Cutting these programs isn't helping the budget given the incredible increase the administration wants to give defense spending. Or even just the cost of supporting the First Lady in her residence in New York. I agree that it's best for their kid if he stays in his school at least through the end of the school year; continuity is good for a kid. But if tough sacrifices are being made, maybe start there?
To which the likely response would be...
"If the honourable Senator from Washington is asking whether I'm a patriot for my country...if the honourable Senator is asking whether I care about the safety of the people of this country...then I'm proud to say, 'Guilty as charged'. The honourable Senator from Washington may not care about protecting this land of ours, but I and my colleagues do!"
In other words, as soon as you talk about trading off any social welfare program against a military program the response will be to challenge your patriotism regardless of how wasteful or pointless it is, and remain silent about the social welfare program regardless of how beneficial it is.
Seriously, these sorts of speeches and sound-bites just about write themselves (more's the pity).
The responses to that sort of chest thumping idiocy also write themselves, but I will resist, as it is not my country (something I am very grateful for)
Oh, it's not my country either, but there aren't many Australians who can resist poking fun at Americans...sometimes in deadly seriousness.
In a way it's an indictment of Australian politics too, that I was doing only a small amount of paraphrasing of things I'm sure I've heard Australian politicians say.
And on that point, it has to be said that the popularity of Australian politicians with the Australian public has rarely been lower.
For example, we've recently had the Fair Work Commission (a government agency which oversees industrial relations) recommend cuts to pay rates for weekend work for people in the hospitality sector, a move applauded by the (politically conservative) government as boosting the economy. And then a couple of weeks later the government announced its intention to cut company tax rates to boost the economy. So apparently giving people more money is bad for the economy when it's given to low-paid people, but good when it's given to rich people.
Then there's the robo-debt welfare problem, in which an automated data-matching system is sending letters out to people claiming that they're inappropriately claiming benefits (often erroneously), while politicians are living high on the hog inappropriately claiming travel and accommodation benefits (often erroneously). The hypocrisy is frustrating.
Then there's been the business of power cuts. South Australia now generates about 30% of its electricity needs from renewables like solar and wind, but when a couple of tornadoes blew down transmission lines which led to a statewide blackout that was blamed on the renewables. Meanwhile, the current PM, who has previously endorsed the idea of a carbon emissions trading scheme is now sitting back while his ministers tout the benefits of building new coal-fired power station, and himself touting a multi-billion dollar expansion of the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme having recently lectured us on the importance of cutting government spending to reduce the deficit. *
To add to the problem, several states have privatised their electricity networks, with a number of power stations now being owned by foreign companies. Over the last few years several of these foreign-owned coal-fired power stations have been closed down, noticeably reducing the amount of electricity generated in the country, and there are now serious warnings of electricity shortages and blackouts as early as next summer. Naturally, manufacturers who rely on electricity to make things aren't thrilled, and both energy operators and political parties of all stripes are preferring to spend their time blaming each other rather than do anything about it.
So in the context of possible blackouts next summer, I'm going to be accelerating my plans to have some solar PV panels, a battery system, and a solar hot water system installed.
* Meanwhile, the skepticism about global warming coming from engineers, geologists and certain lobby groups is disturbing, even as the Great Barrier Reef experiences more frequent and serious bleaching events.
