speechless

I have never meant for this to be a political blog. I've always tried very hard to ignore the world of politics and stick to things in my own sphere of control. But lately, that's getting harder and harder.

After reading this article (from a biased source, obviously, but still), I just don't know what to do anymore (not that this is the first time I've found myself fed up with the direction our country seems to be going). In quick summary, according to the article by Matt Taibbi (who I've never read before, and who writes for Rolling Stone, a publication for which I have essentially no respect, so take it with a grain of salt), President Bush has proposed a 2008 federal budget that would:

- save the Walton family (of Wal-Mart fame) about $32.7 billion dollars in taxes over the next ten years, while cutting $28 billion from Medicaid over the same time frame.

- save the heirs to the Mars candy corporation $11.7 billion in taxes while cutting $3.4 billion from the VA budget. (Although, I'm finding additional information about this on the VAIW website, saying "the GOP is planning to cut $15 billion from the veteran programs over the next 10 years.")

- save the Cox family (of Cox cable TV) $9.7 billion in taxes, while cutting the education budget by $1.5 billion.

- save the Nordstrom family (of Nordstrom dept. stores) $826.5 million in taxes while cutting Community Service Block Grants budget by $630 million.

- save the Ernest Gallo family (of the "largest winemaker in the world") $468.4 million in taxes while cutting funds from LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) by $420 million

- save the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, about $164 million in tax breaks while eliminating the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, cutting $108 million over ten years from the budget. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.

I have so many thoughts on this, but I just don't know what to say.

I want to note that the article makes some attacks about unimportant news that has been amazingly overshadowing these issues, and while I don't condone the fact that the author makes personal attacks and resorts to lots of name-calling at celebrities that have been in the news lately, I can't say I blame him for getting worked up about these figures.

That's all I can say about this. If you care, leave a comment.