THE REST OF THE DEFICIT REDUCTION STORY

I just received my IL Sixth District Congressman Peter Roskam's email bulletin titled "We did it", which trumpeted his Republican Party's passing $61 billion in spending cuts in the continuing resolution to fund the government. "We're forcing government to live within its means, and stop binge spending that has hurt our economy", Roskam averred.

The four paragraph email however, had nary a word about what was cut and more tellingly, what was not cut. In the interest of full disclosure I will comment on both omissions.

First the cuts.

Pell Grants to college students are cut by 15%, making college less affordable to 8 million college students at a time when our economic competitors such as China and India are putting the vital need of educated professionals on a fast track

Head Start loses $1 billion, wiping out up to 55,000 teacher and instructor jobs and demoting up to 200,000 underprivileged kids from the fast track to the snail track

Scratch $700 million for Title 1 grants to particularly needy school districts which will negatively impact 2,400 schools serving 1 million students. Oh yes, another 10,000 instructor and aide jobs go bye-bye

The Americorp program, started by President Clinton and increased 50% by President George W. Bush, will be wiped out entirely, ending this invaluable program in which 75,000 idealistic folks yearly volunteer in low wage jobs promoting educational and environmental projects

Food safety? The FDA's food inspection program loses just $100 million but that is on top of an already seriously understaffed inspector force. OMB Watch, the non-profit that monitors budgetary matters, argues that the ratio of inspectors to burgeoning food producers is inadequate stating "at no other regulatory agency does the size of the inspectorate need to be so closely aligned to the size of the industry it regulates".

Also knocked off the fast track, literally as well as figuratively, is Amtrak, while smart countries invest in high speed rail instead of further clogging their highways and airports

Assistance to less priviledged women for reproductive health services? Sorry, all $363 million in federal assistance to Planned Parenthood is eliminated along with the primary and preventative health care, including life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, annual exams, family planning visits, birth control and HIV testing.

It may well be that Congressman Roskam omitted identifying the cuts because of the pain they will inflict upon our neediest citizens and how they will reduce investment in our infrastructure, both physical and intellectual, that is already turning America into a second rate economic power. But in fairness to the Congressman's real agenda, we need to consider how this savings will be utilized:

Someone must be tapped to pay for the $700 billion in tax cuts for the super rich over the next 10 years. Who better to pay for these tax cuts than the less priviledged folks least likely to vote and least likely to vote Republican if they do

There is a little matter of trillion dollars wars of empire in the Middle East that must by funded without reservation, debate or criticism. What better way to distract the citizenry from these outrageous wastes of our limited treasure than to demonize projects that help people in need or invest in our future, by terming them unnecessary big government giveaways. Pollsters have shown that the public falls for these sophistic political tricks every time.

You can take the title of Congressman Roskam's email "We did it" two ways. To the unsuspecting it means: "We Republicans are finally bringing fiscal sanity to America". To the folks who comprehend the campaign going on in this country to funnel middle class wealth to the upper 2%, it means: "Fooled those rubes again".