Quotes of the Morning: Its Good to Be the King

“The Senate approved sweeping deficit-reduction legislation last night that would save about $35 billion over the next five years …”
-Washington Post, November 4, 2005

“Hey, saving money is always a good thing. I’m sure that they’ve probably rolled back some of the tax cuts to the wealthy and stuff like that. They’ll keep the important stuff.”
-Skippy

“…by cutting federal spending on prescription drugs, agriculture supports and student loans, while clamping down on fraud in the Medicaid program.
The measure would also open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, a long-sought goal of the oil industry that took a major step forward after years of political struggle. A bipartisan effort to strip the drilling provision narrowly failed.”
-Washington Post, November 4, 2005

“Ok.. Student loans aren’t really where I’d want to be cutting the budget, but I’m sure that it just goes along with rolling back the tax cuts.”
-Skippy

“House Republicans are pushing to cut tens of thousands of legal immigrants off food stamps, partially reversing President Bush's efforts to win Latino votes by restoring similar cuts made in the 1990s.
The food stamp measure is just one of several provisions in an expansive congressional budget-cutting package that critics say unfairly targets the poor and disadvantaged, especially poor children.
[…]
The food stamp cuts in the House measure would knock nearly 300,000 people off nutritional assistance programs, including 70,000 legal immigrants, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Those immigrants would lose their benefits because the House measure would require legal immigrants to live in the United States for seven years before becoming eligible to receive food stamps, rather than the current five years.
About 40,000 children would lose eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches, the CBO estimated.
[…]
Such issues have created deep divisions between the conservatives pushing the cuts and Republican moderates, who fear the measure is going too far. A separate House measure would scale back federal administrative aid to state child-support enforcement programs, saving the federal government nearly $5 billion over five years but potentially cutting child-support collections even more.
Still another House provision would roll back a court-ordered expansion of foster care support, denying foster care payments to relatives who take in children removed from their parents' homes by court order. That provision would reduce the coverage of foster care payments to about 4,000 children a month and cut $397 million from the program through 2010, the CBO said.”
-Washington Post, November 2, 2005

“Um.. This seems a little.. what’s the word.. insane to me. You don’t cut benefits for the poor when they’re already barely keeping it together. But I’m sure that everyone, rich and poor, will be called on to do their part in trimming the budget.”
-Skippy

“But some Republicans worry that social service cuts, though relatively small, might have outsized political ramifications, especially when Republicans move in the coming weeks to cut taxes for the fifth time in as many years. Those tax cuts, totaling $70 billion over five years, would more than offset the deficit reduction that would result from the budget cuts.
‘The problem is the interrelationship between cutting taxes, which no matter what you do will be viewed as cutting taxes for the rich, and reducing programs for the poor,’ said moderate Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.). ‘It's that simple.’"
-Washington Post, November 2, 2005

“Hey, cutting those programs hurts everyone, not just the poor. Now Donald Trump and Paris Hilton won’t be able to get student loans or food stamps either.”
-Skippy

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, or to steal bread."
-Anatole France

“We have to make these cuts because government spending is out of control. And we all know who to blame for that.”
-Skippy

“Republicans may control Congress and the White House, but a leading House Republican says they can't be blamed for runaway federal spending on their watch.
Blame it on the war, said Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Or the Democrats.
[…]
‘We've been operating off a Congress designed by Democrats,’ he said.
The Republicans took control of Congress in 1995.”
-Knight Ridder Newspapers, November 3, 2005

“And Mr. DeLay understands out of control spending. Heck, just to ship him back and forth in the two days after his indictment Fox News Sunday had to give him $14,000. That of course did not include dining or a place to stay. It’s a tough life.”
-Skippy

“It’s good to be the king.”
-Mel Brooks, History of the World Part I