And the beat goes on...
Late last night, the 2006 Budget for our United States of America passed both the House and Senate floors. The margins were extremely close, considering the make-up of the two houses, with the bill passing the House 214-211 and the Senate 52-47. As you probably deduced from the numbers, there were no Democratic crossovers in either house.
I'm really glad that the Democrats stood firm to try and defeat this budget and got some Republicans to cross the aisle, but seeing the budget pass deeply troubles me. The budget, drafted primarily by the "Party of Fiscal Responsibility," leaves us with a $382 billion deficit, while continuing tax cuts which this year will cost $106 billion in revenue. There will also, obviously, be cuts to federal programs totaling $35 billion, with Medicaid losing big. Plus (Fucking, have you read an overview of this mother fucker?), defense spending is, as always the bulk of the budget at $438.9 billion (FUCK!), but homeland security, which I've sort of thought of as a part of defense, is getting fucking $49.9 billion while the current wars are getting fucking $50 billion together. We're spending around $540-550 billion to kill or otherwise harass people, yet we still can't afford health care for all our citizens. I guess all I can do is quote the words of our president from just last night as he fled the podium at his first press conference of his second term, "God bless our country."
Speaking of that press conference, I'm pretty sure Bush planned his address last night as a way to fill up the pundits' plates with his comments and keep the budget debate out of the public eye. As divided as the entire legislature was on this bill, the public needed to hear the debate taking place and understand the reprecussions of this budget's passage. Instead, they saw Bush taking softball questions from the corporate media tricks. I've said it before and I will continue to say it until the day I die: Our nation must have an independent, unbaised, investigative, unhindered source of media if true Democracy is to survive. Right now, that just doesn't seem to be the case.
On a side note, I had access to a television briefly last night and caught a little bit of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the floor giving his closing remarks in the debate. He spoke about the immorality of the budget because of the deficits and cuts it will cause, actually going so far as to quote religious leaders' statements which had been sent to him denouncing the budget. I have to say, Harry, buddy, I love ya, but please be careful when playing the religion card on the floor.
UPDATE: I am still looking through the voting records from last night, but I would like to publish that Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK) was present, to my surprise, and cast a vote of 'no' for all y'all in the Second District. The rest of the Oklahoma delegation voted in favor of the budget.
I'm really glad that the Democrats stood firm to try and defeat this budget and got some Republicans to cross the aisle, but seeing the budget pass deeply troubles me. The budget, drafted primarily by the "Party of Fiscal Responsibility," leaves us with a $382 billion deficit, while continuing tax cuts which this year will cost $106 billion in revenue. There will also, obviously, be cuts to federal programs totaling $35 billion, with Medicaid losing big. Plus (Fucking, have you read an overview of this mother fucker?), defense spending is, as always the bulk of the budget at $438.9 billion (FUCK!), but homeland security, which I've sort of thought of as a part of defense, is getting fucking $49.9 billion while the current wars are getting fucking $50 billion together. We're spending around $540-550 billion to kill or otherwise harass people, yet we still can't afford health care for all our citizens. I guess all I can do is quote the words of our president from just last night as he fled the podium at his first press conference of his second term, "God bless our country."
Speaking of that press conference, I'm pretty sure Bush planned his address last night as a way to fill up the pundits' plates with his comments and keep the budget debate out of the public eye. As divided as the entire legislature was on this bill, the public needed to hear the debate taking place and understand the reprecussions of this budget's passage. Instead, they saw Bush taking softball questions from the corporate media tricks. I've said it before and I will continue to say it until the day I die: Our nation must have an independent, unbaised, investigative, unhindered source of media if true Democracy is to survive. Right now, that just doesn't seem to be the case.
On a side note, I had access to a television briefly last night and caught a little bit of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the floor giving his closing remarks in the debate. He spoke about the immorality of the budget because of the deficits and cuts it will cause, actually going so far as to quote religious leaders' statements which had been sent to him denouncing the budget. I have to say, Harry, buddy, I love ya, but please be careful when playing the religion card on the floor.
UPDATE: I am still looking through the voting records from last night, but I would like to publish that Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK) was present, to my surprise, and cast a vote of 'no' for all y'all in the Second District. The rest of the Oklahoma delegation voted in favor of the budget.
posted by TheJobey @ 4/29/2005 02:15:00 PM
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