Let the recriminations begin….
One of the most difficult and thankless jobs that any President is responsible for is creating a budget. Just like your family and mine, the federal government has to figure out how to live within it’s means. Of course, “living within your means” means something a whole lot different when you’re comparing the federal government to your average middle-class family. If my family spent more than we take in, we’d be in all sorts of trouble with creditors. Being the federal government, though, means never having to say your sorry- or be certain that income exceeds spending.
Of course, a cursory glance at the numbers will quickly indicate where Bush’s priorities lie- and they’re not with people. Defense spending is set for a healthy increases, while programs for the poor are set to take a hit.
“This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut Social Security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities and its huge deficits are fiscally irresponsible.”
Democrats also contended that the budget masked the costs of some Bush initiatives such as making his first-term tax cuts permanent by only making deficit projections through 2010. The budget puts the cost of making Bush’s tax cuts permanent at $1.1 trillion through 2015 but does not show how that would impact the deficit at that time.
“This budget paints a misleading picture by providing no deficit figures after 2010 and by omitting the full long-term costs of the president’s policies on Social Security privatization, taxes and operations in Iraq,” said Rep. John Spratt, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Bush’s budget proposed increasing military spending by 4.8 percent to $419.3 billion in 2006….
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, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.
In all, the president proposed savings of $137 billion over 10 years in mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Affairs Department makes for health care. The administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.
It appears that the “Education President” is proving that he really was all talk. Now that he no longer has to worry about running for re-election, Bush can afford to pursue his industry-first, people-second agenda at full bore.
Congratulations, America. I hope you’re proud of yourselves….
