02-11-06,9:14am

America’s Elderly, Low-Income, Suffer Most Under Bush Budget

Feb. 7—President George W. Bush wants to make sure his tax cuts for the wealthy become permanent, at a cost of about $3 trillion over the next 10 years. But to help pay for the huge tax cut, Bush’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget will slash $65 billion from health care, education, job training, low-income, food, child care and other domestic programs that help families that aren’t so wealthy.



“At a time when the president is asking the nation’s vulnerable to swallow painful cuts to vital programs, he continues to push for massive, fiscally irresponsible tax breaks for the wealthy that will leave generations of Americans in debt,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Bush’s proposed spending cuts come just days after Congress finalized some $40 billion in Bush administration-backed spending cuts that will hurt working family.

“It is scandalous to provide insufficient funding for our nation’s two greatest capital investments: health and education,” says Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

Mine Safety Funding Stays Flat Despite Nation’s Catastrophes And even as families mourn the deaths of 18 U.S. miners in the past month, the Bush budget underfunds worker health and safety programs. Although the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) funding rose slightly (1.4 percent) since last year, the coal enforcement budget is down 10 percent in real terms since 2001. Total MSHA full-time staff is down from 2,357 in 2001 to 2,136 in this budget.

Funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) remained flat compared with last year and is down 3 percent since 2001. The number of full-time OSHA employees is down from 2,370 in 2001 to 2,173 in this budget.

“This budget does little more than offer the status quo,” says Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.). “Four years of budget cuts [and] four years of coal enforcement staff cuts are left in place,” Byrd says. “Instead of offering significant resources to help make coal mines safer for the men and women who provide the power for this country, the Bush White House offers a band aid.”

Bush Budget Targets America’s Elderly Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the nation’s elderly, is taking the biggest hit, with Bush proposing to slash the program by $36 billion. Seniors would end up paying more for hospitals, doctors and other medical needs.

The Bush budget calls for across-the-board cuts in Medicare payments to medical providers who likely will pass those costs on to their patients and higher premiums for some seniors, including disabled patients.

Bush also seeks to cut Medicaid spending for low-income children, parents, seniors and people with disabilities by $17.6 billion over 10 years—more than $12 billion in proposed regulatory changes and more than $5 billion in legislative changes, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Many of the changes to the Medicaid program would shift costs to the states, with the result that many states will “reduce eligibility or scale back health benefits for low-income Medicaid beneficiaries,” according to the center’s analysis.

Other health-related budget cuts are aimed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Competing in a Global Economy with Less Education and Training

Although during his State of the Union address Bush called for better training and education to ensure America’s workers can compete in the global economy, Bush is proposing to cut some $3.1 billion from education programs. The budget also eliminates 42 programs in the U.S. Department of Education, including school technology grants, vocational programs and parent resource centers.

Funding for Title I grants earmarked for high-poverty school districts and Pell Grants—a need-based financial aid program for college students—is held at current levels despite rising education costs.

Bush also proposes a private school voucher program that uses taxpayers’ dollars to pay for private or religious education.

Other programs slated for elimination by Bush’s budget include:

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program that provides nutritional food packages at just $20 a month to 400,000 low-income seniors—one-third of whom are older than 75. The Preventive Care Block Grant that provides grants to states to deliver preventive health care to underserved populations. The Community Services Block Grant, which provides funding for a wide range of social services and other help for low-income families.

Bush’s budget axe also makes deep cuts in housing programs for low-income people with disabilities and low-income seniors, child care for low- and moderate-income families and Community Development Block Grants that help communities pay for infrastructure improvements, low-income housing and the Special Olympics.