Bush proposes $2.8 trillion budget to boost military spending and slash social p

[Guest guest]

A

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:59:34 -0800 (PST)

Bush proposes $2.8 trillion budget to boost military spending

and slash social programs

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/budg-f07.shtml

 

Bush proposes $2.8 trillion budget to boost military spending and

slash social programs

By Kate Randall

7 February 2006

 

 

 

President Bush sent a $2.77 trillion budget plan to Congress on Monday

that includes record spending for the military and cuts funding for a

wide range of social programs. Included is $65 billion in cuts to

entitlement programs over the next five years, more than half of this

from Medicare. Bush is also seeking to make his first-term tax cuts

permanent.

 

The plan is in line with the agenda set forth by the president in his

State of the Union address last week—to boost funds for the " war on

terror " and domestic policing and slash federal spending on programs

relied on by working Americans, retirees and the poor. The proposed

budget covers the 2007 fiscal year beginning October 1, and its

appropriations must be approved by Congress, which will begin debate

on it this spring.

 

Under Bush's proposal, military spending would increase by 4.8

percent, to a record $439.3 billion. The Defense Department would see

an increase of 6.9 percent, including a rise in the Army's budget from

$99 billion to $112 billion. The budget would fund a 15 percent

increase in the size of the US Special Forces. A 2.2 percent increase

in base military pay is also proposed.

 

Funds earmarked for the military include only a portion of the money

the administration proposes to spend on the wars in Iraq and

Afghanistan in fiscal 2007. The budget contains only $50 billion in

spending for the Iraq war. The Bush administration will be asking for

$70 billion in additional war spending in addition to the $50 billion

in supplemental funding already approved by Congress just last December.

 

The Department of Homeland Security will get a 9.8 percent funding

rise, including increased funding to the Federal Emergency Management

Agency (FEMA) and money to add 1,500 new border patrol agents.

 

The biggest cut by far is aimed at entitlement programs, where

projected spending would be cut by $65 billion over the next five

years. Bush proposes to slash $36 billion from Medicare, the federal

program that provides health care to seniors and the disabled.

 

The Medicare cuts would be achieved by reducing inflation adjustments

for hospitals, nursing homes, home health providers and hospices. The

plan also includes triggers that would cut Medicare outlays if

spending surpasses certain limits already enacted in law. The retiree

advocacy group AARP (formerly known as the Association for the

Advancement of Retired Persons) said such cutoffs could be " very

damaging " because they cap spending without addressing skyrocketing

health care costs for seniors.

 

The Bush plan would divert $60 billion from tax revenues over 10 years

for so-called " health savings accounts " —a program that would mainly be

utilized by upper-income people. Under the plan, individuals would set

aside tax-free savings to fund health costs. The benefits for working

class families in such a program would be drastically limited, as new

data shows that the majority of Americans have negative savings

balances, and contributions could only come by further carving into

weekly earnings.

 

The clear purpose of this initiative is to undermine federally funded

programs that guarantee certain benefits and replace them with private

accounts in which individuals would have to purchase health care from

private providers and their benefits would not be guaranteed.

 

Reductions in other entitlement, or nondiscretionary, spending include

close to $5 billion in farm commodity programs and $16.7 billion from

the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal program backing

private pensions. This cut in the federal pension program comes at

time when bankruptcy courts are authorizing wholesale looting of

workers' pensions and a growing number of companies are jumping on the

pension-freezing bandwagon.

 

The budget calls for eliminating or sharply scaling back funding for

141 discretionary programs, for a projected total reduction of almost

$15 billion. Such programs must be funded every year by Congress.

 

Almost a third of such programs targeted for cutbacks or elimination

are in education, where overall spending would be reduced by 3.4

percent. The budget plan proposes cutbacks in programs supporting the

arts, a reduction in funding for vocational training, and the

elimination of a program providing college preparation for poor

students. A program combating violence against women would also be cut.

 

Projects tapped by Bush for an increase include $4 billion over the

next five years for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a

proposal promoted by the energy industry and widely opposed by

environmentalists that has been blocked numerous times by Congress.

 

Also tagged for a funding increase is the new " American

Competitiveness Initiative, " which would extend an expired tax break

for corporate research and development, a program highlighted by Bush

in his State of the Union speech.

 

Underscoring the brazen class bias of Bush's 2007 budget, the proposal

calls for reducing government revenues by $1.4 trillion over the next

10 years by making permanent the tax cuts passed earlier in the Bush

presidency. While social programs for working people and the poor are

put on the chopping block, these tax breaks overwhelmingly benefit the

wealthiest and most privileged Americans.

 

In the Bush budget, a combination of burgeoning military spending,

huge tax breaks for the rich, and deep cuts in social spending are

still expected to result in a $423 billion federal deficit for fiscal

year 2007, according to the best-case estimates by the White House.

 

Sections of Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike are

concerned about these deficits. Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota,

the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, commented that the

budget " explodes deficits, but then conceals them by providing only

five years of numbers and leaving out large costs. "

 

Commenting on the expenditures for entitlement programs, Republican

Senator Judd Gregg (New Hampshire), the Senate Budget Committee

chairman, said, " We have to face up to this fiscal reality that this

baby boom generation is going to retire soon and we need to do

something about it. "

 

Bush's budget proposal met with a somewhat lukewarm reception in

Congress. Congressmen and women facing reelection this November will

have to justify to their home constituencies a budget that nakedly

favors military spending and tax cuts for the rich, while targeting

programs for the elderly and society's most vulnerable.

 

The statements of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Republican, Illinois),

however, summed up the general attitude of House Republicans, who can

be expected to campaign for the passage of much of Bush's proposed

budget. " Make no mistake, " Hastert said, " This House of

Representatives will keep a sharp eye on controlling spending

throughout this budget process. "

 

The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada), criticized

the proposed cuts in the Bush plan as the cost of " the Republican

culture of corruption. "

 

While Congress failed last year to implement Bush's proposals on

revamping Social Security, in the end two-thirds of his spending cuts

were approved. An overwhelming majority in Congress—both Democratic

and Republican—has repeatedly authorized White House requests for

military spending.

 

A spokesman for Fiscal Dynamics, a financial advisory firm for the

affluent, predicted that much of Bush's budget would be pushed through

" in a lame-duck session after the election. "

 

See Also:

US budget slashes social spending to fund war and tax cuts for the rich

[3 February 2006]