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Bush Budget Favors Weapons Over Children and Families By Erica Swanson, WAND DC Intern The Bush administration claims that the FY03 budget reflects a commitment to national security. The budget that President Bush presented to Congress on February 4 does not, however, address our nation’s real security needs. President Bush is requesting $396.1 billion in military funding for the next year, a one-year increase of $45.3 billion. Although the administration says that these increases are post-September 11 necessities, Congress estimates that less than 10% of the total Department of Defense budget is directly related to the war on terrorism or homeland security. As in past years, the bulk of military funding will be spent on excessive weapons, thereby actually reducing our security. At the same time, the administration is proposing to cut billions of dollars from important domestic programs, among them workplace safety, heating assistance for the poor, and public housing. For example, the budget eliminates the Community Access Programs, which provide health care to the underinsured and the uninsured. It also denies full funding to the No Child Left Behind Act, the bipartisan education package passed last year, and cuts the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program by $102 million. Cutting funding for these programs will undermine our nation’s economic growth, weaken our communities, and hurt working families. After years of budget surpluses, the president’s budget proposes to return the nation to an era of deficits. According to administration officials, expenditures in the FY03 budget exceed income by nearly $106 billion. This budget is financed on the backs of low- and middle-income Americans—raiding the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, cutting taxes for the wealthy, and slashing much-needed domestic programs. WAND believes that real security means more than increased military spending. Real security demands that we continue to support the programs on which millions of Americans rely. As House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt said, “Real security depends not just on meeting threats around the world, but living up to our highest values here at home.”
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