GOP’s Debt Limit Ploy vs. the People

 Ralph Nader - 

Taken together, the GOP [proposed budget] cuts represent a congealed and vicious assault against defenseless Americans... Congressional history has rarely witnessed such a corrupt, cruel and explicit drive to turn the delegated sovereignty of the people against the citizenry.

The Republican-demanded cuts totally exclude the vast, bloated military budget, which amounts to over half of the entire federal government’s operational budget, and doesn’t reduce the huge corporate welfare giveaways and bailouts. Republicans leave intact the huge gaping tax escapes for super-wealthy individuals and giant corporations...

A partial litany of the latest heartless GOP horrors that will result from the budget cuts they are anticipated to propose include:

Reduced funding for nutrition programs for children; reduced Social Security benefits; increased processing delays from past GOP cuts in processing disability benefit decisions and retirement claims; cuts in Pell Grant award levels meant for about 6.6 million low-income college students; damage to federal child-care programs; and the potential elimination of some 170,000 Head Start program slots.

Fewer safety inspections of workplaces (by the already financially starved OSHA) fewer inspections of the railroads, and nursing homes. Tens of thousands of people could lose access to federally funded treatment for opioid addiction. Millions of people would not receive federal student loan forgiveness.

The GOP demands budget cuts to the health and safety agencies that protect the American people, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control system, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s  programs for auto safety and the Federal Emergency Management’s  emergency rescue programs.