The Bush Budget: Just The Facts; from Kucinich

Washington, Feb 9 -

The President’s budget request for fiscal year 2007, submitted to Congress on Monday, chooses war over health care, tax cuts over education, special interests over the needs of the nation and rich over poor. The budget cuts vital domestic funding because of spending for the war in Iraq and the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, placing the burden squarely on the backs of low income and working Americans.

The President’s budget will increase defense spending by almost 7%, to $439 billion, privatize Social Security and slashes vital finding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, veterans health care, children’s health care, Welfare, transportation and NASA programs.

The Bush budget is not just fiscally bankrupt, it is morally bankrupt.

Social Security
Despite a bipartisan rejection to the President’s plan to privatize Social Security and shift the nation’s retirement system from Main Street to Wall Street last year, the President is trying to bury his ill-advised and misguided plan in his latest budget request.

The President’s stealth Social Security privatization plan would take more than $700 billion in guaranteed retirement security from millions of Americans and gamble it in the stock market.

Health Care
The President’s budget slashes Medicare by $36 billion over the next five years and $105 billion over the next ten years. These cuts include cuts in payments to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, ambulance services, and other providers and increases Medicare premiums for certain beneficiaries. The budget also cuts Medicaid by over $13 billion over the next 5 years.

The budget request subsidizes to the tune of $51.6 billion over 5 years health tax credits that only benefit those who can afford the expensive health insurance. That amount increases to $136.5 billion over ten years. The budget cuts $99 million for grants used for preventing chronic diseases, our nations number one cause of death. It cuts research funding for health for the first time in 36 years. It cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget by 9%.

Education
The President’s budget cuts overall discretionary appropriations for the Education Department by 3.8% below this year’s level. Again this year, the President’s budget fails to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This year the President under funds NCLB by $15 billion—bringing the total cumulative funding shortfall, since the bill was passed, to $55 billion. The President’s budget freezes funding for Head Start and Pell Grants, while eliminating several key education programs including Vocational Education State Grants, Drug-Free School State Grants and TRIO programs.

Veterans and Military Retirees
For the fourth year in a row, the President’s budget raises health care costs for hundreds of thousands of veterans, imposing new co-payments on prescription drugs and enrollment fees that will costs veterans hundreds of millions of dollars. The budget also increases TRICARE health care premiums for the nation’s military retirees.

Energy
Despite the skyhigh costs consumers are paying to keep their homes warm this winter, the President’s budget cuts by one-third the Weatherization Assistance Program, denying help to tens of thousands of low income Americans in reducing their energy bills. Even though the number of people applying for assistance is at a 12 year high, the President’s budget provides no extra funds for low-income home energy assistance (LIHEAP).

Environment
The President’s budget slashes the overall budget for the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) by 4% for a total cut of about 10% over two years. The budget calls for drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and abandons the principle of “polluter pays” for Superfund toxic waste cleanups. The budget also slashes clean water funds by 22% even though 623,763 of Ohio's residents drink water with a reported health violation. The fund has been cut by almost a half billion dollars since 2001. It also terminates the National Children's Study, a massive study that follows the health of and environmental exposures of thousands of Americans from pre-conception until age 21. It is one of our best hopes of determining ways to prevent environmentally caused chronic diseases like cancer.

NASA
The President’s budget, against the will of the Congress, slashes funding for vital aeronautic programs at NASA by 18%. Aeronautics research and development has drastically improved our national security, air safety, economy, and environment. NASA’s field centers, like the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, are where the actual basic research is done. One of the secrets to NASA’s success has been its dual emphasis on both space and aeronautics. A successful space program is heavily dependent on a strong aeronautics program. Indeed, you can’t get to space without first navigating the atmosphere. And yet the budget proposal for FY 07 attempted to drastically cut funding for aeronautics research. Recovery from that devastating loss would take decades and billions of dollars.

Gulf Coast Recovery
Despite hundreds of thousands of people being left homeless, a major city destroyed and an entire region of country in desperate need of assistance, the President’s budget provides no additional funds to assist the Gulf Coast recover from one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history.

Defense Spending
The President’s budget increases the Department of Defense budget by 7% to a total of $439.3 billion, or almost half our total discretionary spending. This represents a 48% increase in the Department’s budget since 2001. This massive budget request only funds the Department of Defense, it DOES NOT pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite being kept out of the budget, the Administration has signaled it will need an additional $120 billion for the wars in the next year. This will bring the total cost of the wars to over $400 billion. Again this year, the President is requesting tens of billions of dollars to fund failed weapons systems of the Cold War, included an additional $10.4 billion for National Missile Defense (NMD). Despite, over ten years and billions of dollars of research and development, NMD has never had a successful real world test.

Tax Cuts
The President’s budget would make permanent the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% of the nation, while leaving the vast majority of the country with little or no tax relief. Making these cuts permanent would cost $178 billion over 5 years and explode to $1.35 trillion over ten years. The President’s budget also protects billions of dollars in tax breaks to big oil and gas companies, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and companies who export jobs overseas.


Budgets are a mission statement. The mission statement of the President’s budget tells the majority of Americans in their time of greatest need: You are on your own.

It is time for some common sense. It is time to bring our troops home, end tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, end the use of government to escalate the wealth of this nation upwards and tend to our nation’s real needs.

I admit, I only did so because CT's votes didn't "count." But it freed me to vote my conscience, not vote just for strategic purposes. It is a shame this brilliant mind is trapped in such an "un-sellable" product.

I knew I would be voting with my heart and mind. I agree that his "Department of Peace" just wasn't gonna fly.

Good for you, DK!

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