The new budget

So much for turning swords into ploughshares...how about turning ploughshares into swords?

That is what our president wants to do:

"President Bush submitted a $2.77 trillion budget plan to Congress today that calls for cutting the growth of Medicare and putting tight limits on most spending not related to national security. Mr. Bush also repeated his call for Congress to make tax cuts passed earlier in his administration permanent. In his message to Congress, Mr. Bush emphasized money allocated to the departments of defense and homeland security, which would see increases of 7 percent and 8 percent if the budget were adopted (from the New York Times, 2/6/2006).

Ours is a society rife with need and poverty. 15.7% of Americans have no health insurance. 11% of American children have no health insurance, and approximately four million low-income children under the age of 12 experience hunger each year. A recent study of 27 U.S. cities found that in 2004, 23% of all requests for emergency shelter went unmet due to lack of resources. For families, the numbers are even worse: 32% of emergency shelter requests from families were denied (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2004). 3.5 million Americans experience some period of homelessness each year, and most of these are working families or individuals. And it goes on and on...

So why are we allowing our government to turn its back on the poor and needy?

We are mortgaging our future and starving our people. Why do we not question what our leaders are doing? Why do we follow, thoughtlessly, like sheep?

This is insanity.