The Brave New World Imposed by the "Moral Majority"

The party of "family values" and Christian pietudes has struck again. Are they attacking the rich who Jesus said were less likely to make it to heaven than a camel make it through the eye of a needle? Nope!

The religious right has decided -- yet again -- to attack the poor. To take food from the mouths of impoverished mothers and children. Yes, the Bible thumpers have notched another victory on their belt.

Here's a bit from a post on Robert Reich's blog:

We dodged another shut-down bullet, but only until November 18. That’s when the next temporary bill to keep the government going runs out. House Republicans want more budget cuts as their price for another stopgap spending bill.

Among other items, Republicans are demanding major cuts in a nutrition program for low-income women and children. The appropriation bill the House passed June 16 would deny benefits to more than 700,000 eligible low-income women and young children next year.

What kind of country are we living in?

The pious are happy to rush to their churches and push to the front so that God will see them and be pleased with them. These devout souls know that God keeps tally and you show your piety by your bank account. If you give a dollar to the poor like Jesus preached, you lose favour with God, so why listen to the junior partner when the big man, God himself, is telling you to hoard your cash to show your devine favour? So the religious right calls for tax cuts and more tax cuts. This is the manna from heaven that will let them pile up the little green bills that show God's accounting. So what if women and children starve? That's their problem.

The devout are winning hearts and minds in America. Here's Reich's tally:

It gets worse. Most federal programs to help children and lower-income families are in the so-called “non-defense discretionary” category of the federal budget. The congressional super-committee charged with coming up with $1.5 trillion of cuts eight weeks from now will almost certainly take a big whack at this category because it’s the easiest to cut. Unlike entitlements, these programs depend on yearly appropriations.

Even if the super-committee doesn’t agree (or even if they do, and Congress doesn’t approve of their proposal) an automatic trigger will make huge cuts in domestic discretionary spending.

It gets even worse. Drastic cuts are already underway at the state and local levels. Since the fiscal year began in July, states no longer receive about $150 billion in federal stimulus money — money that was used to fill gaps in state budgets over the last two years.

The result is a downward cascade of budget cuts – from the federal government to state governments and then to local governments – that are hurting most Americans but kids and lower-income families in particular.

So far this year, 23 states have reduced education spending. According to a survey of city finance officers released Tuesday by the National League of Cities, half of all American cities face cuts in state aid for education.

I love the hypocrisy of the religious right. Their God is the god of Mammon and they literally love to serve their Master.