Liberal conniption fits: Budget 2006

The Bush administration released the details of their budget today. Almost simultaneously, several Democrats died from severe trauma brought on by severe head explosion.

The MSM has begun its campaign against the budget. The big problems that the Dems are having seem to fall into these categories:

The President hates kids because education is getting cut.

The President hates poor people because health care for poor people is not included in the budget.

The President hates farmers because he’s cutting farm subsidies.

The President is spending more on defense because bombs are more important than people at home.

The President hates the environment because he’s cutting funds to the EPA.

Let’s take a few moments today to examine the FACTS.

NUMBER 1: The President hates kids.

If you look at actual numbers from the administration’s budget plan, you’ll notice that the overall drop in spending from 2005 is 1 percent.

ONE PERCENT.

The Budget includes increasing Pell Grant spending by 45% to $18 billion and increasing aid to poor districts by 4.7% to $13.3 billion. What more do you want? So why the drop in spending at all? Well, the Bush team has decided that there are several education programs that need to be cut because they are less effective. Programs such as Upward Bound and Talent Search that had dubious results, at best. Not to mention that they are cutting dollars that were being spent on vocational education. This is something that is better handled by the states, anyway.

Ted Kennedy, in one of his typical fits, exclaimed, “The administration is going to find out that people believe we need to invest in our children.”

This is the statement of one who does not care what the budget actually says, but only about making his political opponents look bad. You get this week’s “Just Shut Up” award, Ted. Please. Just shut up.

NUMBER 2: The President hates poor people and wants them to be sick.

Let’s examine the Department of Health and Human Services budget.

First of all, President Bush is NOT proposing that we spend less on Medicaid. The budget proposes reducing the amount of INCREASE in spending on Medicaid, but be assured my little Democrats, money to Medicaid is still increasing over last year.

NUMBER 3: The President hates farmers.

Yes, the budget calls for decreased spending on farm subsidies. What a lot of people don’t know is that these cuts are the result of various free trade agreements.

The Democrat party line is that reducing these subsidies and enabling free trade will take away U.S. farmers’ advantages in the world market. They also like to claim that this puts the most hurt on small farmers.

Let one thing be absolutely clear. In 2002, two-thirds of the farm subsudies went to the 10% richest “farmers.” Small farms ARE NOT going to be hurt by a reduction in farm subsidies. (It should also be noted that several members of the Senate and House Ag committees make SIGNIFICANT amounts of money from farm subsidies.)

Farm subsidies are bad, Okay. They encourage overproduction and cause farmers to decide what crops to plant based on what the system will offer through subsidies, rather than what the market demands. Farm subsidies hurt capitalism. I could go on and on about the evils of farm subsidies, but I’ll save that for another discussion.

NUMBER 4: The President thinks explosives are more important than people.

This is really simple. Two main things constitute the increase in defense spending. First, the amount people get paid in the military is increasing. Gee, ya think maybe they deserve it? Second, more money is being spent on so-called “Special Forces” personnel and equipment. These guys are the real unsung heroes in the War on Terror. When they’re successful, you won’t hear anything about it. These guys need our full support.

NUMBER 5: The President hates the environment.

Yes, the EPA is getting less money. Some government spending programs are getting cut. Again, it should be noted that MORE money is being spent on cleanup programs such as the Superfund. $50 million is being allocated to Great Lakes cleanup. That’s twice what was proposed.

When it comes right down to it, make up your own mind. The great thing about the internet is that we don’t have to take the same crap from the MSM at face value. Do a search on Yahoo! News and enter this for the search terms:
“Budget Glance source:yahoo”

You can browse the various department and agency budget figures for yourself. Because the liberal media ain’t gonna go get the figures for you..