We're All Just (Boomer) Babes in the Woods

The Sheriff of Knucklehead and his evil henchman Karl Rove have once again proven that this Sherwood Forest we call America is being systematically plundered - literally and figuratively. While Baby Boomers are occupied wringing their hands over whether or not Social Security even needs to be fixed much less overhauled, Bush has slipped in a budget which quite literally robs from the poor and gives to the rich.

"...the budget proposal really does take food from the mouths of babes. One of the proposed spending cuts would make it harder for working families with children to receive food stamps, terminating aid for about 300,000 people. Another would deny child care assistance to about 300,000 children, again in low-income working families."

"And the budget really does shower largesse on millionaires even as it punishes the needy. For example, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities informs us that even as the administration demands spending cuts, it will proceed with the phaseout of two little-known tax provisions - originally put in place under the first President George Bush - that limit deductions and exemptions for high-income households."

"More than half of the benefits from this backdoor tax cut would go to people with incomes of more than a million dollars; 97 percent would go to people with incomes exceeding $200,000." Paul Krugman - The New York Times (registration required)

As Rober B. Reich recently wrote, "It's morally wrong to give huge tax cuts to the rich while cutting social programs for the poor and working class -- especially when the gap between the rich and everyone else is wider than it's been in more than a century. As to "family values," the nation has a moral obligation to give every child a good education and decent health care. And it's morally wrong that millions of Americans who work full time don't earn enough to lift their families out of poverty."

It doesn't balance. Cuts in programs that quite literally are difference makers for the most helpless of the Forest's creatures, against more money in the pockets of greedy princes who need it the least. And just in case a real Robin Hood comes along and dares to point out the truth, the Sheriff has purchased policy insurance in the form of press corp shills and hired mouthpieces.

It's against the law to hunt the Royal Deer, yet more and more of the Sheriff's chosen few are lining up to bag a few bucks for themselves - leaving fewer and fewer to actually feed the starving forest inhabitants. And then we're told that the empty feeling in our stomachs isn't really hunger - we're just traitors who simply can't hold down a $200,000 a year job.