squire
9th Jan 2004, 10:01
Bush Budget Shoves It to Poor, Vets, Workers
George Bush's budget priorities couldn't be clearer: Throw money at the Pentagon and at the wealthy, and let almost everyone else scrounge.
His profligate military spending and his tax giveaways to the very wealthiest Americans have brought about a $450 billion deficit.
And now he's using the fact of that large deficit to say we cannot afford to spend more money on crucial domestic needs.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Bush plans to crack down on rental vouchers for low-income families. His Administration intends to scrutinize local housing agencies and to force families seeking vouchers to jump through more hoops and provide more financial data to the government in exchange for the benefit.
And even as his economic policies have cost almost three million jobs, mostly in manufacturing, Bush intends to "merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs." That's sensitivity for you.
Then there's Bush's plan to make veterans pay more for prescription drugs. For a President who boasts at every opportunity of his love for the men and women in the armed services, this is a real slap.
The Pentagon has been considering a new proposal to increase pharmacy co-payments for retirees with at least 20 years of military service," the Times reported. "The charge for a generic drug would rise to $10, from $3, while the charge for a brand-name medicine would rise to $20, from $9."
Military vets are up in arms. "You're tampering with a benefit that was earned by people putting their lives on the line," James F. Lokovic, deputy director of the Air Force Sergeants Association, told the Virginian-Pilot.
The savings to the Pentagon from the new co-pays would amount to $728 million in 2005, the paper said.
Bush is perfectly willing to spend more than $150 billion on the Iraq War so far. But he's not willing to spend $1 billion on veterans' to preserve drug benefits for veterans, and he's chiseling away at housing vouchers for poor people and retraining funds for the unemployed.
There's nothing compassionate about that.
-- Matthew Rothschild
George Bush's budget priorities couldn't be clearer: Throw money at the Pentagon and at the wealthy, and let almost everyone else scrounge.
His profligate military spending and his tax giveaways to the very wealthiest Americans have brought about a $450 billion deficit.
And now he's using the fact of that large deficit to say we cannot afford to spend more money on crucial domestic needs.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Bush plans to crack down on rental vouchers for low-income families. His Administration intends to scrutinize local housing agencies and to force families seeking vouchers to jump through more hoops and provide more financial data to the government in exchange for the benefit.
And even as his economic policies have cost almost three million jobs, mostly in manufacturing, Bush intends to "merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs." That's sensitivity for you.
Then there's Bush's plan to make veterans pay more for prescription drugs. For a President who boasts at every opportunity of his love for the men and women in the armed services, this is a real slap.
The Pentagon has been considering a new proposal to increase pharmacy co-payments for retirees with at least 20 years of military service," the Times reported. "The charge for a generic drug would rise to $10, from $3, while the charge for a brand-name medicine would rise to $20, from $9."
Military vets are up in arms. "You're tampering with a benefit that was earned by people putting their lives on the line," James F. Lokovic, deputy director of the Air Force Sergeants Association, told the Virginian-Pilot.
The savings to the Pentagon from the new co-pays would amount to $728 million in 2005, the paper said.
Bush is perfectly willing to spend more than $150 billion on the Iraq War so far. But he's not willing to spend $1 billion on veterans' to preserve drug benefits for veterans, and he's chiseling away at housing vouchers for poor people and retraining funds for the unemployed.
There's nothing compassionate about that.
-- Matthew Rothschild