GOP Budget Cuts Would Cause Deaths of at least 70,000 Children

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) House Budget Committee Chair
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) House Budget Committee Chair

Tired of attacking the poor and destitute in the U.S., the GOP now seeks to take out the poor in other countries all in the name of the holy budget. Undaunted in their advances, they are now willing to severely reduce funding for USAID. Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy explains:

“We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah testified before the House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops subcommittee.

“Of that 70,000, 30,000 would come from malaria control programs that would have to be scaled back specifically. The other 40,000 is broken out as 24,000 would die because of a lack of support for immunizations and other investments and 16,000 would be because of a lack of skilled attendants at birth,” he said.

This has effects to national security as well. Rogin continues:

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), said that national security is threatened by instability in other parts of the world as well.”Drastic cuts to USAID would risk a great deal in stability and security around the world which could spawn the kinds of threats that cost this country the lives of men and women in uniform and billions in treasure,” she said.

Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan are testament to this. Al-Qaeda only came to Iraq when the U.S. upended the stability of the regime, and Somalia has been a haven for terrorists for decades since it has no cohesive government.

Mark Bittman of the New York Times also explains it will have little effect on the budget:

These supposedly deficit-reducing cuts — they’d barely make a dent — will quite literally cause more people to starve to death, go to bed hungry or live more miserably than are doing so now. And: The bill would increase defense spending.

The biggest irony of this, of course, is that the Republicans claim to be the party of evangelicals. Yet as Bittman succinctly concludes:

Though [David] Beckmann is too kind to say it, he and many other religious leaders believe that true worship can’t take place without joining this struggle: “You can’t have real religion,” he told me, “unless you work for justice for hungry and poor people.”

While they are willing to fight so hard to protect the rights of fetuses, children in other parts of the world are of no concern to the Republicans.

6 Comments

  1. (1) Surgically insert a backbone into each member of congress.
    (2) Cut all funds for the war against Libya, (2 wars are enough).
    (3) Restore the reduced funding for USAID.

  2. Or, eliminate funding to USAid and all other social programs that despot governments should be funding for themselves. Stop the oil salvage operation in Lybia and eliminate funding for illegal aliens that make it easier for them to stay in the country. Focus on those core functions of government as to security of its people andi nfrastructure. Oh yeah, and leave my guns alone.

  3. Why is it that EVERY time someone wants to reduce funding it’s always the same mantra? Hasn’t anyone realized the “children line” isn’t honest, isn’t even anything but a really lame excuse for dumping more and more money down the same old rat hole?
    Be responsible, be honest, be frugal! The American taxpayer isn’t an unlimited resource of revenue. The problem isn’t taxation, it’s spending and it’s bloated public sector expense.
    According to very vocal ecological adherents reducing the human population through whatever means is good. They believe that population is the greatest problem to the earths environmental health anyway. They also advocate that nature take it’s course without the use of pesticides or draining of fever swamps, now called wetlands. So I’m guessing this idea, if it were true, would actually fit their agendas very well.

  4. Like the USSR before us – Military excesses have greatly contributed to the financial ruin of the country.

    Now we can’t even take care of our own, any wonder others outside the country will suffer?

    Poor decisions & financial management over the years – adds up to a lot of pain for the less than wealthy of the world.

    One thing about the rich – they didn’t get that way by being generous or concerned about others – & guess who’s calling the shots?

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