~ BEND OVER VETERANS & PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS - BUSH GOT SOMETHINGFOR YA ~

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Bush Plans To Slash Popular Programs After Election

A leaked White House memo shows that if George Bush is re-elected, he
will make large cuts in many government programs, including both
homeland security and veterans programs, while again cutting the taxes
of the wealthy.
By Stewart Nusbaumer

Referring to America’s war dead, President Bush told an audience at
Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day that “America acknowledges a
debt that is beyond our power to repay.” Many of the nation’s 26 million
living veterans, some of whom were wounded in wars, some of whom are old
and frail, are now asking if President Bush is interested in repaying
the debt owed to them. Many Americans, not only veterans, are asking,
where is the George Bush's “compassionate conservatism”?

A memorandum from the White House Budge Office, recently obtained by the
Associated Press from congressional sources who requested anonymity,
instructs government agencies to prepare for massive cuts to domestic
programs in 2006, even as the administration pushes for $1 trillion in
new tax cuts.

“The ball is now out for everyone to see,” said Senator Bob Graham
(Democrat--Florida). “The only thing that's left in place is the part of
the ball that is labeled ‘tax cuts for my rich friends.’”

“The fat cats will get their tax cuts,” writes Bob Herbert. “But in the
new American plutocracy, there won't even be crumbs left over for the
working folks at the bottom of the pyramid to scramble after.”

“Same old Republican game,” says disabled Vietnam veteran Phil Hartman,
“raise the defense budget and make military veterans pay for the cost.
Ronald Reagan did the same thing. George Bush is now doing the same.”

Post-Election Budget

As revealed in the White House memo, the budget for the Defense
Department would grow 5.2 percent to $422.7 billion in 2006, and the
Justice Department's would increase 4.3 percent to $19.5 billion in
2006. Practically every major domestic program, however, would be slated
for large decreases.

The Veterans Affairs Department budget would fall 3.4 percent from $29.7
billion in 2005 to $28.7 billion. This would include a $910 million cut
to the existing veterans health care budget and a $53 million cut for
the homeownership program, nearly reversing the $78 million funding
increase that Bush pledged for a homeownership program in 2005.

Presidential candidate John Kerry has strongly criticized the Bush
Administration for not honoring “the national obligation” to our
military veterans and promises that if he is elected there will be “a
new compact with veterans” that includes fully funding the Veterans
Administration.

Last year the head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars called a similar Bush
Administration budget “disgraceful” to veterans and “deplorable.”

Even money for domestic security at the Homeland Security Department and
other agencies, budgets John Kerry has promised to increase, world drop
by 3 percent, from $30.6 billion in 2005 to $29.6 billion in 2006.

The document reveals that the Bush Administration is also ordering cuts
in the following agencies: 2.4 percent less for the Education
Department; 2.6 percent less for the Environmental Protection Agency;
2.1 percent for the National Institutes of Health; 1.9 percent less for
the Interior Department.

Meanwhile, the Administration is requesting a $1 trillion reduction in
taxes, with most of the reduction going to the wealthiest Americans.

“The only way we can even begin to pay for these huge tax cuts is by
imposing cuts on critical government services,” said Thomas Kahn,
Democratic staff director of the House Budget Committee. “Despite
[administration] denials, this memorandum confirms what we suspected all
along,” Kahn said. “Next February, the administration plans to propose
spending cuts in key government services to pay for oversized tax cuts.”

“Many of the targeted programs are widely popular,” writes Alan Fram of
the Associate Press. “Cuts could carry a political price for a president
who has touted his support for schools, the environment and other
domestic initiatives.”

This revelation of the Bush Administration’s plans to cut back on
popular federal programs, programs that George Bush is now supporting on
the campaign trail, is not only a political embarrassment, but a serious
attack on the candidate’s personal credibility. Plans to slash programs
such as Head Start for children, homeownership, job-training, medical
research and science programs, as well as homeland security and veterans
programs should come at a heavy political cost to a president whose
standing in the polls continues to decline. The political cost should be
his defeat in November.

Stewart Nusbaumer is editor of Intervention Magazine. You can email
Stewart at

Posted Monday, May 31, 2004

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/m...icle&sid= 756