E. J. Dionne: Handing Out Hardship

[dw]

The Washington Post: Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Let's get this straight: The administration wants $87 billion in new spending for Iraq, refuses to contemplate rolling back any of its tax cuts to pay for it -- and then proposes holding down new spending on child care for mothers trying to leave welfare.

Oh, yes, and on Sunday, Vice President Cheney insisted that although he and President Bush have presided over a deficit that's reaching well beyond $500 billion this year, we shouldn't worry. Why? "I am a deficit hawk," Cheney explained. "So is the president." Don't you feel better?

The way to reach a balanced budget, Cheney insisted on "Meet the Press," was "to have fiscal discipline on the rest of the budget." That presumably includes child care.

Not to worry. It may be good for those poor working mothers not to have the child-care money. Warning against the idea of child care as an entitlement, Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, reassured us: "Making people struggle a little bit is not necessarily the worst thing."

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[fizzana]

1. Santorum deserves to burn in hell for a comment like that

the homophobic bigoted fuck that he is.

[Vitruvius]

9. Santorum's all for making OTHER people struggle --

while he enjoys his priviliged ruling class Rethugnican existence.

By the way, the total contempt that Santorum displays for the rest of us is utterly typical of the sociopathic mentality. He's a man without a conscience.

[Punkingal]

2. That's a hard-hitting piece.....

can you BELIEVE Rick Santorum's comment? How do people like that sleep at night? I'll bet that prick has been rich all his life.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Whoever Santorum's opponent is

needs to grab this fumble and return it for a touchdown.

[roguevalley]

4. whomever lives in Pennsylvania,

please write a letter to the editor and quote him. Then profile his benefits and profitable lifestyle as one of the hogs in the public trough. It needs to be in EVERY newspaper in Pennsylvania.

Please.

RV, living in ALaska and feeling just as messed up over OUR guys.

[Girlfriday]

10. I'm on it

I have been watching this creep for years....he's like dubya; says one thing and does the other. Unfortunately, the PA electorate keeps pulling the lever. This may be his undoing though.....Marie Antoinette comes to mind.:grr:

[Melsky]

5. That link doesn't seem to work anymore

and what exactly is a deficit hawk? Someone who builds a deficit by sending us to an uneeded war?

Rick Santorum never ceases to amaze me. He really needs to be gotten out of office. How can pro-"life" people talk about mothers and children this way?

[KC]

6. Link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15664-2003Sep15.html

[lanlady]

7. I disagree with Dionne on one point:

That's why Congress should reject the new money for Iraq -- beyond what's immediately needed by our troops -- until the administration gives some ground on its tax cuts. Making the administration struggle a little bit would not necessarily be the worst thing.

Troop needs account for, what $65 billion, of the total. Still big money. It should be taken out of the Pentagon's budget.

[bleedingheart]

8. Santorum is such a first class prick I absolutely detest him

and I am ashamed that PA voted him in... I worked so hard to get him ousted and yet the people of our state voted this complete ass back in...

ugh!