- Bush wants to encourage education for kids? STOP CLOSING SCHOOLS UNDER NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!
- Bush wants to support the troops? STOP CLOSING MILITARY HOSPITALS, CUTTING WOUNDED SOLDIERS’ BENEFITS, ETC!
- Bush wants to encourage the spread of democracy? BUT ONLY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND UNLESS THEY ELECT SOMEONE WE DON’T LIKE!
- Bush says welfare claims have “dropped by half.” THAT’S BECAUSE THERE’S HARDLY ANY WELFARE LEFT TO GET!
- Bush wants to encourage HIV/AIDS education and testing. BUT ONLY IF YOU GO TO A CHURCH!
- Bush wants the Patriot Act to be permanent? @$!#!
- Bush said he plans this year to “reduce or eliminate more than 140 programs that are performing poorly or not fulfilling essential priorities,” A.K.A. EDUCATION, LOW-COST INSURANCE FOR FAMILIES, FREE MEAL PROGRAMS FOR POVERTY STRICKEN CHILDREN, ETC.
For the love of God, Buddha, Allah, Elvis, whomever… why do people still fall all over themselves anytime this man makes a speech? Didn’t see the speech? Read it here.
Related posts:
- Bush’s proposed budget
- Constant Source of Entertainment
- The Other Side vs The Ten Commandments
- Another quote
- Bush makes me giggle
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9 comments ↓
In order, some quick responses to your various points:
“No child left behind” isn’t being properly funded, nor is it likely to be. That won’t happen under this or any other president.
A lot of the VA closures are directly related to consolidating under-used, small, inefficient hospitals into larger, better-equipped regional centers. They are cutting loose our wounded troops too early in many cases, but the hospital closures aren’t the real problem.
I’m glad to see we’re still an honest, impartial moderator in the peace talks in the Middle East. Oh wait, that’s exactly what we aren’t. Hamas will renounce its calls to destroy Israel when they’re damned good and ready, and no sooner.
Welfare claims are down. It’s true. A lot of it is because a great many people that were on welfare are no longer eligible. They’ve been out of work too long to qualify anymore. As for the claims of new jobs, a lot of that has to do with folks holding down 2-3 jobs to make ends meet.
Yay, abstinence! It’s scientifically-proven to be one of the worst things to try to teach teenagers. Hint for any religious fundamentalists out there: teens are horny. Really horny.
Yay USA PATRIOT ACT. Yeah, that sucks. I can only hope that the new Supreme Court judges will eventually get a solid opportunity to knock that pile of crap on its ear.
Well, getting rid of ineffective programs is probably a good thing in the long run. A program that gets $100million per year to help kids go to school but doesn’t do it’s job should go away, as that same money could be put over to more effective programs. Of course, the money is more likely to go into wasteful pork-barrel projects instead.
Just my $0.02.
My concerns about No Child Left Behind isn’t the funding, it’s the idea of closing schools that don’t meet the testing score level, then taking those kids, and cramming them into the classrooms of other schools, some of which are already overcrowded. And then claiming that’s better for the education of our children. That’s not right.
Hamas has said, many times, that it will continue attacks against Israel until they give a clear account for where they want their border to be. Until that time Hamas has claimed they have no reason to stop the attacks if Israel won’t even tell them where they want to end up exactly. Not that it makes Hamas’ actions right, but it takes two to tango, as they say.
John, no offense, but I don’t think you’ve really had to rely on public assistance to get by day-to-day. Keli and I have and I can tell you, since Bush got into office from the beginning, Medical benefits (amount they’ll pay for standard medical things, things they’ll cover during pregnancies, etc) have all gone down so much so that some women can’t even get Ultrasounds until the third trimester due to “funding” issues. What good is an ultrasound in the last stage of pregnancy to determine if something is fundamentally wrong with your child? Due to Bush’s budgets, children who come from poor families now get one less meal a day because of the “free lunch” programs at most schools being taken away. I agree that things need to be cut, but don’t take away the basic necessities of those who most need them. Luckily, Keli and I no longer need to use public assistance, but we still know how bad off that arena really is.
So when I’m critical of Bush’s mentioning of cutting “ineffective programs” in the past that has meant more than just programs that get $100 million of funding each year and don’t do anything. Yes, some need to be cut that are literally no use. But the immediacy of some of those cut programs doesn’t make sense when you claim, in front of the world, to take care of your own.
I would reply to jdf but I would just get angry. The poor are getting poorer and the richer, well you know… that is what it all boils down to.
No offense taken (I like having these conversations, personally).
Regarding schools, the federal government does not have the authority to close your elementary school. That happens on a state or local level. They have the authority to cut vital funding, which forces the state or local school board to make difficult decisions about what to do with the money they have left. That we can’t seem to, as a society, provide enough money for our schools to operate properly is shameful.
Regarding Hamas I think we’re pretty much in agreement there.
A reduction in the quality of the benefits of public assistance doesn’t reduce the number of claims, it would only reduce the dollar value of those claims. We’re clearly talking about two separate things. Has Bush and the Republican government done a terrible job running our government? On most counts, yes. In terms of public assistance programs, hell yes. That doesn’t change the fundamentals behind the claim that “welfare claims are down.” It’s true. A claim of “the United States safety net for people that have come on hard times is failing” is also true.
In regards to ineffective programs being cut, of course this will be over-reaching, misapplied, and poorly executed. We’re both talking about the same presidency, right? They oscillate between grossly corrupt and sadly incompetent. There’s no way in hell they’d get such a thing right. The idea is good, I simply have no confidence they could actually execute on it.
And Logtar, yes, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and the criminals that steal the most from us never see justice on this earth. As long as we have our bread and circuses, though, that’s not likely to significantly change.
@ Logtar - SWEET! My Gravatar plugin config worked!
@ John - You’re right, I was talking about quality of public assistance when you meant something different. I see it as this (and I think I mis-typed originally when I called them “claims”): The federal government has an obligation to see to it that even those at the bottom of the heap are taken care of. Others disagree wtih me on this and I can live with that.
However, since 2000, there has been an undeniable and ghastly decrease in funding set aside for already-in-place low cost programs (such as I mentioned previously) that more and more people need, as the prices of other things increases. I forget the actual statistic, but more and more working families are trying to get on low cost medical insurance because it’s just one more thing that the average two-income middle-class American family can’t afford.
I realize there are several factors that go into this scenario, as well as schools closing, etc., but I think you catch my drift.
I almost feel like hugging and singing kumbaya. I agree with most points, except with those I disagree with. I could not resist. LOL
Care to jump into the fray and share with us the things you don’t agree with?
Can I just be vague and inconclusive. I fear that my idealism will get on the way of what I am trying to say. At times I get to rambly and lose site of what the message is… have you read my blog. LOL. I will do it if you really think it will add to the conversation.
Dude! Look whose blog you’re posting on! I’m the KING of rambling.
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