Republican Priority: Ban Free School Meals, Cut Social Security

The Republican Party pretends to be the party of "family values" and "Christian values" yet its budget priorities are the antithesis to Christ's New Testament message of caring for the poor, the sick and the homeless.  The GOP's real agenda is cut programs that help the millions of Americans, including children, and give further tax cuts to the very wealthy and large corporations - adding $2.5 trillion to the deficit they pretend to care about - while slashing safety regulations.  The hypocrisy is mind numbing.  As is the hypocrisy of evangelicals who back the GOP agenda that frankly views millions of American as disposable. Only the wealthy matter to Republicans as they use "god, guns and gays" to dupe ignorant and bigoted voters into voting against their own economic best interests.  If Republicans care about any parts of the bible, it is only the Old Testament provisions that revel in the murder of men. women and children and smiting ones enemies (they also studiously ignore the polygamy that was rife in the Old Testament as they continue campaign against same sex marriage).  A piece in The New Republic looks at the GOP's ugly budget proposals that embody the party's reverse Robin Hood agenda.  Here are excerpts:

States across the country are moving to provide universal free school meals to all our children. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to stop them from doing just that.

The Republican Study Committee (of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members) on Wednesday released its desired 2024 budget, in which the party boldly declares its priority to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, from the School Lunch Program. Why? Because “CEP allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.”

[I]t is a meal service program reserved for qualifying schools and districts in low-income areas. The program enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats. This is what Republicans are looking to eliminate.

[A]s California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, and as of this week, Vermont, all move to provide universal free school meals in one form or another—and at least another 21 states consider similar moves—Republicans are trying to whittle down avenues to accomplish that goal.

Along with trying to stop schools from giving all their students free meals, the proposed 2024 Republican budget includes efforts to:

• cut Social Security and Medicare
• make Trump’s tax cuts for the top 1 percent permanent
• impose work requirements on “all federal benefit programs,” like food stamps and Medicare
• extend work requirements on those aged 55–64
• bring back all of twice-impeached and twice-arrested former President Donald Trump’s deregulations, including the weakening of environmental protection.

And that’s just a taste of their hopes and dreams. But don’t mistake it all as just wish-casting: “The RSC Budget is more than just a financial statement. It is a statement of priorities,” the party assures in the document.

The proposed budget would effectively make cuts to Social Security by increasing the retirement age for future retirees.  The document seeks to assure people that there would only be “modest adjustments” but does not list what Republicans think the new retirement age should be.

On Medicare, Republicans propose requiring disabled Americans to wait longer before getting benefits and turning Medicare into a “premium support” system, a long-floated Republican idea that essentially turns the government program into a voucher scheme. Such a scheme would remove the guarantee for seniors to have affordable access to Medicare.

As far as taxes go, the party wants to make permanent the individual provisions of Trump’s tax cut bill, which gave a roughly $49,000 annual tax cut to the top 1 percent and only $500 to those in the bottom 60 percent. In doing so, they’d add nearly $2.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The party also wants to eliminate the estate tax, which only impacts those who inherit assets worth at least $13 million.

How working class voters - now a main stay of the GOP - believe this agenda helps them is impossible to comprehend.