BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

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The President's No-Brainer Policies: Deny Help for the Brain-Injured Soldiers, Save a Brain-Dead Woman

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Liberty Belle

President George W. Bush interrupted his vacation to make a special trip at taxpayer expense, flying back to Washington D.C. to sign a law forcing a brain-dead woman to be kept alive. Terri Schiavo’s cerebral cortex has liquefied -- completely atrophied -- leaving her no hope of recovery. But that didn’t stop Bush from ignoring science, state’s rights, a husband’s wishes, and several state court rulings.

This pandering to the “culture of life” movement by Bush and the Republican Congress represents the ultimate in hypocrisy. Why? Because on the very same weekend that these neocons-turned-nursemaids wrung their hands and spouted platitudes about protecting the sanctity of Schiavo’s life, the Bush administration eliminated all funding for the Federal Traumatic Brain Injuries Act!

That’s right. Our president and his sycophants in Congress don’t care about saving brain-injured patients who could actually improve with treatments. They don’t even care that 60% of the wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries, according to doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Now, brain injured combat veterans are being turned away from federal programs, denied help from the very same government that they fought to serve and protect.

Is there no shame among the Republican leadership? How can those who staged the Terri Schiavo dog-and-pony show while depriving brain-injured soldiers critical medical care stand to look at themselves in the mirror? Or hold their heads up in public?

Bush’s hypocrisy is the worst of all. As AmericaBlog noted, this President failed to return to Washington promptly on 9/11, when the country sorely needed leadership. After hearing that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, already a target of terrorism once before, he sat in a classroom reading “My Pet Goat” until after a second terrorist strike occurred. He didn’t return to Washington to take charge after a tsunami hit our Asian allies, either, despite the news that over 100,000 had been killed and U.S. help was urgently needed. Nor has he bothered to attend even a single funeral for a fallen American soldier -- the first wartime Commander in Chief in U.S. history to shirk this critical duty. His budget cuts are devastating to the poor and the sick. His health care policies benefit big pharmaceutical companies over patients' concerns. Yet he expects us to believe that he's suddenly developed a conscience that compels him to race back to D.C. and "save" a patient who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years.

Incidentally, back when Bush was Governor of Texas, he signed another bill that his “pro-life” supporters might not approve of, since it gave hospitals the right to pull the plug on patients—even if the family objects. In an ironic twist, that bill was put to the test last week in the Texas courts. The result?

A baby was put to death -- over his mother’s objections. A wriggling, living baby, born with limbs and lungs too small, according to the hospital staff/executioners.

Some might call this a flip-flop by the President on his die-hard, pro-life stance.

The only comfort we can draw from Bush’s brain-dead policy positions is that the public is not moved by his latest “compassionate conservative” act. Polls show that by an overwhelming margin, Americans believe that Terri Schiavo should no longer be kept alive with a feeding tube -- and that Congress overstepped its bounds when it interfered in what should be a painful, but personal, family decision.

If only our President and Congress would turn their attention toward the many Americans who really need assistance -- the poor, the sick, the elderly, and working families --our country would be far better off.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION