DeVos flips out at the press for reporting her cuts to Special Olympics

In case there was any doubt, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to clarify that she is determined to cut every penny of funding for the Special Olympics from her department’s budget.

She is so dedicated to denying more than $17 million to an organization dedicated to helping special needs children that she put out a statement Wednesday afternoon doubling down on her position.

But because that position makes her look so cruel and heartless, DeVos decided to attack the press for accurately reporting on it.

“It is unacceptable, shameful and counterproductive that the media and some members of Congress have spun up falsehoods and fully misrepresented the facts,” DeVos said.

Yet just a few lines later in the brief, four-paragraph statement, DeVos confirmed the very facts she claimed were misrepresented.

DeVos said that “given our current budget realities, the federal government cannot fund every worthy program,” including the Special Olympics.

But “budget realities” clearly weren’t a factor when the Trump administration championed the GOP tax scam, which blew a $2 trillion hole in the national deficit to pay for tax breaks that mostly went to wealthy Wall Street corporations and the top 1 percent.

If balancing the budget really mattered that much to his administration, Trump could simply take five fewer trips to Mar-a-Lago instead of zeroing out Special Olympics funding.

DeVos is a billionaire heiress who was confirmed to lead the nation’s education department despite having no formal education experience. She was confirmed to her Cabinet position after making massive donations to the GOP senators in charge of her confirmation process, and she refuses to fly the American flag on her $40 million yacht in part to avoid paying state and local taxes.

And now DeVos wants to tell 272,000 disabled kids who participate in the Special Olympics that they are less important than tax cuts for her billionaire pals.

At a Tuesday congressional hearing, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) slammed DeVos for the callous move.

“I still can’t understand why you would go after disabled children in your budget. You zero that out. It’s appalling,” Lee told DeVos.

DeVos’s defense of the harsh cuts drew wide criticism from Americans. Some ESPN personalities took to Twitter to shame DeVos for her position.

“God, you need to only spend .01 minute watching these @SpecialOlympics athletes perform to understand the power of this program,” Julie Foudy, a former professional soccer player and current ESPN commentator, told DeVos.

DeVos wants to blame the media for pointing out her full-throated support of cutting all funding for the Special Olympics.

But she has only herself, and her choice to keep working for the heartless Trump administration, to blame.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.