Bad Deeds for 8-23-2011

 

“Pro-Life” Kansas Governor Cuts Funding for Dying Infants – Republican Governor Sam Brownback respond? He is gutting the agency responsible for child protective services, child support enforcement, and child, adult and family well being services, after a failed attempt to slash funding for Head Start. According to Keri Ann Rinker of Kansas NOW, “The state was on track to close 9 [Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services centers], citing agency cost savings. Public outcry has prevented one of those closures. The City Council of Lawrence, Kansas has agreed to pick up the state’s tab and fund their own office to serve the most needy within their community.”

Ironically enough, Brownback is still finding money to fund faith-based initiatives. This is despite the fact that pastors gathered to protest the proposed service center closings – apparently not the kind of interfaith cooperation that Brownback had in mind.

 

More Cuts and Another Bottle of Expensive Wine, Please -Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis. The $700 in wine the trio consumed over the course of 90 minutes amounted to more than the entire weekly income of a couple making minimum wage.

 

Romney Not His Old Self These Days – In 2004, when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he lobbied S&P to raise his state’s credit rating in part because he had raised taxes during an economic downturn just two years earlier.

Those efforts were successful and the agency raised the state’s rating.

Romney has since taken the opportunity to spin the US downgrade, and his state’s own experience, to a campaign point, claiming that it was under Romney’s fiscal guidance the state improved its credit rating. And that may be so, but what Romney fails to recognize is that fiscal guidance included a series of tax increases, fees and the closing of multiple tax loopholes. On those issues Romney remains silent.

The fact that Republicans are so entrenched in an anti-tax, anti-revenue position thanks to Grover Norquist and his hard right revolution is becoming more absurd by the day. Romney’s record on both health care reform and taxes while governor of Massachusetts would likely play well to moderate, Independent voters, and the fact of the matter is, they are reasonable positions that Romney should not feel the need to distance himself from.

But his party is so far to the right and so out of touch with solutions for the common good of this country that he really has no choice but to play along if he hopes to get the nomination.

 

Republican Favors Racism Over Jobs – Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) was planning to use his House Judiciary Committee gavel this fall to promote a “jobs agenda.” This would represent a significant shift for a committee that has largely been focused on radical attacks on undocumented immigrants.

But later that day, the Obama administration announced that it would begin reviewing the cases of the 300,000 illegal immigrants currently awaiting deportation and prioritize the expulsion of the more dangerous criminal violators, rather than targeting low-level immigration offenders for deportation.

Smith quickly abandoned his “jobs agenda,” telling right-wing radio host Joe Pagliarulo that he was now planning to hold hearings on the subject with the avowed purpose of trying to “embarrass the President.” Smith also suggested that the House Appropriations Committee would defund the administration’s ability to implement their plan.

During his interview with Pagliarulo, Smith also repeatedly pushed the falsehood that the administration proposal constitutes “amnesty.” In fact, while immigrants who are not deported may apply for work permits, the plan does not provide them with citizenship or even a path to citizenship.

Regards,

Jim