People Before Politics
I find myself almost wishing that the Rapture did happen Saturday.
Dramatic, I know, but there is just so much sorrow and disgust in my heart over the actions of the human race. Specifically, the Republicans in the US Congress.
First we have Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is saying the House won't vote to provide aid to tornado victims without budget cuts elsewhere. Now, pay-as-you-go measures are obviously (literally; it's just common sense) awesome and should definitely be implemented. (Although, I will point out that it was Bush who let the pay-as-you-go requirement expire in the first place.) BUT the time to do this isn't when you have people dying in the streets. It really, really isn't.
We also have the whole debt ceiling fiasco. The US has hit our debt limit, meaning we cannot borrow any more money to pay off our debts. This is a recurring thing; Congresspeople always vote against it once, on principle, and then the Fed comes out with dire predictions about what will happen if we don't raise it, and the second vote passes. But now, we have an impasse, with leaders signalling they will only approve an increase if we also have massive budget cuts. Meanwhile, the Treasury department is forced to make ends meet by tapping into federal employee's pension funds. That is people's retirement money. They need that.
AND don't even get me started on the Medicare changes proposed by Paul Ryan. The CBO clearly says that under the plan, seniors will pay more for their health care. Out-of-pocket costs will increase for these people who have no money. They say that some people "will choose not to purchase insurance" and thus be at risk of losing everything if something catastrophic happens. (And, PPACA will be effectively nullified due to lack of funding, so that's nothing to stop those people from going without insurance and not provisions against denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. SO the seniors with such conditions would either (a)pay even MORE because rates would be hire or (b)not have insurance to defray costs of treatment. In short, the people who need insurance the most and who have the least ability to pay will be paying the most or going without.)
I'm feeling rather generous- I'll admit that the goal of deficit reduction is an admirable one. But the fact remains that people are suffering. At some point, the well-being of the disadvantaged has to come before politics, before the pettiness and ambition that makes up Washington. PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN POLITICS.
The thing that irks me the most- enrages me, even- is that these people represent themselves as Christian. How is it remotely Christian to ignore the plight of others? Rather, aren't we supposed to selflessly help the poor, the needy, anyone? Jesus said we should get rid of all our possessions, give them to the poor, in order to follow Him. While that sounds extreme in today's world, the point behind it is not- selflessness. Generosity. And the paradox is that church-going people give money to the church for use for the poor, yet they don't want to pay taxes to the government for the support of programs like Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, etc etc, which do the same thing. It can't be that different... People probably get turned off by the bureaucracy of the government and are concerned that their money isn't going to actually help, despite the ridiculous (or, not really, in my opinion) portion of our annual budget that goes to just SS and Medicare.
Honestly, I blame the Tea Party. They are so far to the right that it is ridiculous. Look at a similar situation that happened six years ago, with Katrina. Tom DeLay knew that it was important to help the citizens of Louisiana above all else, so he approved deficit spending in order to get money to do so. THIS is why we have government: to help the people. I think he definitely made the right call.
Then, he immediately got bashed by conservatives for not cutting from somewhere else. Which is why Cantor took his stance, I think. Especially because Tea Partiers are already unhappy that he isn't "conservative enough" and they want to replace him with someone else. Someone more extreme. Who will propose even more ludicrous things.
Many Democrats are happy about the extremism on the other side, because it increases our chances in 2012. (They cite New York 26, by the way, where the Democrat won handily in a heavily-Republican area as a result of the Medicare plan.) But I'm not. It terrifies me. Because if they run, they could win. And if they win, we'll have more of this kind of stuff going on, and that's unacceptable.
It was Ronald Reagan who said "A hungry child knows no politics." The Republicans in Congress should take a page out of Reagan's book, especially considering they admire the man so very much, and recognize that sick seniors, weather-ravaged families, and workers' retirements know no politics, either. Helping people should go before all of the partisanship.
Dramatic, I know, but there is just so much sorrow and disgust in my heart over the actions of the human race. Specifically, the Republicans in the US Congress.
First we have Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is saying the House won't vote to provide aid to tornado victims without budget cuts elsewhere. Now, pay-as-you-go measures are obviously (literally; it's just common sense) awesome and should definitely be implemented. (Although, I will point out that it was Bush who let the pay-as-you-go requirement expire in the first place.) BUT the time to do this isn't when you have people dying in the streets. It really, really isn't.
We also have the whole debt ceiling fiasco. The US has hit our debt limit, meaning we cannot borrow any more money to pay off our debts. This is a recurring thing; Congresspeople always vote against it once, on principle, and then the Fed comes out with dire predictions about what will happen if we don't raise it, and the second vote passes. But now, we have an impasse, with leaders signalling they will only approve an increase if we also have massive budget cuts. Meanwhile, the Treasury department is forced to make ends meet by tapping into federal employee's pension funds. That is people's retirement money. They need that.
AND don't even get me started on the Medicare changes proposed by Paul Ryan. The CBO clearly says that under the plan, seniors will pay more for their health care. Out-of-pocket costs will increase for these people who have no money. They say that some people "will choose not to purchase insurance" and thus be at risk of losing everything if something catastrophic happens. (And, PPACA will be effectively nullified due to lack of funding, so that's nothing to stop those people from going without insurance and not provisions against denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. SO the seniors with such conditions would either (a)pay even MORE because rates would be hire or (b)not have insurance to defray costs of treatment. In short, the people who need insurance the most and who have the least ability to pay will be paying the most or going without.)
I'm feeling rather generous- I'll admit that the goal of deficit reduction is an admirable one. But the fact remains that people are suffering. At some point, the well-being of the disadvantaged has to come before politics, before the pettiness and ambition that makes up Washington. PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN POLITICS.
The thing that irks me the most- enrages me, even- is that these people represent themselves as Christian. How is it remotely Christian to ignore the plight of others? Rather, aren't we supposed to selflessly help the poor, the needy, anyone? Jesus said we should get rid of all our possessions, give them to the poor, in order to follow Him. While that sounds extreme in today's world, the point behind it is not- selflessness. Generosity. And the paradox is that church-going people give money to the church for use for the poor, yet they don't want to pay taxes to the government for the support of programs like Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, etc etc, which do the same thing. It can't be that different... People probably get turned off by the bureaucracy of the government and are concerned that their money isn't going to actually help, despite the ridiculous (or, not really, in my opinion) portion of our annual budget that goes to just SS and Medicare.
Honestly, I blame the Tea Party. They are so far to the right that it is ridiculous. Look at a similar situation that happened six years ago, with Katrina. Tom DeLay knew that it was important to help the citizens of Louisiana above all else, so he approved deficit spending in order to get money to do so. THIS is why we have government: to help the people. I think he definitely made the right call.
Then, he immediately got bashed by conservatives for not cutting from somewhere else. Which is why Cantor took his stance, I think. Especially because Tea Partiers are already unhappy that he isn't "conservative enough" and they want to replace him with someone else. Someone more extreme. Who will propose even more ludicrous things.
Many Democrats are happy about the extremism on the other side, because it increases our chances in 2012. (They cite New York 26, by the way, where the Democrat won handily in a heavily-Republican area as a result of the Medicare plan.) But I'm not. It terrifies me. Because if they run, they could win. And if they win, we'll have more of this kind of stuff going on, and that's unacceptable.
It was Ronald Reagan who said "A hungry child knows no politics." The Republicans in Congress should take a page out of Reagan's book, especially considering they admire the man so very much, and recognize that sick seniors, weather-ravaged families, and workers' retirements know no politics, either. Helping people should go before all of the partisanship.