It seems that every Missouri Republican present  in the House of Representatives today voted for Paul Ryan’s budget. They voted to:

— destroy Medicare as we know it;

— gut the safety net – food aid, Medicaid, educational grants, etc.;

— increase defense spending beyond the amount sought by the military chiefs;

— offer big-time tax cuts for the rich and corporations.

On top of this, because of the tax cuts and the increased military spending, they also effectively voted to increase the deficit. I repeat, they will increase the very deficit that they’ve been incessantly braying about for the past three years.

While it’s true that this budget probably won’t make it through our (endangered) Senate, it does break the agreement between the White House and the Republican leadership that was struck last year, and it will likely bring us a replay of the big government shutdown drama. The people putting this budget forward know that it is a nonstarter, and they know that it will be costly and destructive to our political processes, but they just don’t care. The all games, all the time, GOP prepares to strike again.

According to House Speaker John Boehner, the budget proposal is a “‘real vision'” of how Republicans would govern if they had more control of Washington.” And the folks here in Missouri who will continue to help realize that “vision” if they make it back to Congress when their terms are up: Todd Akin, Vicky Hartzler; Sam Graves, Billy Long, Jo Ann Emerson, and Blaine Luetkemeyer.