And of course we are all happy to learn that the Bush administration plans to provide universal health care and massive school construction for postwar Iraq, while simultaneously cutting health and education funding here at home.
Those of you who feel an impulse to raise your hand and ask, "Uh, what about us?" are just being selfish. If we get universal health care and massive school construction (between one-third and one-half of all American schools are somewhere between dilapidated and flat falling apart), why then, Bush couldn't afford to give a $350 billion tax cut to the richest 1 percent of Americans. You see how selfish you're being?
Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund has a depressing new set of statistics about the damage being done to American children � more falling into poverty, more homeless, and cuts to Head Start, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, after school, pre-school, schools, food programs ... on and on the list goes. Edelman calls it "an ideological coup d'etat." Did anyone vote for this?
The other night in Ames, Iowa, a man stood up to ask me a question. "I'm from Texas, but I left 50 years ago," he said. "I guess I've just forgotten. Could you explain to me just what you Texans mean when you say, 'compassion?'"
Molly Ivins April 5, 2003 at Common Dreams
