U.S. Budget: More evidence of Bush's radical program

Mikaela says:
The Washington Post's William Raspberry gives us more to think about in his article today about how the Bush administration's systematic dismantling of the federal government social programs are targeted to (and well on their way toward) cutting out the poor. As I've been lamenting, this is a strategy -- not such a subtle one -- toward a revamping of the very role of government, away from its role of providing for and protecting social, economic, and environmental equity to become merely a protectorate for capitalists.

Peter Edelman, a Georgetown University law professor who is thoughtful, liberal, incredibly decent -- [is] alarmed over the national budget President Bush will shortly propose.

"For virtually all of my adulthood," he said, "America has had a bipartisan agreement that we ought to provide some basic framework of programs and policies that provide a safety net, not just for the poor but for a large portion of the American people who need help to manage.... With this budget, the basic framework is being dismantled."
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The basic structure of Social Security is under attack (on the grounds that the program is in crisis, though most respected economists say it isn't). Pell Grants for college tuition are on the cutting block. So are Section 8 housing vouchers (which started under Richard Nixon) and food stamps. Programs that have offered some protection for people in the lower third of the economy are under threat of evisceration.

And the rationale for the attack is a budgetary crisis created by the gift of $1.8 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
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As Edelman and Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change (CCC), put it in a recent joint statement:
"The federal budget is not just an accounting tool. It is a statement about our priorities and our values as a nation. But because of decisions this president made to benefit an elite few -- at the expense of the rest of us -- we're now facing a set of budget choices that are unsupportable, immoral and dangerous."
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Resistance won't be easy, since so many middle Americans see their interests as nearer those of the rich than of the poor.
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"We're talking about tens of billions of dollars in cuts, including many programs that, like nutrition, are in-kind income for people," Edelman said. "We're talking about a severe blow for millions of Americans who are working as hard as they possibly can but still need some help."