Speaker Ryan is living his immoral dreams

Paul Ryan must be feeling good: he passed out of the House a budget that gave tax cuts to the rich while gutting Medicare and Medicaid. Speaker Ryan had another House victory: he passed from the House an Obamacare repeal/replace bill that left 30 million without affordable health insurance. His first dream to cut welfare that came to public attention was in 2012. Catholic bishops called the budget "immoral". From my blog and published column Aug. 29, 2012
" "The Catholic bishops passed judgment on the Ryan budget. Wrote the Bishops, …' deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people. The proposed cuts to programs in the budget reconciliation fail this basic moral test.'
Some believe drastic cuts to the safety net are, to the contrary, a moral act because we are doing recipients a favor by keeping them from being dependent on government. So who are they doing such a favor? Mostly kids and the elderly. It is not the adults such policies impact the most. It is the kids who benefit from “welfare.” Three-quarters of food stamp recipients are families with children. Of the nutrition programs for the poor (8.7 million recipients), 4.3 million are women with children, 2.2 million with infants. National school lunch programs: 30.5 million kids benefit. Children's health programs (CHIP) keep them healthy enough to go to school and Head Start gets them ready to enter first grade. Ryan would cut these programs deeply, guaranteeing they will not have good nutrition and early education needed, or to be prepared to qualify for jobs later"

Note: CHIP was not refunded in 2018 but attempts are being made to save it: https://khn.org/morning-breakout/chip-funding-measure-passes-through-committees-but-its-not-smooth-sailing-ahead-for-bill/

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/5/1704360/-House-passes-4-2-trillion-budget-sets-up-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-and-guts-Medicare-Medicaid?detail=facebook

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/354028-house-passes-budget-paving-way-for-tax-reform