Shameless, shameful

I've been light in my blogging lately due to a number of "real life" (ugh!) circumstances, all of which are still ongoing.

But I simply can not let today's news pass without comment.

If you can hark back to mid-November we heard this news:

Washington -- House Republicans, after weeks of negotiations, narrowly passed a budget bill early Friday to cut $50 billion from Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other programs over the complaints of Democrats that Congress is squeezing students, the elderly and the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

The House approved the bill 217-215, after GOP leaders agreed to demands from moderate Republicans to jettison a measure to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and to slightly reduce proposed cuts to food stamps.

Still, the vote was so politically sensitive that House leaders didn't begin debate until 10 p.m. Thursday and didn't pass the measure until nearly 2 a.m. -- when most news reporters gone and only a few C-SPAN junkies could witness the fiery floor action. No Democrats voted for the bill, and 14 Republicans opposed it.

Gosh, a bill that takes food and healthcare away from poor children, why would that be "politically sensitive"? IFacing the massive budget deficits wrought by the disastrous war in Iraq, and the just plain disaster of hurricane Katrina, surely everyone, even poor, hungry children, needs to do their part, right?

Apparently, not quite everyone:

The House today passed a $56 billion tax cut bill that extends for two years a reduction in tax rates for capital gains and dividend income.

Nice, cut spending for poor children by $50 billion in November, then in December give $56 billion to the rich in December. That's a heckuva Thanksgiving kick in the crotch treat for the poor, and really one heckuva holiday Christmas gift to the rich.

Shameless
Shameful