldn't be working on wholesale foreclosure on our youth by ratcheting up the national debt by billions of dollars daily.
Instead, we get more tax cuts for the wealthy - which by the way, they will try to spin as positive. The time to vote the bastards out has come, but I am really hoping for indictments and impeachments...still, I won't be holding my breath as the dems need a stronger spine for that, and they can't seem to gather one together amongst themselves.
I worry a great deal about the debt our kids are getting saddled with, Wind. The "we pay too much in taxes" crowd is setting up the end game to ensure taxes will be unbearable for two generations. If we stumble into another depression, will that finally wake everybody up?
We need a good Dem. One that's outside the paralyzing party straightjacket; we need one soon.
Kane got it part right, Bush Doesn't like Black people.
Bush doesn't like people, average people, military people, poor people, southern people, northern people, western people.
The only people Bush likes are RICH people.
1138, all I know, is Bush doesn't see anybody who isn't in the inner circle.
Joseph, the Dominion's theocracy dogs have the roots well down into facism too. Coincidence? I don't think so. This is a wholesale takeover of this country, and it's simply to profit a few and screw a multitude.
The mindless faithful keep trotting out crap about bootstraps while the puppeteers cut achilles tendons faster than the speeding bullet. Boots don't do you much good when you're crippled.
These Republicans who voted against using some of the tax cut to restore housing funds for soldiers, are undoubtedly the same asshats who shout "support our troops!" at every opportunity, and smear all anti-war opponents as America-hating leftists. I hope fewer and fewer Americans are getting fooled by these phony bastards.
It is extremely infuriating to hear Bush blather on about how "we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that, and that's all there is to it", blah blah blah. He talks as if money grows on trees. If it does, his friends own all the trees.
We are in such serious trouble and everyone else in the world knows it except those in the Bush league. The wake up call will not be pretty. It's coming, soon.
Tom, I guess we've come a long way from those "long-haired, hippie type, pinko fags" name calling days or yore... er, maybe not. I believe we're coming up fast on that "doomed to repeat it" part.
Rats.
Betsy - no kidding! Show me the money!
I sure as hell don't understand where it's coming from. We are hauling ass into insolvency as fast as these nut-jobs can get us there.
If I hear one most comment about tax and spend Democrats, I'm gonna puke.
Good post Jet- the more publicity given to these kinds of assinine maneuvers the more people will be able to see that the current crop of politicos are just a bunch of corrupt jackholes who care nothing for the common people.
Now if they'll take the next step and vote them out-decisively!
Post a Comment
<< Home