One of the things I try not to do is write angry. Even when I feel passionate about something, I tend to write slow; I prefer to let things breathe for a day or two, gather my thoughts and put down composed, reflective thoughts. It also prevents me from going crazy with curse words. As a native New Yorker, I speak English first and swear second. (Sometimes, the two are reversed.)
Thursday, our walking, living, breathing disaster of a president and his puppet masters unveiled their short form budget. Essentially, the skeleton of a budget that sets what the priorities should be as the budget is crafted for the next fiscal year.
Among the things on the chopping block from this White House: Meals on Wheels (!) and funding for after school programs for kids. At some of those after school programs, food is provided. As some folks know, the meal(s) that a kid eats at school might be the only food that they see that day.
When I saw the following words from White House Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, while discussing the budget outline, my natural tendency to pause went out the window.
Mick Mulvaney…and Donald Trump…and Steve Bannon (a white nationalist, in case you forgot) apparently don’t think that’s a big deal:
Let’s talk about after school programs generally… they’re supposed to help kids who don’t get fed at home get fed so they do better in school. Guess what? There’s no demonstrable evidence they’re actually doing that… no demonstrable evidence that they are actually helping results, helping kids do ….
When I see those words, I’m not inclined to write slow anymore. I’m not really that interested in trying to be composed and reflective.
I’m pissed the fuck off.
Because, silly me, I never thought that feeding the poor was supposed to be run through some sort of cost-benefit analysis. I never thought that hungry elderly people and starving kids would be used as a negotiating point.
What in the ever living fuck is this bullshit?
To be fair, as some early analysis (and dystopian visions) came down, it’s pretty apparent that this budget offers a view of an America that would be infinitely worse off if it came to pass: Less educated, less creative, less healthy…and even less safe.
This orange motherfucker keeps prattling on about “Making America Great Again.” There is a line of thinking that he wants to engage in war because he grew up during a wartime economy, and that is most likely his vision of when America was last great.
(Actually, that probably explains his affinity for running with the White Nationalist crowd, if we are to be honest.)
But when you pair a rampant, megalomaniacal narcissist with a fascination with strongmen, with an advisor in Steve Bannon who apparently thinks the Left Behind series of books is fact, not fiction; add in a spineless, gutless, pandering, sycophantic House Leader in Paul Ryan who thinks Ayn Rand’s Objectivism is something to believe in and enforce, well, you wind up with the shitshow we have now.
Hopefully there are enough votes in Congress to prevent this from happening; that there aren’t 10 Democratic Senators that could be persuaded to enact this suicidal budget. Of course, in 2017, who knows what might happen.
Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call for the electorate: All of the shit that this blustery, small fingered vulgarian said that he would do for you…was nothing but an out and out lie. He doesn’t care about you. You don’t matter. You were simply a means to an end that enriches him.
Strap in, folks. It’s time for us to hold on to our butts.
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