BY GARY EDMONDSON
Small children are ripped from their mothers’ arms and put in cages in the United States of America.
But they’re not your kids. No problem.
An American student visiting North Korea thinks a poster of “The Little Rocket Man” would be a neat souvenir. He gets sentenced to 15 years hard labor and is tortured to death within 16 months.
But he’s not your grandkid. So, when the U.S. president takes the word of the most heinous dictator in the world that said dictator was unaware of the brutality, you can ignore it as you’ve ignored the lying, cheating and fraud that constitute the man’s public record.
The president’s trade war with China has decimated soybean farmers throughout the Midwest. But soybeans aren’t much of an Oklahoma crop.
“It ain’t hard to get along with somebody else’s troubles.”
Then, the president unveils his budget proposal for 2020.
Here were the headlines at Think Progress after it was made public.
“Trump’s 2020 budget proposed $1 trillion cut to Medicare, Medicaid.”
“Trump budget proposal for Social Security shrinks disability insurance, extends wait times.”
“Trump budget cuts take aim at science and the environment.”
“Trump to propose massive renewable energy cuts, something Republicans don’t even want.”
“Trump prioritizes school choice, charter schools in latest budget proposal.”
Yes, Mr., Mrs., Miss and Ms. Complacency, it’s your turn in the barrel of Republican abuse.
Someone has to pick up the tab for last years’ GOP tax scam for the wealthy.
Of special note for Oklahoma is the report from indianz.com: “The Trump Administration has finally released its budget proposal and the numbers aren’t looking good for Indian Country. Big cuts are being sought at the agencies that fund almost every single tribal program.”
Joan McCarter of the Daily Kos puts the Medicare cuts at $846 million. She cites the reaction of Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals:
“The impact on care for seniors would be devastating. Hospitals are less and less able to cover the cost of care for Medicare patients; it is no time to gut Medicare.”
McCarter points out the obvious: the Democratic House will never approve these cuts. But wise citizens should bear in mind that these cuts are “Republican orthodoxy.”
Indeed, before the GOP lost control of the House, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was planning massive Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts himself.
In December, Walter Einenkel of the Daily Kos reported how Senate Republicans stopped a bill that would “extend veterans’ benefits to the numerous men who served off the coast of Vietnam during the war. Many of these men have had to spend a considerable part of their lives trying to prove that they were exposed to Agent Orange, leading to some, if not most, of their health problems.”
Luckily, we have a Democratic House standing between seniors, veterans, the poor and the rest of us and the health and financial devastation the GOP would inflict upon them.
– Duncan resident Gary Edmondson is chair of the Stephens County Democratic Party
