A Matter of Priorities (4,000 U.S. service men and women killed in Iraq)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/24/a-matter-of-priorities/

Last night, we passed another horrific milestone in Iraq: 4,000 U.S. men and women killed nearly five years to the day the war began. As Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) points out in this guest blog, the fiscal year 2009 federal budget George W. Bush is proposing includes billions of dollars to keep up the war, yet refuses to fund critical programs like children’s health care.

Just like he does every year, President George W. Bush submitted his budget proposal for 2009 to Congress last month. And just like every other year, his Republican allies in Congress were there to cheer him on.

I, along with many of my Democratic colleagues in the House, simply looked on with astonishment. It is almost inconceivable that during this period of economic uncertainty, the president would bring forth a proposal that promises nothing but more of the same—more of the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

Working families across the country are under siege, struggling to keep up with rising health care costs, unacceptable levels of unemployment, decreasing wages, a crisis in home foreclosures and shockingly high prices at the pump.

Even the president acknowledged, albeit after some high-profile catastrophes on Wall Street, that America’s families are having financial difficulties.

However, while he may have finally admitted what families across the country have known for a very long time, his budget certainly does not indicate that he actually understands what that really means.

FULL story at link.