The Bait & Switch continues

Thomas Frank in his book "What's the Matter with Kansas" details, in a thorough and entertaining way, the "Bait & Switch" techniques of some Neo-Conservatives currently in power. It is these methods he asserts that amount to the majority of Americans being tricked into voting against their own economic interests. For instance they elect a politician who is pro-life but the only thing they really get in return is ...something like...cuts in their school budgets. We are now seeing this become all too true but will this country WAKE UP! Turn off American Idol. Lower your Jessica Simpson CD. Put down your bong. Shut off your talk radio. Skip the "Revenge of the Space Monkeys part VII" blockbusters and READ THE DAMN NEWS. Watch Cspan. See what your politicians, whose salary YOU pay, are doing with your money on their time. Middle America supposedly VOTED for the War On Terror, Moral Values, Tax-Cuts, and against Gay Marriage. But would they have still voted this way if they knew what they would really get. Read below to see what we REALLY GET. Read this clip from the AP news. "House Approves Cuts to Labor Programs" Associated Press Writer Funding for job training, rural health care, low-income schools and help for people lacking health insurance would face big cuts under a bill passed Friday by the House. The cuts include the outright elimination of 48 programs whose current budgets total $1 billion. Among the programs to be eliminated is the Healthy Communities Access Program, currently funded at $83 million, which helps communities offer health care to the uninsured. Also eliminated is the $205 million budget for an Education Department grant program targeted at low-income and underachievers schools. The cuts are the result of Bush's tight budget for federal programs outside of the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. Congress hewed to Bush's demands when passing its budget in April and is implementing an almost 1 percent cut to domestic programs through passage of 11 spending bills. In practice, that translates to an 84 percent cut from $300 million down to $47 million in training programs for doctors and nurses, and $806 million in cuts to Bush's No Child Left Behind education initiative, a more than 3 percent drop. Grants for local community-action agencies that help the poor would be cut in half, to $320 million. ...The National Institutes of Health, whose budget has doubled in recent years, would be held to a less than 1 percent increase. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would absorb a 5 percent cut from current funding. ...On Friday, the House also voted 219-185 to go on record against a Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation agreement with United Airlines letting United dump its employee-pension plans and their $9.8 billion shortfall on the PBGC, which could mean pension cuts of 25 percent to 50 percent for more than 120,000 United workers and retirees." Scary stuff eh? If you wanna read the whole article for yourself here you go To read the excellent book by Thomas Frank go here