Senator Mitch McConnell (R - Kentucky) - Defender of the poor, the sick and the disenfranchised.

Last week Senate Republicans voted down a bill that would eliminate approximately $2 Billion per year in tax breaks for big oil. (Chump change for the five biggest oil companies that reaped $35 billion in profits in the first quarter alone.)

In defending their actions, the Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, tireless defender of the poor, the sick and the disenfranchised, said that eliminating the breaks would not translate to lower prices at the pump.

Whaaa?  I thought it was about reducing the deficit.

Where’s the concern about the cost to people “at the pump” when it comes to health care,  education, housing?  Republican policy prohibits Medicare from negotiating prices with big pharma and results in markedly higher prescription costs for seniors at the healthcare “pump.”

Republicans were against the Obama administration’s bill eliminating the middle man – banks – in issuing student loans even though that action saved $68 billion, is projected to create 820,000 more Pell grants over the next decade and will make payments more affordable.  Now Republicans want to cut Pell grants, job training, small business development services – you name it – all in the name of cutting the deficit.

Who do those cuts hurt?  The ones filling up with four-dollar gas so they can get to the next job fair before their unemployment benefits run out.  (Republicans also don’t like imposing fuel efficiency standards on automobiles.)

McConnell and his hypocritical Republican colleagues only pretend to be concerned for the peoples’ welfare;  if you believe them, that bridge in Brooklyn is still available.  The only welfare Republicans are concerned about is corporate welfare.

In the same week that Senate Republicans presented their gift to the oil industry, McConnell said we have to keep cutting the budget so “the markets will have more confidence.” He’s obviously not talking about your corner market — the one that closed before they got the memo that the recession is “over.” Expect to get that memo by pony express — after they shut down the post office.