Cut The Fat

It is no wonder that a number of my former and current colleagues in the press are critiquing the intransience and partisanship in Congress.

In point of fact. House Republicans a couple of days ago advanced a package of six bills. It is proposed legislation that would stop an already existing law from reducing military spending.

Here’s the rational. Cut the fat in order to provide 554 Billion dollars for the Pentagon. The Department of Defense only asked for 525 Billion, but the GOP controlled House Armed Services Committee’s bill added another 29 Billion just for good measure.

How is the GOP planning to pay for this since raising taxes is a Republican no-no?

Cut the fat by reducing monies from Medicaid, food stamps and other social services and programs that help the poor.

The GOP is trying to do is an end-run around the Budget Control Act. That’s the bill Congress passed last year that would make automatic cuts since a select bi-partisan committee failed to trim the budget.

The bills have no chance of getting through the Democrat controlled Senate, but ethical and moral questions of priorities remain. We are a nation of people and their needs and congress needs to be reminded of that every day.