By DOUGLAS CHRISTENSEN
Doug Christensen is a retired contractor who has lived in the Wood River Valley for 22 years.
On Feb. 7, George W. Bush launched an unprecedented attack on poor and working people in the United States. His proposed $2.57-trillion budget will cut domestic programs to seniors, veterans, children, and the poor by $20 billion dollars next year.
This budget proposal is part of a neo-conservative effort to impose oppressive conditions on those who most need assistance—those with no health care, no pensions, and no rights. These cuts are not necessary. They are the intended result of tax cuts for the most wealthy and massive military spending for a needless war. They are part of a neo-con plan to "starve the beast," to create artificial crises in order to justify slashing spending for the welfare of people in need, while at the same time increasing spending for the welfare of the richest of U.S. citizens.
The Pentagon budget will be increased to $419 billion, plus an additional $80 billion for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan--nearly half a trillion dollars. The U.S. will spend about as much money on its military as the rest of the world's nations combined. Bush also wants to make his tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, which carry a price tag of $1.1 trillion through 2014.
To pay for the military buildup and tax cuts, Bush's budget includes $20 billion in cuts to over 150 programs, and many of them targeted toward low-income people. These cuts come at a time when poverty in the U.S. since 2000 has risen by 14 percent--one in eight now live in poverty, and one in five children. The number of people in the U.S. without health insurance--more than 45 million and rising--has reached a record. Affordable housing is beyond the reach of more and more working people.
Budget cuts include: Food stamps will be cut by over $1 billion over the next five years; The Bureau of Indian Affairs budget will be cut by $100 million. About one-third of the programs being targeted for elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, supporting drug-free schools, and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.
Bush's proposed budget eliminates 7 programs providing $16 billion in grants for low-income urban areas and replaces them with one program, funded at $3.7 Billion. The new program, which replaces programs in HUD, Education and other areas, is to be run by the Commerce Department. Why Commerce? The Administration's stated purpose is to direct these grants away from public organizations and toward faith-based (religious) organizations and private businesses.
Medicaid--medical care for the poor, the disabled, the elderly and children--will be cut by $45 billion. As home heating costs are on the rise, Bush's budget cuts the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program by $200 million- making it harder for working families to pay their heating bills.
The budget increases the cost of prescription drugs for veterans more than 100 percent, will charge veterans $250 per year for historically free health care, and the administration would close VA hospitals throughout the country while veterans are presently waiting months just to see a doctor.
The proposed budget is especially brutal in attacking immigrants. It eliminates the Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers program, while claiming that "workers can be better served through the Nation's system of One-Stop Career Centers", although that program is cut in the Bush budget from $963 million to $84 million. It provides a $68 million increase for a program that seizes children whose parents have been deported and turns them over to right-wing religious groups.
The budget eliminates funding for The Rural Housing and Economic Development Program, which funds housing for rural families.
Bush's budget eliminates the Perkins Loan, a federally subsidized loan program for college students. In addition to cuts in crucial programs, the proposal includes efforts to increase red tape and make it harder for workers to collect unemployment insurance. It similarly makes it harder for states to administer Medicaid and SCHIP benefits effectively by curtailing the ways in which they can use federal money to administer those programs. And the budget is riddled with religious initiatives, such as "Abstinence Only Education" and "Healthy Marriage" programs. What has happened to our nation's "Separation of Church and State"? Bush's budget demands that the poorest and most oppressed pay for the costs of his tax breaks to the wealthy and for his program of endless war.
