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Bush budget targets 141 programs for elimination or drastic cutbacks
The Bush administration released a detailed list Thursday of the federally funded programs it wants to cut or eliminate outright from its proposed 2007 budget. The White House has embarked on a public relations campaign to promote its budget plan, which must be approved by Congress.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) list includes 91 programs to be killed off altogether and another 50 slated for major cutbacks. The administration aims to trim an estimated $15 billion in spending on these “discretionary” programs, i.e., programs which must be funded by Congress every year.
These proposed cuts are in addition to the main target of cutbacks—entitlement programs, whose funding is mandatory. Bush seeks to cut $65 billion in these programs over the next five years, more than half—$36 billion—from Medicare, the federal program that provides health care to an estimated 42 million seniors and disabled people.
While the $2.77 trillion budget proposed by Bush on Monday would ravage a range of programs relied upon by millions of working families, retirees and the poor, it would increase military spending by 4.8 percent—to a record $439 billion. The administration will ask for an additional $70 billion in spending, not included in the $439 billion Pentagon appropriation, for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is on top of $50 billion in supplemental funding for the two wars approved by Congress only last December.
In an appearance Wednesday before the Business and Industry Association for New Hampshire, Bush stressed that the cuts were a matter of “setting priorities.” He told the well-heeled audience of executives: “Of course, you’d like to take a vacation every week, you know, some exotic place—but you’ve got to set your priorities—you can’t do that. You want to do this or do that, go to a fancy restaurant every night, but that’s not setting priorities.”
More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/budg-f13.shtml
These proposed cuts are in addition to the main target of cutbacks—entitlement programs, whose funding is mandatory. Bush seeks to cut $65 billion in these programs over the next five years, more than half—$36 billion—from Medicare, the federal program that provides health care to an estimated 42 million seniors and disabled people.
While the $2.77 trillion budget proposed by Bush on Monday would ravage a range of programs relied upon by millions of working families, retirees and the poor, it would increase military spending by 4.8 percent—to a record $439 billion. The administration will ask for an additional $70 billion in spending, not included in the $439 billion Pentagon appropriation, for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is on top of $50 billion in supplemental funding for the two wars approved by Congress only last December.
In an appearance Wednesday before the Business and Industry Association for New Hampshire, Bush stressed that the cuts were a matter of “setting priorities.” He told the well-heeled audience of executives: “Of course, you’d like to take a vacation every week, you know, some exotic place—but you’ve got to set your priorities—you can’t do that. You want to do this or do that, go to a fancy restaurant every night, but that’s not setting priorities.”
More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/budg-f13.shtml
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