I'm all for a balanced budget, but not at the expense of the poor and disabled. It seems that fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party have finally found their backbone and are now willing to speak up about the out of control increase in the budget deficit. Or no, let me say that again in a way that Republicans will understand: fiscal conservatives are finally willing to speak up about the out of control spending by the federal government.
What's the difference in those two statements? One acknowledges that a balanced budget requires cuts to spending as well as the elimination of tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy. The other, which these Republicans favor, only sees spending on programs for the least fortunate as the problem.
House Republican leaders have moved from balking at big cuts in Medicaid and other programs to embracing them, driven by pent-up anger from fiscal conservatives concerned about runaway spending and the leadership's own weakening hold on power.
Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs. Only last month, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and other GOP leaders quashed demands within their party for budget cuts to pay for the soaring cost of hurricane relief.
I'm in favor of cutting farm subsidies in a controlled and drawn out manner. It is a reality of our globalized economy that farming can be done cheaper elsewhere. Not all farming of course, but a good portion of it.
But cuts to health care for the poor and food stamps? Is that compassionate conservativism?
I find it interesting that the impetus for this new wave of fiscal conservativism was Hurricane Katrina. It took a domestic disaster and a federal response to it to make Republican fiscal conservatives realize that there was no money left. Foreign wars with no end in sight were no matter, but the prospect of spending a lesser sum on Americans right here at home appalled Republicans. How dare we spend federal dollars on helping American citizens in Louisiana find a new home when we could be spending that money to rebuild a blown up road in Fallujah. Perhaps one day these Republican fiscal conservatives will realize this hypocrisy.
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