Screwing those in need ...

Forget about those hot-button social issues. The real moral values debate in this country � or at least the one we should be having � is as dull as dish water: it's about priorities and budgeting.

WaPo:

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House Republicans are pushing to cut tens of thousands of legal immigrants off food stamps, partially reversing President Bush's efforts to win Latino votes by restoring similar cuts made in the 1990s.

The food stamp measure is just one of several provisions in an expansive congressional budget-cutting package that critics say unfairly targets the poor and disadvantaged, especially poor children.

The battle will be joined today when the House Budget Committee is scheduled to fold eight budget-cutting bills saving $50 billion through 2010 into a single measure and then send it to the floor for a vote next week. The Senate is also set to vote on its version of the budget-cutting package, which would not cut food stamps. The smaller measure, with $39 billion in savings, has broad reach, affecting Medicare, Medicaid, agriculture programs, private pension plans and energy.

The Senate action will feature a showdown over a bid to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, as well as confrontations over limits to agriculture subsidies, Medicaid payments and Hurricane Katrina relief.

This would be a fine time to call your representative and let them know you don't want to pay for hurricane relief on the backs of the working class and the poor. Faithful America, part of the emerging religious left, makes it easy to send your rep a letter.

In other economic news, U.S. productivity growth rose by an annualized rate of 4.1 percent in the third quarter. During the same period, wages rose by an annualized 2.3 percent - less than inflation. That means that if all else is equal, an even greater share of national revenues went to investors while working people got the shafta yet again.

Is that consistent with recent trends? You betcha.