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Bush to Cities: DROP DEAD
The news is all bad. And it's nearly impossible to focus when confronted with the 99th article about the soaring deficit, the Bush administration's efforts to privatize Social Security, or the latest multibillion-dollar request for funding the Iraq war. The numbers are incomprehensible, the arguments read like boilerplate, and it's tempting to tune it all out. Better to let the policy wonks in Washington squabble.
So here's a headline from the Washington Post, January 14, 2005: "Bush Plans Sharp Cuts in HUD Community Efforts." It makes your eyes glaze over, doesn't it? It's one of those stories that is easier to skip. After all, what's it got to do with you? But read on: "The White House will seek to drastically shrink the Department of Housing and Urban Development's $8 billion community branch, purging dozens of economic development projects, scrapping a rural housing program, and folding high-profile antipoverty efforts into the Labor and Commerce departments, administration officials said yesterday."