I was surprised to find this on CNN...

Cuts too deep? No, not deep enough

An excerpt:

Politicians have been trying to outdo each other in deploying what the neoliberal Washington Monthly founder Charles Peters coined in 1976 as the "firemen first" principle -- the notion that "the public will support (the Clever Bureaucrat's) valiant fight against the budget reduction only if essential services are endangered. Thus, C.B. always picks on teachers, policemen, firemen first."