The Bush budget proposal is a slap in the face to America’s working families who are already struggling to get by in an economy sinking under the weight of this Administration’s disastrous policies.
Far from taking into account the political and economic reality of the nation, President Bush has proposed yet another ideologically driven and ill-conceived budget, which Congress should reject.
As in past budgets, President Bush preserves expensive tax cuts for the wealthy and boosts military spending, while cutting crucial programs for the most vulnerable Americans: the elderly, the poor, the sick, youth, and displaced workers. He offers recycled versions of right-wing pet programs that lack support from Congress or the American people: Health Savings Accounts, Career Advancement Accounts, and school vouchers.
With his budget, the President has turned his back on the brave men and women who responded to the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center. Thousands of these workers are now sick, many are disabled and some have died. These workers desperately need medical care, but the President's budget would slash funding for the World Trade Center Medical Screening and treatment program by 77% -- from $108 million to just $25 million
. The President's budget also puts other workers at greater risk. Funding for the occupational safety and health research agency NIOSH would be cut 10 percent. At the Department of Labor, job safety enforcement programs remain static, and there is no additional funding to issue important new mine safety standards mandated by Congress.
President Bush’s budget slashes $603 billion over 10 years from key entitlement programs – most of that from Medicare and Medicaid. He proposes cutting Medicare by $178 billion over five years, yet his budget leaves intact the wasteful and inefficient overpayments to large insurance companies under the private Medicare Advantage plans.
This Administration often talks of preparing American workers to meet the challenges of competing in the global economy, but President Bush’s proposed budget contains more than $760 million in cuts for job training and employment programs, including training programs for dislocated workers, young people, Native Americans, and migrant and seasonal farm workers, as well as senior citizen community service employment programs. Cutting training programs during an economic downturn is both bad economics and bad social policy. It is particularly unfortunate with respect to youth programs. Black teen unemployment jumped from 28% last October to almost 36% in January.
President Bush proposes some reforms and a modest increase in funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, but both his reforms and his budget request fall far short of the expanded and improved TAA bill approved by a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives. President Bush vowed to veto the House bill.
While giving lip service to protecting workers’ rights worldwide, President Bush once again proposes to decimate the budget for the agency charged with monitoring workers’ rights and administering programs to help workers around the world, the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), by 78 %– from $81 million to $15 million.
In this time of economic crisis – much of it exacerbated by his own failed policies -- President Bush should focus our nation’s tax dollars on jumpstarting economic growth, helping those in need, rebuilding and modernizing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and building a better future for America’s working families. His 2009 budget does none of this, and instead shoves America further in the wrong direction.
Contact: Caren Benjamin (202) 637-5018
