If you appreciate the perfect mix of information laced graphics with deep messages and cogent commentary, you really should visit the Connect The Dots USA Facebook Page or website. (I prefer the website).
The illustration genius of Connect The Dots USA is only surpassed by the cogent verse of its creator and developer. She is a committed progressive who worked tirelessly in support of the Affordable Care Act; the life sustaining legislation was enacted to law and has withstood two significant SCOTUS challenges. Her work of late has been in education about the US Debt, Deficits and refuting Right-wig manipulation regarding both.
Well, it’s looking more and more like we may have another federal govt shutdown in nine days. Not only are the right-wingers threatening to hold America hostage over their Planned Parenthood crusade, the savage austerity budget that passed the Republican House and Senate last May has no chance of getting a signature from President Obama or garnering many Democratic votes (which Speaker Boehner will desperately need once the Planned Parenthood scheme goes awry).
In this graphic, I illustrate the GOP’s slash & burn dream budget. The ten-year budget proposal that passed both chambers last May is a down payment on that scorched earth vision. Here are some of the low-lights:
• Cuts domestic spending $5 Trillion over ten years, with nearly two-thirds of cuts from programs for low to modest incomes — shrinking them an average 38% by 2025. (Hey, how else could they pay for their billionaire tax cuts?)
• Cuts Medicaid by $135 B/yr and repeals ACA subsidies of $85 B/yr, kicking 27 Million Americans off health insurance. Ultimately, they want to block grant Medicaid and kill it.
• Cuts $43 B/yr from Medicare, but repeals the ACA’s prescription drug benefit. Even worse, Republicans want to voucherize Medicare, shift more costs to seniors, raise the eligibility age to 67 years, and ultimately kill it.
• Cuts Income Security programs by $60B/yr, including $13 B/yr from SNAP (food stamps).
• Cuts Non-Defense Discretionary by $50 B/yr more on top of the 2013 draconian sequester cuts of $37 B/yr, including $19 B/yr from Transportation, $22 B/yr from Higher Ed and $2 B/yr from Veterans’ Health.
• But it boosts base Pentagon $38B/yr by using a backdoor gimmick through emergency OCO (Overseas Contingency Operations = the Wars) funding to blow through the sequestration caps. Because… of course it does. (Note: Today, the word is Republicans are trying to get $87B for the OCO slush fund).
Nearly every Republican in the House and Senate voted for this brutal budget, except for the ones who wanted even more cuts like presidential candidates Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. So don’t talk to me about moderate Republicans — they are as non-existent as unicorns.
It reveals their priorities that Republicans are willing to spend an endless amount of money on wars but will not invest in America’s infrastructure, schools or people. Oh no, we can’t afford that! As President Obama lamented, they paint a deeply pessimistic vision of America’s future: ”It’s a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can’t afford to fix them. If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can’t afford to send them…” To quote Van Jones, that’s some “cheap patriotism”!
End Connect The Dots USA
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