Bush Budgets: Failing to Protect US Children from Sexual Predators

"The kidnapping and murders of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford and 13 year-old Sarah Lunde are so horrible that words fail me. The loss of these two bright , wonderful kids is a national tragedy," writes Douglas Larsen, About.com Editor for Abuse & Incest Support in his article, "A Poor Job of Protecting Our Children."

Larsen draws the well-supported conclusion that "There are solutions to child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence." But.....it takes funds. Funds for technology, funds for local police, funds for local and state agencies. Funds to protect our own children.

You've read my articles on the devastating effects on American life of Bush Administration budget cuts, pushed down to the state level, on education, public libraries, brain-injury and other life-saving progams, healthcare for the poor, elderly and very young, Amtrak, veterans benefits and much more.

All so the US can give many trillions in tax cuts to the richest Americans. (And build our nuclear bomb arsenal, buy massive amounts of new military equipment, even construct the world's largest embassy and 14 permanent military camps in Iraq.)

Larsen concludes his heartfelt, must-read article by lamenting "If our society funded the war against child abuse as enthusiastically as it funds the War in Iraq or the War on Drugs, maybe Jessica Lunsford or Sarah Lunde would not have died."

Budgets are moral documents. The Bush Administration uses budgets immorally. Bush budgets have caused a deterioration in the quality of US life, and now it's killing our children. And it's sick.

Bush Administration budgets clearly promote and impose an American culture of death and deprivation. I'm mad as hell about this. How about you?

Come discuss this travesty now at the Forum.