Friday, June 24, 2005
House Votes to Restore Funding for CPB
I have had a worrisome week. A House of Representatives committee voted to remove one hundred million dollars in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Fortunately a whole lot of people wrote, phoned, faxed, and e-mailed their Representatives to demand that the funding be restored. It was. But, because of “budget constraints,” the hundred million will be take out of other programs. None will come out of the Defense Budget, of course.
I heard the term “budget constraint” and wanted to scream. The budget constraint is a completely artificial thing, introduced by George Bush in the form of tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers. If the tax rates were put back to what they were just before Bush took office, there would be no “budget constraint.”
We were warned years ago that if Republicans ever got their way, they would try to starve government so that it wouldn’t have money to pay for Social Security, Medicare, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and other programs that don’t benefit the wealthy supporters of the GOP. Smaller Government is the slogan. The policy would be applied also to local governments. A big step in that direction was the “tax revolt” of the the 1980’s. Californians passed Proposition 13 that drastically reduced property taxes and consequently the revenue available to local governments to provide good schools, adequate policing, adequate fire protection, adequate hospitals, and other useful services. The chief proponent of Proposition 13, Howard Jarvis, argued that government shouldn’t provide free libraries for the public.
We’ve put the Republicans in charge of the federal government and we’re getting what we deserve.
I heard the term “budget constraint” and wanted to scream. The budget constraint is a completely artificial thing, introduced by George Bush in the form of tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers. If the tax rates were put back to what they were just before Bush took office, there would be no “budget constraint.”
We were warned years ago that if Republicans ever got their way, they would try to starve government so that it wouldn’t have money to pay for Social Security, Medicare, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and other programs that don’t benefit the wealthy supporters of the GOP. Smaller Government is the slogan. The policy would be applied also to local governments. A big step in that direction was the “tax revolt” of the the 1980’s. Californians passed Proposition 13 that drastically reduced property taxes and consequently the revenue available to local governments to provide good schools, adequate policing, adequate fire protection, adequate hospitals, and other useful services. The chief proponent of Proposition 13, Howard Jarvis, argued that government shouldn’t provide free libraries for the public.
We’ve put the Republicans in charge of the federal government and we’re getting what we deserve.
