You're kidding, right?

[alfreda89]

Warning--politics ahead....

The Republicans have decided how to pay for Katrina. Yeah, right...

"Congressional Republicans have proposed to offset Katrina with nearly a trillion dollars in cuts from vital national services, like health care for the poor and elderly, student loans, Amtrak, and eliminating all funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These cuts are almost five times the cost of rebuilding, which could be paid for entirely by ending Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. This is divisive politics at its worst and we can do better. Let's show Congress that this destructive proposal will not fly by gathering 250,000 signatures on this petition this week."

The excess of the Republicans' proposed cuts is almost unbelievable. You can read the full proposal here:

* $225 billion cut from Medicaid, the last-resort health insurance program for the very poor.
* $200 billion cut from Medicare, the health care safety net for the elderly and the disabled.
* $25 billion cut from the Centers for Disease Control
* $6.7 billion cut from school lunches for poor children
* $7.5 billion cut from programs to fight global AIDS
* $5.5 billion to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
* $3.6 billion cut to eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities
* $8.5 billion cut to eliminate all subsidized loans to graduate students.
* $2.5 billion cut from Amtrak
* $2.5 billion to eliminate the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
* $417 million cut to eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency
* $4.8 billion cut to eliminate all funding for the Safe and Drug-Free schools program
And the list goes on and on.

Go to the petition here.