Can I Get a Fuck You?

A big Friday fuck-you to the Senate Appropriations Committee, who cut funding to programs such as Head Start.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to freeze funding for popular education programs such as Head Start and grants to schools for poor children and those with special needs.

Okay. We can somehow find the money to drop bombs on kids in the Middle East, but we can't pony up the dough to help poor kids with special needs in America? We've got endless pork projects in this country that we can't pare down to try and help disadvantaged kids? What the fuck is wrong with us?

Check it:

The panel approved a bill providing $143 billion in funding for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

The panel also approved a $453 billion bill funding the Defense Department as it wrapped up its work on the 12 annual appropriations bills.

Do you want to know why Americans are stupid and aggressive? Look at the numbers in this article. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars more to fight than to educate children. We could maybe lower our defense budget if we educated a kid who could grow up and be a smart diplomat. Most of our great leaders came up from nothing. Lincoln grew up in a shack and had a natural appetite for books, which got him in to law school. Clinton wasn't rolling in dough either. Kids of all economic backgrounds have a natural curiosity and desire to learn new things, and politicians continually underfund programs that will keep them interested in learning and away from endless hours of Playstation, or, much worse, the streets. It could be argued that if we don't defend the country we won't have any kids left to educate. I'm not saying we should forsake defense, hold hands, and buy the world a Coke. I'm saying we need to find the means to get kids interested in learning while they're young.

Also:

Byrd noted that Bush's No Child Left Behind bill called for $25 billion in federal funding for local schools but that the measure approved Thursday provides just half of that.

What a dumb shit. Maybe Bush needed some Head Start action so he could figure out that half of $25 billion ain't gonna cut it.