Sam Brownback is often held up by Republicans to the world as an example of “compassionate conservatism” and “Christian love”. But in typical Republican fashion, Brownback is trying to balance the Kansas budget not by exacting a fair share from the rich, but by abandoning some of Kansas’ most needy and defenseless citizens.
Conservative opinion makers have often pointed to Sam Brownback — who, after a long career as a U.S. senator, was just recently elected the Republican governor of the state of Kansas — as a model of “compassionate conservativism [propaganda delinked].” Indeed, with his more moderate stances on issues like immigration and his past work on human rights issues, this title does have some merit.
However, the governor’s newly released budget plan is anything but compassionate. Rather than choosing to responsibly raise revenue to protect services for the most vulnerable Kansans, Brownback’s budget guts many of the state’s most important programs. Included among these cuts is lowering state education aid per student to its lowest level since 2000 and eliminating funding for the Kansas Arts Commission.
Yet perhaps the most brutal cut in Brownback’s budget comes to the Kansas Neurological Institute (KNI). The governor proposes completely eliminating funding to the institution by 2014, which would force it to close down. KNI serves nearly 160 people with severe mental disabilities; two-thirds of its patients cannot walk and four-fifths are unable to speak… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Brownback, should hang his head and shame, but most Republican politicians know no shame. There is nobody, no matter how needy, no matter how weak, no matter how disabled that they will not yank away their safety net in order to squeeze a bit more to give to millionaires, billionaires, and criminal corporations.
6 Responses to “"Compassionate Conservatism" in Action?”
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Just another undistinguished namby-pamby socially conservative Republican with nothing of value to offer!
Amen, Jack!
The VERY first thing John Engler (R) did when he became governor of Michigan in 1990 or so was close EVERY mental hospital and institution. Them who were like this 160 went into group foster care. Any that were mobile, no matter their illness were dumped onto the streets of Detroit and Pontiac. The second thing he did was cut the $125 a month the state gave to indigents for food and basic necessities to $0. There is no such animal as compassionate conservative. Even J Brewer of AZ gutted her mental health care budget by $54 million and her own son is institutionalized in it. Or is it incarcerated because it was more compassionate to put a rapist in a hospital than a prison.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Monday ordered the release of criminal records on Gov. Jan Brewer’s son, who has lived at the Arizona State Hospital for most of the past 20 years…
…Ronald Brewer, 46, has dealt with mental illness since he was an adolescent. He was 25 years old when he was accused of sexual assault and kidnapping. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1990 and committed to the Arizona State Hospital, where he has remained for most of the time since.
Whole Article Compassion for ones own is not compassion at all it is what families do. Compassion in part involves serving the voiceless.
Wow, they won’t take care of their own families? No wonder that they could give a shit about anyone else! What a Beatch! 🙄
Lisa, I think he meant the opposite. Issues that effect their own families are the only ones that they support.
Mark, I knew that Brewer had been uncharacteristically supportive of mental health and never understood why. I would have assumed she would be more like Engler, given her death panel. Thanks fopr helping me me understand. It’s like Palin supporting Downs Syndrome programming and Cheney tolerating gays.