MISPLACED PRIORITIES: THE BUSH BUDGET TOP TEN LIST
Last November, Americans voted for a new direction. President Bush still hasn’t gotten the message. Instead, the President has offered a budget that is simply more of the same – the same budget gimmicks, the same misplaced priorities and the same fiscal irresponsibility. From hiding the ball on the real costs of the war in Iraq to balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class families using the Alternative Minimum Tax, examples of the President’s misplaced priorities are littered throughout the his budget. The top ten most egregious are included below.
1) TAX INCREASES FOR MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES: The President’s entire budget is balanced on the backs of the 33 million Americans who will be forced to pay higher taxes through the Alternative Minimum Tax under his proposal.
2) CUTS TOHEALTH CARE ANDSENIORS: The President’s budget cuts Medicare and Medicaid by over $100 billion over five years, $300 billion over ten years. Medicare and Medicaid provide health care for approximately 80 million Americans.
3) WHILE AN ARCTIC CHILL FREEZES THE COUNTRY, CUTS TO HOMEENERGY ASSISTANCE: The President’s budget cuts home energy and heating assistance by a whopping 18%. Each year. LIHEAP helps 5 million families heat their homes in the winter and cool them in the summer. With temperatures in the Midwest and the East in the single digits, the Bush Administration’s suggestion to American families? Stock up on blankets.
4) 5 YEARS FOLLOWING 9/11, DEVASTATING CUTS TOPOLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS: The President’s budget with respect to police and firefighters is nearly criminal. It essentially eliminates funding for the successful COPS program which has added almost 120,000 community policing officers and deputies to the beat. Moreover, the proposal would cut homeland security grants to local police and firefighters by more than a third.
5) IN DIRECT OPPOSITION TO THE WISHES OF THE COUNTRY, A PLAN TOPRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY: Despite the fact that the country opposed privatization and sent that message loud and clear last election cycle, President Bush has included his plan to privatize Social Security in his budget. The Bush budget includes $29 billion for Social Security privatization while crucial priorities are cut.
6) CUTS TOVETERANS’ HEALTH CARE: The President’s budget would force some veterans to pay as much as $750 dollars a year to join the Veterans’ Administration health care program. It would also nearly double the prescription drug co-payments of many veterans.
7) CUTS TOEDUCATION: The President’s budget proposes a funding cut in education. His budget plan would set aside $1.5 billion less for education priorities than the joint funding resolution pending in Congress, or a 2.6 percent cut from the 2007 level of $57.5 billion. Not surprisingly, the budget also continues to underfund the No Child Left Behind program.
8) CUTS TOHOUSING ASSISTANCE: The President’s budget would eliminate the HOPE VI program, which restores dilapidated housing, and seeks to cancel the $99 million included in the pending legislation currently in Congress. In total, the budget cuts discretionary funding for federal housing programs by 8 percent.
9) WITH IRAQ VETERANS RETURNING WITH DEVASTATING INJURIES, CUTS TO BRAIN TRAUMA RESEARCH: The Bush budget eliminates an important health research program to study traumatic brain injuries at a time when over 1500 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have suffered devastating brain injuries from IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices).
10) PRESIDENT BUSH TALKS THE TALK, BUT DOESN’T WALK THE WALK ON EARMARKS: The Bush administration proposal earmarks $291 million to let companies log large trees in national forests in exchange for clearing smaller trees and brush. Environmentalists called this "healthy forests" program a giveaway to logging companies that supported Bush. This is just one example among many of President Bush earmarking funds for his own priorities.