Paying for Katrina

I wrote the following to NPR today:

I was so shocked by what the Congressman from North Carolina had to say on TOTN this afternoon, that I turned the radio off rather than hear more. He was billed by the host as fiscally conservative. What I heard, however, was a very right-wing social conservative who branded the Davis-Bacon legislation as a "sop to the unions" and who wants to cut funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. What I see here is a ruse: the right-wing folks using the screen of paying for the war and Katrina by trying to attack programs and legislation that they want out of the way anyway. What's next for these folks? Cuts to programs for the poor unless they are through faith-based organizations?

There is no problem with being fiscally conservative and looking to see what the country can afford rather than continuing to run up the deficit as this Congress has done. But don't hide behind that to foment your social goals.