Bush's Heartless Budget

What has happened to America? Are we proud that we have elected and re-elected this intellectually challenged politician who is nothing more than a lackey for the oil industry and other big-business conglomerates? As we examine the President’s $3 trillion budget, perhaps we should also examine our consciences and consider the proud principles for which this country is supposed to stand.

In his State-of-the-Union address Bush said that we should stand-up for American soldiers and veterans. But in his budget, Bush sought to impose on veterans new fees ranging up to $750 for care at veterans’ health-care facilities. This would cost them more than $2.6 billion over five years. It would double veterans’ co-payments for prescription drugs. In addition, the Bush budget would significantly reduce federal support for state-operated veterans’ homes and impose new limitations on who can be admitted. State officials have warned that the White House spending plan could force out roughly half of the 600 residents at Washington D.C.’s three veterans homes, possibly resulting in the closure of one of them.

Bush’s address, dripping with “compassion” for unfortunate Americans, would cut more than $600 billion over ten years from Medicare and Medicaid. It would also eliminate the $243 million Low-income Weatherization Assistance Program and cut $570 million from the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program at a time of record-high fuel prices. The budget would also drastically cut nutrition and housing programs for the poor.

Needless to say, Bush’s budget takes care of his beloved billionaires. The budget would preserve hundreds of billions in tax breaks for the richest 0.01 percent of the population while slashing programs for the poor and the middle class.

Bush wants to increase the defense budget by 7.5 percent to $515.4 billion — which does not include either war spending, estimated to be more than $170 billion next year, or the cost of nuclear weapons. Defense spending would be up by more than 30 percent since Mr. Bush took office and would be the highest level of military spending since World War II. The result would be mammoth budget deficits unlike anything we have ever known.

Among other cuts proposed in this “compassionate’ budget are the complete elimination of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, a vital nutrition program for low-income seniors and children; a 29 percent cut in funding for nurses’ training at a time of severe nursing shortage; a $484 million cut to job training and employment programs while the unemployment rate is going up; an 86 percent cut in Rural Health Programs; a $900 million cut to Community Development Block Grants for job creation, economic development, and home ownership in cities; a $195 million cut in elderly housing; and a $500 million cut to Social Services Block Grants which provide funding to protect children from abuse and neglect as well as providing care for homeless seniors and services to children and adults with disabilities.

Bush calls the fabulously wealthy plutocrats in America his “base.” The gap between the richest Americans and the middle class is growing wider every day. In 2005 the top 1 percent earned more income than the bottom 50 percent of Americans -- with the top 300,000 earners making more money than the bottom 150 million. While the top-earning 0.01 percent received an average income increase of $4.4 million in 2005, the bottom 90 percent saw their average income decline by about $172.

Today, despite all the rhetoric about "family values," the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country in the world. Since George Bush has been president, nearly 5 million more Americans have slipped into poverty, 8.6 million have lost their health insurance, 3 million have lost their pensions, and median family income has declined by about $2,500.

A two-income family has less disposable income today than a one-income family had 30 years ago. Home foreclosures are now the highest on record. More and more workers are now spending more than half of their limited incomes for housing, leaving less for other basic needs.

I hope that the Congress rejects this foul budget. Congress needs to remind the President that he is the President of all of the United States and not just that small neighborhood called Easy Street.