What Won't Republicans Cut?

[Originally posted to Facebook on February 18, 2011]

So far, what the press has told us is that Republicans are doing what they always do when they get into office, which is turn into paleo-social crusaders. Cut Head First? Sure, those little bastards should be home with mommy, who should be married anyway. That's not an exaggeration, as these amazing comments from county administrators in Maryland cringetastically went on the record for earlier this week (http://www.gazette.net/stories/02092011/frednew175041_32611.php) . Cut funding for PBS and NPR, because the media should be privately funded (or at least, corporately funded). You gotta figure that Republicans will gleefully cut anything that smells Liberal, since That Is Not The Role Of The Government And Not In the Constitution.

Now, in a previous life, I would have agreed with the cuts (but not the ridiculous justifications that frequently accompany them because I actually like and respect women) and in theory, I still would, except that it's plain that Republicans and Conservatives are always very selective in what cuts they propose. Let's brainstorm and see what things Republicans will leave in the budget.

* They won't cut military spending. Now, this is presently dicey because after two wars, we're a tad depleted, so there is a certain argument that we need to spend enough to stay ready. But there's no real desire to rein in the American Empire from places that can plainly support themselves, such as Japan, the UK, and Germany. We have a whole navy fleet based in Bahrain. But nobody is proposing cuts to those programs.

* They won't cut spending on law enforcement or domestic surveillance. Certainly, we need the FBI, and we need national and international intelligence. But we don't need the continually raging War on Drugs, and we don't need specific funding to crack down on Driving While Black in a White Neighborhood, or for that matter, Driving While Hispanic Anywhere. It's not a matter of not needing law enforcement, but rather where to spend the money and what social priorities we need to focus on.

* They won't cut Faith-Based programs, even though they provide social services, since that serves their back-door attempts to undermine the separation of Church and State (which, like gun ownership, IS in the Constitution, despite their pitifully rationalized bleating to the contrary) and thus bolster their Christian-centric worldviews.

* They won't cut Corporate Welfare. By this, I do NOT mean they won't "cut" corporate tax cuts. I mean, the programs that actually give money to corporations (beyond military and law enforcement contracts). Things like farm subsidies, that's the best and most notorious example. They began as protections for famiy farms, but since famiy farms are increasingly rare, being replaced by corporate farms, it's now protections for corporate farms, which don't really need protection.

I kinda would have liked this list to be longer, to be honest. It makes things look a bit unfairly tilted toward the Liberals as being responsible for the burgeoning Federal government. But it does show that Republicans in general, and the Tea Partiers in particular, are not the disciplined minarchists they claim to be.