Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Keep It Simple, Stupid: For The GOP, It Means Everything That Isn't Defense Spending Must Be Welfare Spending

Yes, the National Weather Service is welfare for poor meteorologists, etc., etc.:
Navajo Nation President Shelly objects to congressional report calling Indian programs 'welfare'
WASHINGTON - In a letter dated Oct. 23 to Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly strongly objected to the characterization in an Oct. 16 Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report of various federal Indian programs as welfare.

In objecting to the inclusion of Indian programs within the discretionary category of welfare spending, President Shelly drew attention to the federal obligation that the U.S. has undertaken to "provide certain services to our citizens and to support Navajo self-determination" through various treaties and the trust responsibility.

...President Shelly criticized the characterization of Indian programs as 'welfare' simply because the programs serve what is only incidentally a disproportionately poor population.

"Federal transportation programs could also be labeled 'welfare' if their funds happened to go to states with high unemployment," Shelley said.

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