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What's
cooking? Same old pie...
President serves up warmed-over federal budget
for FY09
March 2008
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Long
story short: More of the same. If
you didn't like the federal budget priorities
last year, you won't find much to like this year.
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If
you find yourself feeling less secure -- afraid for
your country, your home, your healthcare, your children's
future -- there's nothing to comfort you here.
The
federal budget gives us a lens to look at what is happening
to our country. And it is not a pretty picture.
If
we talk about security, we are failing. The
U.S. is doing things that make our country less secure
in the world. At the same time, we are taking away
the things that make our people secure at home: housing,
healthcare, energy, education.
The
result: Externally, our country is more vulnerable
and more isolated. Internally, our infrastructure
is breaking down.
And
it's not that we're using any fiscal common sense.
Instead, we're wasting billions on things we don't
need; and digging ourselves into a huge deficit hole
in the process.
We
have failed to change our outlook since the end of
the Cold War; we are not adjusting to new realities.
The biggest threat to us is no longer the
Communist bloc, with its giant military and huge arsenal
of nuclear weapons. We don't need to keep
building the weapons that were designed to fight that
war.
Instead,
we need to face a new enemy, and respond appropriately,
with all our ingenuity and skill. Terrorists
are the the biggest threat we face: and it is a new
day. We need to change our direction -- away
from using the military to solve all our problems,
and toward other tools.
Some
resources from our friends about the budget as it
stands now...
Redefining
security so it's more than a giant military
WAND has friends who came up with the idea of a Unified
Security Budget. It looks at what we need
to spend money on to make us actually more secure. And
it's not more nukes.
It's
things other than the military. And it makes just
so much sense. We invite you to take a look.
Every
year since 2004, according to analysis by the Task
Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United
States, published by the Institute for Policy Studies,
nearly 90% of security spending, excluding
the supplemental appropriations for the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars, has been devoted to achieving security by military
force. Spending on prevention tools, including
diplomacy, nonproliferation, foreign aid, contributions
to international organizations and homeland security
put together accounts for only 10% of the security
budget. This year is no exception.
This
year military spending even excluding expenditures
on the wars we are actually fighting will be higher
than at any time since World War II. It
will exceed the military spending of all other nations
combined.
“If
the President gets the budget he requested today,
we will spend in FY 2009 18 times the money engaging
the rest of the world through the military as by
any other means,” says Task Force member and
National Priorities Project economist Anita Dancs.
Communities
lose while Military budget grows
Our friends at National priorities project invite you
to explore the sad story of how much your state will
lose in this new budget...
While ensuring tax cuts stay permanent and military
spending grows by five percent, the President's
budget for Fiscal Year 2009 proposes deep
cuts in an array of domestic programs that impact
needy communities and low- and middle-income families.
For NPP's budget overview and state-level analysis,
click
here.
State-level
breakdowns show the impact of the proposed cuts
in the following programs: Child Care and Development
Block Grants, Community Development Block Grants,
Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, Low-Income
Energy Assistance Program, Section 8 Housing Choice
Vouchers and the Social Services Block Grants.
Under
the President's budget, military spending would
reach $541 billion in Fiscal Year 2009, including
nuclear weapons. At the highest level since World
War II, this amount of military spending does not
include the proposed $70 billion for partial war
funding next fiscal year. The President's
tax cuts would also be made permanent under the
proposed budget with the wealthiest 20 percent receiving
74 percent of the benefit.
Military
and Pentagon spending have skyrocketed during Bush
administration
From our friends at Friends:
For
the first time in history, the total 2009 U.S. military
budget proposed by the president will surpass one
trillion dollars. The military budget has increased
by 70 percent since President Bush took office, according
to the White House. FCNL
calculates that the increase may be closer to 100
percent.
This
amount of military spending starves other domestic
and international priorities, shortchanging programs
that are vital to our security, health, and welfare
as a nation.
The
president's budget proposes reducing domestic spending
by $454 billion in the next five years. These
cuts would be felt by millions of people in this country.
Internationally, the administration continues to focus
on building U.S. capabilities to fight and win wars,
while providing little money for the tools necessary
to prevent deadly conflict. Has the spectacular failure
of the war in Iraq taught the U.S. nothing?
How
are we paying? We're deepening our deficit hole
From the Washington Post:
The
federal debt will have climbed to $9.7 trillion by
the time Bush leaves office, a rise of $4 trillion
during his administration, according to the budget.
Interest
on the debt next year will total $260 billion, about
what will be spent by the departments of Education,
Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security,
Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Justice
combined...
As
in past years, the budget has several features that
may make the deficits even larger than Bush anticipates.
For
instance, it makes room for $61 billion in 2009
to stop the growth of the alternative minimum tax,
a parallel tax system that was enacted in 1969 to
make sure the rich pay income tax, but that is increasingly
squeezing the middle class. The cost of a fix will
continue to grow each year, but the budget makes
no more allowances for that.
Budget
hurts those who can least afford it: children, poor
From the Children's Defense Fund:
"The
Bush Administration continues to wage a budget war
against children, even as the economy weakens,"
CDF President Marian Wright Edelman said. "Even
with a budget that for the first time tops $3 trillion,
the President has still managed to further cut funding
for vital programs for children and low-income families."
The
President continues to press to make permanent his
tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and for higher
spending on the military while nearly 13 million
children live in poverty and 9.4 million children
are without health coverage.
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