Day: October 10, 2005

Abortion IQ Test

Here’s a simple way to test your political IQ. You may be an Unsmart-American if you –

• Believe that George Bush and the leaders of the Republican Party have ever intended to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
• Think former President Bush was surprised after he named David Souter to the Supreme Court that Justice Souter turned out to be liberal on abortion.
• Vote for politicians time after time because they promise you they will overturn Roe vs. Wade, only to find, time after time, that they never do.
• Are clueless to the fact that your unsmart, anti-abortion votes are so dependable that Republican politicians would be fools not to keep the issue simmering in the courts for as long as possible.
• Haven’t noticed that these same politicians are giving your tax dollars as welfare to big corporations, who pay the politicians back in numerous and sundry ways.
• Don’t understand that normal Americans outnumber you by two to one in the belief that a woman – not the government – should decide what she will do with her own body.
• Can’t figure out what your leaders know all two well: If what your fondest wish were to come true and abortion became a campaign issue in state political races, the Republican Party would lose election after election.
• Don’t understand that abortions, legal or not, have always been available to people who can afford them – and, legal or not, they always will. It simply does not matter personally to George Bush, Bill Frist, Tom DeLay and their ilk what happens with Roe.
• Think that normal Americans are ever going to give federal, state and/or local government control over women’s reproductive systems.

Scored a perfect “0,” huh? We thought so.

What they wanted: Red State voters sent the Gops to Washington to slash and burn the federal government. But after making bold promises, the Republicans who control Congress have actually increased the budget, not cut it. However, recent events have forced their hand and now the cuts must come. First they’ll go after the poor, with drastic reductions in food stamps – but next on the chopping block is farm subsidies – a slice out of the Red Staters’ hide:

Under orders to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion, Republicans in Congress have proposed reducing food programs for the poor by $574 million and conservation programs by $1 billion, The Associated Press has learned.

The proposal by the chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., also would cut payments to farmers by 2.5 percent across the board.

The plan faces hostility from congressional Democrats and other critics who say the cuts would hurt food stamps and conservation programs.

Payments to farmers would fall by $1.145 billion over five years. But that is considerably less severe than what President Bush had proposed. Bush had sought a 5 percent reduction in payments, plus a far-reaching plan for capping payments that would cut billions more dollars from subsidies collected by large farm operations.

The AP obtained a summary of the budget-cutting plan. A vote had been scheduled for a vote Thursday in Chambliss’ committee but was put off indefinitely. Congress ordered the $3 billion in cuts in a budget outline passed this year.