House Republicans vote to gut health care programs, boost Pentagon

On Thursday, in a razor-thin 218-199 vote of approval, the House passed another extreme bill that is destined to die: its Sequestration Replacement Act. The budget bill overriddes steep cuts to defense spending that were set to begin in January 2013, taking the money out of food stamps, Medicaid, Meals on Wheels and a raft of programs that help the poor and elderly. The Act replaces $109 billion in defense cuts that were triggered last fall under the Budget Control Act, when the super committee failed to agree on a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction plan.

Included in the $113 billion in cuts are Medicaid programs, allowing states to drop people who would currently be eligible, including a lot children. Two of the programs that are targeted have increased insurance rates for children to unprecedented levels, but the Republicans voted to repeal money in the Affordable Care Act that has maintained Medicaid and CHIP funding, and a new program that has rewards states for connecting eligible children to coverage. While the bill overrides the automatic cuts to the Pentagon included in the Budget Control Act, it keeps the Medicare cuts that were written into the bill. Oh, and of course it zeroes out the Prevention and Public Health fund in the health care law, the Republican's solution to paying for everything from payroll tax cuts to student loan interest rate cuts.

All this when, as Meteor Blades detailed, polling shows that the American public wants to see defense spending cut, by really big margins.

The survey found that about three-fourths of respondents wanted immediate cuts in spending. And even more, 85 percent, wanted deep and immediate cuts in spending for continuing U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.

While Republican respondents in the survey indicated they want smaller cuts than Democrats, they still want deep reductions in Pentagon spending.

Average Republicans want to see defense cuts. Even some tea party Republicans want those defense cuts (not to save any social service programs, just to shrink government even more). With so little popular support, even from their base, for this plan, it's impossible to see the rationale for Republicans pushing this vision of a bloated Pentagon taking money'taking food'from children and the elderly. But it's their platform for November. Mitt Romney has not only embraced it, he wants deeper cuts and even more defense spending.

The only people who like this plan are Grover Norquist, defense contractors, and the 1 percent who won't have their taxes raised. The true Republican base.