by Judith Gayle

A Revelation Moment

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

The budget of the most prosperous nation on the planet is in a spin. The GOP House of Representatives threatens to use its power of the purse to shut down government services, strangling the domestic programs most of us rely on. As politicians wrangle over the numbers, the current welfare and future growth of the U.S. are in jeopardy, along with the well-being of nations around the world. With billions going out in foreign aid, Uncle Sam is everybody’s rich relative.

Vice President Joe Biden arrives to meet with House and Senate leaders to discuss the federal budget, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday. Congress is considering two budgets - one from Republicans and one from Democrats, but budget-watchers say that a long-term agreement on spending is unlikely. Analysts point out that Republicans don't feel they need to compromise, and Democrats say they have already compromised enough. Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP.
Vice President Joe Biden arrives to meet with House and Senate leaders to discuss the federal budget, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday. Congress is considering two budgets - one from Republicans and one from Democrats, but budget-watchers say that a long-term agreement on spending is unlikely. Analysts point out that Republicans don't feel they need to compromise, and Democrats say they have already compromised enough. Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP.

This particular political moment is as serious as a heart attack. Let me put that another way — this is a serious attack on the heart. Consider who and what are at risk. The Republicans call for 100 billion in yearly funding cuts that dramatically affect community health centers, Pell grants, Head Start, children’s nutritional programs, Planned Parenthood, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, food aid for the poor, PBS, NPR, nuclear non-proliferation, wilderness and animal protection programs, national parks, and any hope of an effective EPA. There are proposed cuts to public services like Social Security and public safety programs such as Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Imagine what our country would be like without those things. That anyone would want to curtail them is mind-boggling. Our social contract is under the gun. Republicans’ frenzied attacks are sold to the public as emergency measures, but are actually thinly disguised assaults on the last traces of FDR’s policy of government intervention to benefit citizens. Anyone actually interested in balancing the budget would have supported the public option in health care reform and refused to extend tax breaks across the board. Now suddenly the Republicans are fiscally conservative, spreading their message of accountability and tough love? Really?

Could it be possible that the American people have the attention span of a gnat? Have we lost all memory of the eight years prior to the last two? Can’t we remember how we got in this dreadful fix and who brought us to this moment? With the exception of Scooter Libby, nobody in Bush’s administration went to jail for willfully mugging our democratic principals, just as no Wall Street executive has been made to take legal responsibility for full-scale fraud. We can’t have forgotten that, can we?

Read more