In the Sunday edition of the
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal comes this Op-Ed reiterating the hyposcrisy of Bush's religious lip service:
The biblical prophets would be on the White House lawn, the steps of the Capitol, in the chambers of Congress, the Law in one hand, a fistful of indignation in the other, condemning the outright aggression of this administration against the poor.
There's more below the fold.
Consider Medicaid. The President's budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid; in Mississippi alone, this accounts for $679 million over the next ten years. How many thousands of Mississippi's children, poor, and elderly will go without care because of these cuts? [...]
[...]America is the wealthiest, mightiest nation on the planet, spending billions of dollars perpetuating a foreign policy based primarily on threats of war, but when it comes to clothing the needy, sheltering the homeless, or feeding the poor, there is a sore lack of both vision and moral will coming from Washington. There is much for the rich man, and precious little for Lazarus.
The Iraq war drains $6 billion dollars a month from American coffers with no end in sight, and we are told there is no money for the poor, no money for health care, no money for education or homeland security. Difficult budgeting choices must be made, we are told by the politicians. Programs benefiting the poor will suffer unfortunate cuts. There is not much for Lazarus.
Yet somehow we are also told the president's tax cuts, benefiting the extremely wealthy, the top few percent of Americans, vastly more than anyone else, must be made permanent. The ultra-wealthy are given safety exits within the language of the bankruptcy bill while soldiers, the ill, and the elderly were singularly dismissed, with the Senate shooting down amendments aimed at easing their very specific burdens.
The administration - and senators on both sides of the aisle - who would so frequently co-opt communities of faith to further their own selfish and manipulative political goals, should never forget the fate befalling the rich man at whose gate Lazarus lay, "longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table."
Full disclosure: I'm particularly partial to this writer. Three guesses as to why.
Still, I'd like to use this as an opportunity to raise some discussion as to specific instances of "Christian" hypocrisy by the Bush administration. Yes, their name is Legion, but let's jot down some specifics. Consider this a repository for Letter-to-the-Editor building blocks for Bible Belt print outlets. Reccomend if you think this can be a helpful tack to take.