Charming. Just charming. Nice going, “centrists.”Nice fucking job:
$40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization
$16 billion School Construction
$7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants
$5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity
$4.5 billion GSA
$3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated)
$3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening
$2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate)
$2 billion broadband
$2 billion HIT Grants
$1.25 billion project based rental
$1 billion Head Start/Early Start
$1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing
$1 billion Energy Loan Guarantees
Via Kos, that’s what got cut from the stimulus bill. Bipartisanship is the victor! Huzzah, huzzah, we all feel good about ourselves for being friends! Wheee! Way to go, Senator Nelson, Senator Collins, Senator McFuckingCaskill. Way to be. You cut some kids’ textbooks and made sure we’ll get our asses kicked by the Chinese IN SPACE just to continue going to lunch with your favorite people in the whole wide world: One another.
So you schoolkids, trying to do math problems with the windows nailed shut and your coats on, who walked through doors with padlocks and chains just to show up today, you can just bugger off, because the Republicans and Democrats still love each other, and that’s what matters.
You families, living in your apartment on Section 8 vouchers in the only part of town your snotty suburb will allow Section 8 housing built, wondering why your heat is off in January and you can’t get hot water and the sewer backs up and your locks don’t work (which is good, because the crackhead next door likes to come in at all hours) and the roof’s caving in? Not as important as maintaining Senate collegiality and crowing about working together.
You parents, trying to raise little kids while working the five jobs you work to be “uniquely American” and pay your mortgage? Not as big a deal as being able to Twitter joyously that you aren’t for pork and earmarks, no siree.
You know, I think I really wouldn’t have a problem with bipartisanship.
But this isn’t bipartisanship, making these cuts in order to make these friends. This is narcissism. This is the same
mirror-kissing bullshit that got us FISA and the Military Commissions
Act, that got us the war and the spying and the debt and the death. This is prioritizing being friends over improving people’s lives, and that’s not bipartisanship, that’s institutionalized selfishness.
I have a news flash for Nelson and McCaskill. Nobody really gives a shit about you. Nobody really cares if you can still pass notes to Susan Collins in the coatroom betweenclasses sessions. Nobody out here in the world in which our local governments can’t pay people to do such trivial work as teaching people to read gives a shit about how you look on the Sunday shows because we’re too busy working extra hours towatch the Sunday shows.
We only care about “ending the gridlock in Washington” and “working with Congress and the president” and “moving things along” when it results inour lives being better.Otherwise we don’t really care that much. So quit sucking face with your reflections and acting like it means something to us. It’s embarrassing.
A.