Does the GOP want to defund the Special Olympics?

The liberal magazine Mother Jones injected fresh emotion into the debate over the federal budget this week, reporting that the House GOP budget would take "a hatchet to programs for disabled kids and Special Olympics athletes." Special Olympics President and CEO Tim Shriver, on MSNBC, described the cuts as "a guillotine job." Conservatives say liberals are just trying to avoid making tough decisions about how to reduce the nation's "unsustainable" budget deficits by protesting every spending reduction and exaggerating the threat to every program that would lose money. Does the Special Olympics really need its funding cut to balance the budget?

Of course not. This is just cruel: The GOP is being "mean-spirited" by targeting the Special Olympics, says John Cole at Balloon Juice. Or maybe this assault has to do with the organization's Kennedy connection — CEO Tim Shriver is the son of the late Eunice Shriver, one of JFK's sisters. Next, conservatives will tell us that the organization should save itself using the free market, by selling tickets and jerseys at the games.

"Special Olympics? What's so special about them?"

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The Left will stop at nothing to avoid spending cuts: We need to cut hundreds of billions from the budget to restore fiscal responsibility, says Allahpundit at Hot Air, yet Senate Democrats are only willing to go along with a "pathetic" $6.5 billion for the rest of this fiscal year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would rather accuse "the GOP of not wanting kids to read or something" than have an honest discussion about how to avoid spending the nation into ruin.

"Inevitable: Senate rejects House GOP's budget cuts, 44/56"

But some programs have to remain off limits: Conservatives "very sincerely believe" we must dramatically slash spending and taxes to avoid choking economic growth, says Matthew Yglesias at ThinkProgress, but they also "like to avoid facing up to what their ideas actually imply." The GOP "budgetary ax" would gut the Special Olympics' Project UNIFY, which fights discrimination against disabled people, by cutting $8 million from its budget. Maybe some Republican billionaire will offer to foot the bill, to persuade "skeptics that the small government agenda needn’t come at the expense of the most vulnerable."

"House GOP budget hammers the Special Olympics"