Cross-posted at Music for America
So we won the election, right? We voted the bums out and now we don’t need to worry about all that political stuff, right?
Mrrrr- think again. While the election turned out just dandy, the things we turned out for- an end to war and a better quality of life for the average kid, are still being ignored.
Perfect example: Bush’s latest budget. From the mouth of Matt Taibbi;
It would be hard to imagine a [budget] document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.
Not only does it make many of Bush's tax cuts permanent, but it envisions a complete repeal of the Estate Tax, which mainly affects only those who are in the top two-tenths of the top one percent of the richest people in this country.
He goes on:
If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.
Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks.
How are we paying for these tax breaks to the top top two-tenths of the top 1%?
- Reducing Medicaid, the program providing health insurance to families with low incomes, by $11.7 billion.
- cutting education by $1.5 billion
- cutting $630 million from Community Service Block Grants.
- cutting $420 million from LIHEAP, which covers heating expenses for poor people
- my fav: completely eliminating the commodity supplemental food program, $108 million allotted to sending one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.
WTF! It’s like nothing’s changed at all!
Sure the last election went great, but I’m unconvinced that electoral politics is really so exciting that we’d rather wank-off about presidential candidates than protect our own collective asses.
The next time someone you know even mentions Hillary or Barack, invite them to join my new Facebook group.