President Bush spent his first four years in office turning a budget surplus into a record deficit. He plans to do this by giving tax cuts to the rich and running a messy, expensive war in Iraq. In his second term, Bush pledges to cut the deficit in half. But he also plans on making those upper class tax cuts permanent, while consistently requesting more money for his failing war. How does he plan to reconcile these two agendas? By ridding this country of the social programs that he deems "inefficient."
The new budget's hit list includes programs that affect everyone, even children and college students. Bush's 2006 budget proposal calls for cuts in emergency medical services for kids, cuts in vocational education, cuts in K-12 education funding and cuts in the Head Start program. The entire National Youth Sports Program, which has provided athletics for low income kids, has been eliminated.
The budget also targets college students, forcing them to pay more for college. Bush forces a tax on student loans that would charge students billions in additional taxes over the next decade. The President will also force millions of low and middle-income students to pay thousands more for their college loans. The Bush budget eliminates the current low fixed consolidation rate benefit. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), this change will force the typical student borrower to pay $5,500 more for his college loans. Bush has proposed budget cuts of $733 million in pre-college education programs, in addition to changes in the Pell Grant college-aid program that left 80,000 students no longer eligible for such grants. Now, students and families seeking to fund their education with a Federal Perkins Loan will have to look elsewhere, as the Bush administration plans on eliminating that self-sustaining program entirely.
President Bush has said repeatedly that his administration will only cut programs which are ineffective and that his budget is all and only about results. However, on the safe-sex front, one of the few domestic programs Bush is actually expanding has had no verifiable impact. Congress has recently appropriated over $130 million to sponsor abstinence-only education programs. Meant to replace typical sex-ed, these programs are designed to scare kids away from having sex. Because many schools depend on federal funds, teachers can't mention condoms, unless it is in reference to their failure rates, and they can't discuss birth control or safer sex.
A new aggressive strain of HIV has been discovered that might relate to methamphetamine use, a frightening revelation in the science community. But what is on Bush's chopping block? Programs that combat meth use and unsafe sex. Bush also plans on cutting, as in cutting out, the Safe and Drug Free Schools program which provides money to reduce drug use and violence among youth.
Even with these cuts, we will still be dealing with record high deficits. In fact, Bush's plan to bring down the federal budget deficit by the time he leaves office in 2009 will leave his successor with massive financial commitments that begin rising dramatically the year Bush leaves the White House. Bush's tax cuts, his new Medicare prescription drug benefit plan, and his Social Security proposal will all balloon in cost several years from now. All deficit estimates also exclude future costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The administration seems to be following a proven formula. First, advocate tax cuts for the rich, using whatever tactics you can. Then use the resulting deficits to argue for slashing government spending. So far, it's working. Once again, Bush and his advisors have proven adept at deceiving the American public. Get rid of those "ineffective" programs, do whatever it takes to roll back the accomplishments of the New Deal and Great Society eras, so long as the rich get their tax cuts.
James Gerber is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached via e-mail at james.gerber@tufts.edu
