Bush’s budget ax to fall on poor

Compiled by Eamon Martin

Feb. 9 (AGR)-- US president George W. Bush sent a $2,500billion budget to Congress on Feb. 7 that seeks deep cuts in social spending while boosting funding for the military and homeland security. Bush is proposing to reduce spending on public health and social welfare in the US to mainly help pay for tax cuts and the war in Iraq, according to reports of the budget. About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back.

In an attempt to keep government spending under control at a time of record deficits, Bush’s proposals to Congress will include cuts in public housing subsidies, in health projects aimed at diseases related to poverty, and in food stamps, which help the United States’ poorest buy groceries.

Bush inherited a budget surplus from former president Bill Clinton but is now running record deficits of over $400billion a year. The turnaround is partially due to huge tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the wealthiest 1% of Americans, and the war in Iraq, for which the administration has asked for another $81billion this year.

A larger number of people now receive federal job-related aid, such as child care for working women with small children. The new budget would restrict that practice, giving states less flexibility to provide food stamps to these working poor people.

A program that helps the poor pay heating bills is to be cut by more than 8%, while 18 housing and community programs will be consolidated, taking away almost $3billion in funds.

Defenders of housing programs warned the cuts will force communities to close youth centers and put vulnerable people such as the elderly at risk at a time when wealthy Americans are enjoying tax cuts that fueled the deficit.

"We're bracing for the worst," said William E. Rapfogel, who is the director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a nonprofit group that provides home care to the elderly and runs a food pantry in New York City serving about 13,000 households monthly. The group receives about $250,000 from community development grants and about $200,000 from community services grants, said Rapfogel, adding that requests for the group's services had doubled in the past four years. "There couldn't be a worse time for these types of cuts," he said.

“With the deficits that we’re now running, I’m glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ.) said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I hope we in Congress will have the courage to support it.”

The biggest hit would be delivered to Medicaid, the joint federal-state healthcare program for the poor and disabled. The Bush administration said it will reduce $60billion in spending over 10 years on the Medicaid program. It argues that the savings will largely come from administrative costs, but there will be severe cuts in several health programs.

Bush’s proposal would cut 48 education programs totaling $4.3 billion, including $2.2 billion for high school programs, mostly in state grants for vocational education.

The budget would cut $440 million in Safe and Drug-Free School grants, $500 million in education technology state grants, $225 million for the Even Start literacy program, $280 million for Upward Bound programs for inner-city youths and a $150 million talent research program, according to the documents.

The budget proposal would cut $94 million in grants for the Healthy Communities Access Program and phase out rural health grants, the documents said. Bush had touted his commitment to such programs during his reelection campaign. The president would terminate the Community Food and Nutrition Program, and cut a migrant and seasonal farm worker training program.

A health department preventative program aimed at obesity and other chronic diseases is to be cut by 6.5% to $841million. Health training programs will be slashed. One such plan for nurses, dentists and other health professionals will be reduced by 64% and another to train doctors for children’s hospitals will be cut by a third.

Under Bush’s proposal, the Pentagon would see an increase of $18.2billion. The budget leaves out some big items, such as the future costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor is the cost of Bush’s Social Security plan, which would begin in 2009 and result in $754 billion in additional debt over its first five years.

“This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut social security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires,” said the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid. “Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities and its huge deficits are fiscally irresponsible.”

Making permanent the tax cuts of his first term, another feature of the Bush plan, would cost as much as $1.1 trillion over the next decade.

Bush’s plan would also more than double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs and would require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care. Veterans’ groups said that hundreds of thousands of people would end up paying more, and that many would be affected by both changes.

Richard B. Fuller, legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said the budget would force veterans hospitals and clinics to limit services. “We are already seeing an increase in waiting lists, even for some Iraq veterans,” he said.

In Michigan, for example, thousands of veterans are on waiting lists for medical services, and some reservists returning from Iraq say they have been unable to obtain the care they were promised.

"The taxpayers of America don't want us spending our money into something that's not achieving results," Bush said on Feb. 7, explaining his calculus for the budget cuts.

Operations in Iraq are costing about $1 billion a week. Meanwhile, Bush is asking Congress to set up a $400 million fund to reward nations that have taken political and economic risks to join US-led operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The fund is part of the $81 billion supplemental war financing request Bush is to send to

Congress next week. The White House announced the fund, dubbed the "solidarity initiative" after Bush's meeting on Feb. 9 with Aleksander Kwasniewski, the president of Poland, a nation that is to receive one-fourth of the money.

“We are being tight,” Vice President Cheney told Fox News on Feb. 6 while defending the budget cuts. “I think you’ll find, once people sit down and have a chance to look at the budget, that it is a fair, reasonable, responsible, serious piece of effort…It’s not something we’ve done with a meat ax, nor are we suddenly turning our back on the most needy people in our society.”

The Bush administration’s proposal would also cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by nearly 6 percent by targeting a program that helps cities replace aging sewage systems.

Environmental groups say cities need the loans and grants to replace and upgrade aging sewage systems, some of which are over a century old./p>

"This year's cuts are really bad for clean water," said Rob Perks at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Sen. James M. Jeffords, an independent from Vermont who is the ranking minority member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, accused the administration of "attempting to balance the budget on the back of the environment," the working poor and veterans.

Not all government sectors will see a decrease in federal spending in Bush’s budget vision. The following areas would in fact see significant increases: State Dept.: +15.6%; FBI: +11%; Homeland Security: +6.8%; Defense: +4.8%; Drug Enforcement Administration: +4.0%.

Sources: Associated Press, Guardian(UK) Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reuters, USA Today, Washington Post