{"id":3857,"date":"2011-01-14T11:50:47","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T19:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3857"},"modified":"2011-01-14T11:50:47","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T19:50:47","slug":"compassionate-conservatism-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/14\/compassionate-conservatism-in-action\/","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Compassionate Conservatism&quot; in Action?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Sam Brownback is often held up by Republicans to the world as an example of \u201ccompassionate conservatism\u201d and \u201cChristian love\u201d.&#160; 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\u2019 most needy and defenseless citizens.<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"14Brownback\" border=\"0\" alt=\"14Brownback\" align=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/14Brownback.jpg\" width=\"189\" height=\"288\" \/>Conservative opinion makers have often pointed to Sam Brownback \u2014 who, after a long career as a U.S. senator, was just recently elected the Republican governor of the state of Kansas \u2014 as a model of \u201ccompassionate conservativism [propaganda delinked].\u201d Indeed, with his more moderate stances on issues like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/04\/07\/AR2006040701581.html\" target=\"_blank\">immigration<\/a> and his past work on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=7696239\" target=\"_blank\">human rights issues<\/a>, this title does have some merit.<\/p>\n<p>However, the governor\u2019s newly released budget plan is <strong>anything but compassionate<\/strong>. Rather than choosing to <a href=\"http:\/\/politicsorpoppycock.com\/2010\/01\/26\/deficit-peacocks\/\" target=\"_blank\">responsibly raise revenue<\/a> to protect services for the most vulnerable Kansans, Brownback\u2019s budget guts many of the state\u2019s most important programs. Included <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tonganoxiemirror.com\/news\/2011\/jan\/14\/governors-new-budget-cuts-pupil-state-aid-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\">among these cuts<\/a> is <strong>lowering state education aid per student to its lowest level since 2000 and eliminating funding for the Kansas Arts Commission.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>Yet perhaps the most brutal cut in Brownback\u2019s budget comes to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.srs.ks.gov\/agency\/KNI\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas Neurological Institute<\/a> (KNI). The governor proposes <a href=\"http:\/\/cjonline.com\/news\/2011-01-13\/brownback-proposes-closure-kni\">completely eliminating funding<\/a> to the institution by 2014, <strong>which would force it to close down<\/strong>. KNI serves <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ljworld.com\/news\/2009\/oct\/26\/panel-recommends-closing-kansas-neurological-insti\/\" target=\"_blank\">nearly 160 people<\/a> with severe mental disabilities; <strong>two-thirds of its patients cannot walk and four-fifths are unable to speak<\/strong>\u2026 [<em>emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Inserted from &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2011\/01\/14\/compassionate-conservative-sam-brownback\/\" target=\"_blank\">Think Progress<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Brownback, should hang his head and shame, but most Republican politicians know no shame.&#160; 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.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Brownback is often held up by Republicans to the world as an example of \u201ccompassionate conservatism\u201d and \u201cChristian love\u201d.&#160; 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\u2019 most needy and defenseless citizens. Conservative opinion <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/14\/compassionate-conservatism-in-action\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}