A Big Red Boehner (And A Scary One At That)

I think he's trying to tell us something. I bet he gets a Boehner every time he thinks about cutting health care

I recently wrote a post that hinted about the arrogance of the venerable John Boehner (R). When I lived in Cleveland I heard a lot about this man and his policies even though I didn't live in his district, just like the people in Cincinnati heard a lot about Dennis Kucinich.

The two couldn't be further apart, Boehner is a style-over-substance guy who puts his own ego, party politics, and special interests before anything, including the "little people" who voted for him. Kucinich is one of the few politicians who has consistently stood up to and opposed big business to protect his constituents (the mob even authorized a hit on him for it and pressured the banks they controlled to put the squeeze on the city just to make him look bad). Kucinich votes his conscience and shoots from the hip without regard to his image, which has resulted in the media portraying him as a caricature rather than as one of the few half-decent politicians we have left.

As much as I criticize Cleveland for it's collective failures (which are many to be sure) and for it's problems that have gone uncorrected for so long they may as well be considered permanent, I'm really flabbergasted that somehow the people of Cleveland realized that Kucinich is on their side (or given my discouragement with all things political, that Kucinich is at least better than they alternative the voters are presented with every couple of years). So I don't say this much, but....uhhh...Kudos to Cleveland. You finally got one right.

To illustrate just how the Big Red Boehner legislates against the interests of his people, take a look at the open letter he sent to the President, and what he suggests cutting from the budget. Specifically, look at how many of the cuts are directed towards education and health, listed on page 3. The educational cuts are pretty obvious, a couple of the ones seeking to eliminate health benefits are hidden under terms like "non-motorized" transportation. One that involves both subjects is the Safe Routes to School Program, and he doesn't just want to reduce it, he wants to cut the whole damn thing.

It seems kinda funny that a guy who swears behind the idea that the government can't do anything right and that the government should stay out of people's lives, is going to take away your child's options for getting to school and force them to ride the bus. He's trying to take away a lot of things that when viewed in it's totality, appears that he just wants everybody to be lazy and stupid. Here's a summary of what the Boehner wants:

1. Consolidate Federal Arts Programs

2. Refocus the National Science Foundation on Hard Sciences

3. Refocus the National Park Service on Administering Federal Parks

4. Refocus Federal Land and Water Conservation Funding On Federal Projects

5. Refocus National Archives Activities on Preserving Federal Records

6. Terminate HUD Program for Doctoral Dissertations

7. Terminate Funding for Unnecessary International Organizations

8. Terminate Funding for the National Drug Intelligence Center

9. Terminate Funding for the State Justice Institute

10. Consolidate and Reduce Funding for Federal Advisory Committees

11. Suspend Federal Land Purchases

12. Terminate Safe Routes to Schools Program

13. Terminate New Federal Truck Parking Facilities Program That Competes with Private TruckStops

14. Terminate Federal Transportation Funding for “Non-motorized” Transportation Projects

15. Eliminate Federal Transportation Funding for Landscaping, Museums, and OtherTransportation “Enhancements”

16. Eliminate Unnecessary Federal Offices Such as the Treasurer of theUnited States

17. Terminating Duplicative Education Programs

18. Terminating Ineffective Federal Education Programs

19. Terminate Non-Federal Priorities and Single Recipient Programs

20. Terminate Funding for the DOD Innovative Readiness Training Program

When you look at the breakdown of some of his proposed reductions and eliminations, it can be downright shocking. Like with the duplicative educational and single recipient programs, many of them aren't really duplicates, they were created to fill in gaps and needs that the original program didn't cover. Plus, people will go unhelped when you kill half the funding, no matter from what source. Sure you'll eliminate some overlap, but the original program that's left will now have twice the people to help with no parallel increase in funding. It would be smarter to consolidate the programs and lower costs through efficiencies of scale, not just eliminate a program across the board-at least where the health and educational programs are concerned. Besides, Alaska needs all the education they can get so they quit voting for an egomaniacal simpleton who can't read, the country already had one of them once before and he just about destroyed the world, not just our economy.

Much like the unexpected praise for Cleveland earlier, I will give credit where credit is due. At least the Big Red Boehner recommends eliminating the Market Access Program (MAP), which is nothing more than government subsidizing of overseas advertising for already profitable food producers (if Sunkist can be considered food). But if I didn't know any better I would bet that some of his big campaign contributors are also competitors of the MAP recipients. His connections to big business certainly explains his pro-oil, anti-health stance. For the rest, I just guess he likes 'em stupid, or that's what he thought about everyone to begin with and he doesn't want them wising up.