Another Example of "Teaching a Man to Fish"
Republicans and poverty

Congress is now debating cutting $50 billion dollars from social programs, including food stamps, student loans, Medicare, and Medicaid. Republicans are saying that the cuts are necessary to pay for Katrina & Rita. Notice that they do not claim the cuts will have anything to do with their $70 billion tax cut proposals. Conservatives have long touted their poverty program of teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish. Once again they are doing it without providing hooks, bait, or water. How easy is it to pull oneself up by the bootstraps if one can’t afford boots? How does one work hard while hungry and sick? How does one move up to higher paying technical jobs without access to education?

Fortunately, there is growing evidence that the American public does not share the values of these "compassionate conservatives." In his column, Talking Points in the WP online, Terry Neal gives the results of a recent poll:

In a nonpartisan Diageo/Hotline poll taken Oct. 12 to 16 and released this week,

only 4 percent of people named cutting "spending for domestic programs,like health care and education" as the best way to pay for problems caused by Hurricane Katrina.

But 31 percent said "delay or cancel tax cuts,"

and 27 percent said "cut spending for the war in Iraq."

Can it be true that people are beginning to realize that the Republicans are the party of extremism and radical change?