Selective evangelical morality

Mike Huckabee is one of many evangelical Christians who call the budget immoral.

Evangelical leaders have come forward to criticize Trump for an “immoral” spending bill. They also claim that Republicans passed the bill “in a moment of weakness.” Apparently the “statement” which seems to only exist as a Twitter image was virtually signed by retweeting it. The original tweet was posted by Johnnie Moore, previously with Liberty University. It has been retweeted by Eric Metaxas (who will do just about anything if his name is repeated), Mike Huckabee and an assortment of religious nuts … and bolts.

They seem to be most irritated by the fact that Planned Parenthood continues to receive medicaid reimbursements for exams and procedures that have nothing to do with abortion. They do not approve of abortions so they want to punish Planned Parenthood for providing a legal medical procedure. These constitutional purists are all in favor of what amounts to an insult to the Establishment Clause.

Please find below a statement signed onto by a growing number of evangelical friends of the White House (including myself) to clearly criticize the Omnibus Spending bill passed by Congress & signed by @POTUS, even while supporting necessity of avoiding a government shutdown. pic.twitter.com/rsg4K8x5KP

— Johnnie Moore ن (@JohnnieM) March 24, 2018

They also disingenuously complain about an expansion of the size of government. What they are really complaining about is the deficit and taxation.

Well where the hell were these same people when the GOP gave a massive gift to our wealthiest citizens? And I see where this is going. The deficit is already swelling. Trump, Inc. is going to use this to cut programs that support our most vulnerable citizens in order to have already given Trump and his friends a big tax break — and they were not paying their fair share to begin with. They did this in reverse order. Tax breaks first to compel austerity. Social Security and Medicare are about to be attacked as well as a host of federal programs including Medicaid.

These self-righteous poseurs have a very strange sense of morality based on personal greed.

Here's a thought. The for-profit education sector (Republican darlings, the lot) have about 10% of the country's post-secondary students. Yet they consume about 20% of Title 4 financial aid. Their students have created a mountain of unpaid student loan debt. Oh, and their 10% of students has created over 50% of the student loan debt in default.

Many (perhaps a majority) of those students would be better served by community colleges and remain debt light or even debt free. We are probably pouring $6 billion annually down the crapper into these schools for sub-standard outcomes. Trump is rumored to be relaxing regulations which means that we will disburse more money to these enterprises.

Or how about Trump's wall that was supposed to be paid for by Mexico? The budget provides $1.6 billion for a project that is utterly useless. It only exists to honor an idiotic campaign promise. The Interior Department is spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in the office of Secretary Ryan Zinke. How about all the other abuses by political appointees?

Perhaps, just maybe, Metaxas and Huckabee should have thought about all this at the front end. Perhaps the immorality is the give-away to the rich at the expense of everyone else.

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