Follow the Money

Want to know where Republican priorities are? Simple, follow the money. Start with corrupt lobbyists, crooked coin dealers disguised as Bush Pioneers, budgetary priorities. Once you see where the money is going, it's easy to see where the Radical Right places its interest. The money trail from your pocket to special interests would be a subject for quite a few books. This evening, I'll concentrate on a couple of more obvious, more recent Bush redistributions of wealth from poor to rich.

Starting with Homeland Security money. Reading Americablog today was quite entertaining on the subject. New York and Washington, cities with no notable landmarks or other targets of interest for terrorists, got their Homeland Security funding cut by 40 percent. Meanwhile, Louisville, Kentucky, Terre Haute, Indiana and a host of other Red State cities with notable landmarks (I guess Churchill Downs qualifies but what the hell is in Terre Haute, Hullman Field?) got the 40% the two cities actually hit by terrorists lost. Much like Frist's attempted $100 buyout of the ANWAR, this stinks of buying votes. It also goes a long way to prove that the "War on Terror" is a Republican publicity stunt, never effectively prosecuted and a pawn of political needs.

Also instructive is Bush's attempt to cut funds to the Industrial Technologies Program. This small US Energy Department program saves seven dollars for every dollar put into it in energy. In 2004, their lightweight auto body design saved about $9 billion in energy. This is exactly the type of program we need and exactly the kind that Bush and his Neocon buddies can't stomach - it's effective government. And Bush is cutting its funding by a third. Its budget already won't pay for a day's combat operations in Iraq but it's ripe for the cutting. The list of energy and money saving programs to be cut or eliminated is long, a partial list is presented in the source story here. It's much like his $32 million cut in the National Renewable Energy Lab here in Golden, $5 million of which were restored to restore cut jobs the day of Bush's visit to the lab, a reduction of a valuable program to meet the needs of his constituents (big oil) and his political views (neoconservativism - no government is good government).

Short-sightedness and ideology have also resulted in cuts in funding for and onerous restrictions to stem cell research. As a result, when the technologies for treating diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and others are developed, we'll be paying an European or Japanese company to use them. My fervent hope is that the short-sighted ideologues who hamper U. S. researchers in their quest for cures are faced with the moral dilema of taking stem cell treatments developed from human embryos or the complete loss of self to Alzheimers. I don't think many of these moralizers will choose the latter, do you?

Continuing with other examples, the tax cuts notably, could take up volumes and I'm certain that some day it will. In so many areas, the Republicans as represented by Dubya reveal their true agendas by where they spend the money. It isn't on us. I long for the day when we have a real press and informed Americans voting their own self-interest. In other words, I long for Democratic rule of this country.