Enough Of this Bullshit [View all]
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18305-sequestration-slashes-head-start-funding
Sequestration Slashes Head Start Funding
Tuesday, 20 August 2013 15:49
By Adrienne Lu, McClatchy Newspapers | Report
WASHINGTON — Last year about 1 million of the nation's poorest children got a leg up on school through Head Start, the federal program that helps prepare children up to age five for school. This fall, about 57,000 children will be denied a place in Head Start and Early Head Start as fallout from sequestration.
New estimates about the automatic budget cuts were released Monday by the federal government. The cuts have slashed more than $400 million from the federal program's $8 billion budget.
Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, said sequestration represented the largest hit to Head Start funding in terms of dollars since the program began in 1965.
"The cut has been very painful throughout the country," Vinci said. Nationwide, about 1,600 grantees, which include nonprofits and local government agencies, receive federal Head Start funding.
unhappycamper comment: We need to change the dialog. For starters, let's look at how the United States funds 'stuff':
![](http://nationalpriorities.org/media/uploads/spending_-_discretionary_pie_2014_big.png)
That big chuck o pie on the right (57% of all discretionary spending) is for 'the military'. It includes things like the 21st century equivalents of $400 dollar toilet seats, the military's black budget, nukes, wasted billions in Afghanistan reconstruction, $2 billion a week to keep the Afghanistan occupation going, and lots of new stuff.
The article cited above states "The cuts have slashed more than $400 million from the federal program's $8 billion budget." Let me show you how to find a quick $400 million to reinstate food to starving Americans.
Since Littoral Combat Ships cost around $500 million dollars each,
don't build one. Another way to 'find' a quick $500 million:
don't build two F-35 fighters.
Want to find a quick $1 billion?
Don't build more nine more $110 million dollar MV-22 Ospreys.
Don't build three more $318 million dollar C-17s.
Want to find a quick $5 billion?
Stop building $5+ billion dollar stealth destroyers.
Want to find a quick $7 billion?
Don't build a Virginia-class submarine this year.
Want to find a quick $40 billion?
Stop building the $40 billion dollar USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier.
It adds up.