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.
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