Tying Granny to the Train Tracks Award for Condemning Budget Cuts

“People who have been studying your numbers very carefully have been saying that the numbers don’t add up....[They say] two-thirds of the savings that you want to make in spending cuts come at the expense of programs designed for the poor, for the disadvantaged. And this is reverse Robin Hoodism, if you like — take from the poor, give back to the rich again.”

“Budgets are moral documents. You can say what you say, but you are what you are. And when you put your budget on the table, that’s when we learn who you really are. And I’m not so sure that this is not anything more than an immoral document where the poor are concerned....We avoided a shutdown of government, but we effectively locked out the American people, namely, the poor. And I don’t understand why it is in this town that every debate about money always begins and ends with how we can further reward the rich and more punish the poor.”

“The shutdown will stop new funding for medical research and hope for desperate patients....Doctors at the National Institutes of Health would be forced to stop seven new clinical trials, four involving children, next week; and stop admitting new patients at 640 ongoing trials, 60 of them involving children with cancer.”

Co-host Terry Moran: “Senator No Surrender. He’s the most controversial newcomer to Capitol Hill with a radical pedigree....Even the most conservative Republicans balk at his proposals for slashing government....”

Correspondent Bill Weir: “While the President argues for a budget scalpel, Rand Paul would use a chainsaw, shutting down the Departments of Energy and Education. He would kill the Consumer Product Safety Commission, shrink the Pentagon and cut off all foreign aid. And while the most fiscally conservative Republicans were proposing $50 billion cuts, he wanted to slash $500 billion....[to Rand Paul] Does the richest nation in the history of nations have a responsibility to take care of its weakest?”

“After many years where Democrats kind of cried wolf about Republicans wanting to throw granny into the snow, this time that’s what they have just voted to do.”

“NPR says it gets only two percent of its budget from taxpayers. Most of the federal money — 71 percent — goes to local public TV and radio stations. Losing that would hurt....Also at risk, programming like Sesame Street....With American children already falling behind, public broadcasting supporters fear Bert and Ernie could become a casualty of the political wars.”