The Bush Administration's FY 2008 Budget U.S. Department of Labor Budget Health Care Social Security Administration

The newly released Bush budget for fiscal year (FY) 2008 shows that the Bush administration still is not listening to working Americans and, instead, insists on plowing ahead with skewed priorities and misguided policies despite a clear call for a new direction in November’s elections.

While President George W. Bush has called for bipartisan compromise on key economic issues and has finally recognized growing economic inequality as a problem, his proposed budget reflects none of this.  His budget preserves expensive tax cuts for the wealthy and boosts military spending dramatically, while cutting crucial programs for the most vulnerable Americans: children, the elderly, the poor and the sick. The president has proposed major cuts in domestic programs over the next five years, starting with $13 billion in cuts in FY 2008, rising each year until FY 2012, when cuts in domestic programs would reach $34 billion.[1]

This administration often talks of preparing America's workers to meet the challenges of competing in the global economy, but his proposed budget contains more than $1 billion in cuts for job training and employment security programs. At a time when America’s workers face the loss of millions of good-paying jobs to flawed trade policies and offshoring and the Bush administration is seeking to renew Fast Track authority, the president’s budget proposes to cut $102.9 million from the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides income support and training to workers who lose their jobs due to trade.

On health care, the Bush budget also goes in precisely the wrong direction. At a time when nearly 45 million Americans are without coverage and millions more struggle to meet rising costs, the Bush tax proposal would actually make those who have coverage pay more and provide no real help for the uninsured. Unconscionably, it would also cut more than $100 billion over five years from Medicare and Medicaid, shift more costs to the states and limit eligibility for children who now receive coverage under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

In the important area of occupational safety and health, the Bush budget increases funding in nominal terms.  An increase in funding is being requested for Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), particularly the coal enforcement program. But when inflation is factored in, the FY 2008 budget in fact represents a cut in funding compared to FY 2006. The Bush budget also proposes a cut in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) budget, reducing the nation’s commitment to researching and preventing workplace injuries, diseases and deaths. With a combined budget request of $1.056 million for the federal job safety agencies, in FY 2008, the Bush administration proposes to spend $7.32 per worker to protect America's workers from job injuries, illnesses and death.

As further proof that this administration is not listening to, or concerned about, working families, the Bush budget retains the proposal to privatize Social Security, despite its overwhelming rejection by all Americans.  The budget includes a placeholder of $29 billion in 2012 as the first year cost of setting up individual accounts and a total cost of $637 billion over the first six years for a proposal that must once again be rejected.

President Bush should put our nation’s pocketbook into building a better future for America’s working families instead of forcing more cuts in much-needed programs in health care, worker training and health and safety.  His 2008 budget simply does not work for America’s working men and women.

The following sections address the effects of the Bush FY 2008 budget on a range of programs vitally important to workers and their families.