The Rude Pundit: This Is Going To Take Some Getting Used To, Part 2 (Budget Edition)

From President Barack Obama's 2010 Budget proposal for the Department of Justice:
"The Budget includes $145 million for the Civil rights Division to strengthen civil
rights enforcement against racial, ethnic, sexual preference, religious and gender discrimination."

George W. Bush's 2008 Budget proposal for Justice? Not only no mention of "sexual preference," but no mention of civil rights. Actually, no mention of "rights" at all.

In Obama's budget for the Department of Health and Human Services:
"The Budget supports State, community-based, and faith-based efforts to reduce teen pregnancy using evidence-based models. The program will fund models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically-accurate and age-appropriate
information to youth who have already become sexually active."

Don't you just love that little jab? Like "evidence-based" is just a way to say, "It's time to live in reality, America. Kids will fuck whether you like it or not."

In Obama's budget for the Department of the Interior:
"Climate change poses a threat to America’s fish and wildlife, as natural habitats are modified more rapidly than plants and animals can adjust. Scientific analyses are needed to understand the breadth of these changes...The Budget includes increases of more than $130 million, of which $40 million is shared with the States for wildlife adaptation."

There's the absolute proof that the Obama administration accepts climate change. It's not a question that needs to be studied. It is a reality that needs to be dealt with. The word "climate" is not in Bush's 2008 budget.

This is not to mention: "Additionally, the Budget increases funds by $10 million for North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) activities to acquire, restore, or protect wetlands used by migratory waterfowl and other birds. This is the first step in fully funding NAWCA at $75 million by 2012."

In Obama's budget for the Department of Labor:
"For the past eight years, the Department’s labor law enforcement agencies have struggled with growing workloads and shrinking staff. The President’s Budget seeks to reverse this trend...The Budget will: increase funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enabling it to vigorously enforce workplace safety laws and whistleblower protections, and ensure the safety and health of American workers" and more.

Over and over in this budget, in domestic issues, the Obama administration is demonstrating that liberalism deals in reality, in the lived existences of average people, and not in the realm of ideologically-defined social engineering, as conservatives would have it. The climate is changing, "sexual preference" is a protected category, and abstinence-only education has failed. These are simple facts. Denial piled upon denial has brought us here. Now their consitituents need to tell Republicans to help clean up their own fucking mess.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/