Congress turns its back on domestic priorities.
The House and Senate are
reportedly near an agreement on a spending deal to keep the government open. Keeping the government open is good, but the details of the deal being reported are a breathtaking reminder of the destruction Republicans have wrought on our government. Fighting Islamic extremists, Ebola, and Vladimir Putin's influence is the priority over domestic needs in a country with a still-struggling economy and tens of thousands of structurally deficient bridges.
Even the president’s popular TIGER transportation grants are reduced to $500 million, $100 million below 2014 and less than half of what Obama wanted in 2015. The National Institutes of Health will benefit from new Ebola funds for clinical trials, but its core $29.8 billion budget is expected to grow by just $150 million — not enough to keep pace with inflation.
Putting money into tackling Ebola now before it becomes a bigger problem is a good move—but it's not the only health crisis the NIH might be called on to handle. And the foreign aid priorities are not mostly about public health:
... after all the tough talk of standing up to Egypt on human rights, the agreement backs away from cutting Cairo’s $1.3 billion in military aid and instead makes a small but surprising cut in economic assistance.
In the big, terrible picture:
... despite the improved economy, Obama will leave office with fewer real dollars for domestic appropriations than President George W. Bush had before him. [...]
In fact, well over $600 billion or better than half the spending in the bill would come under either the Defense or State departments.
The list of programs being underfunded is staggering, and you don't have to be any kind of isolationist to think these are some f'ed up priorities. We've got
63,000 structurally deficient bridges, an inefficient electrical grid, and a host of other big infrastructure problems that need attention now—and the fixing of which would create jobs and boost our economy. Instead, our domestic needs are getting the shaft because Republicans do not believe in investing in America. At least, not the part of America that doesn't profit from war.
And this is the good scenario, the one that congressional Democrats could conceivably be on board with.