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The 2006 Federal Budget: Let Them Eat MREs

Vol. 2, No. 2--March 19, 2005

The 2006 Federal budget is currently making its way through Congress. In order to fund the continuing occupation in Iraq as well as other war initiatives globally, over 150 programs that benefit the US taxpayer are on the list for significant budget cuts, if not outright elimination. Where would the cuts be made in this budget? The most comprehensive analysis of the reductions in education, human services, environment and community development programs is at the home page of the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, which also includes a state-by-state analysis of how local communities will be affected if this budget is passed.

Another publication that details the impact of the Bush budget on each state along with other general budget information can be found in the National Priorities Project Bulletin, at http://www.nationalpriorities.org/. They also have a section that explains how the proposed increase in Pentagon spending and two specific military spending programs (ballistic missile defense and nuclear weapons) have diverted community/human services funds away from benefiting the US taxpayer. You can find out what these proposed spending levels could buy your state in local services.

In addition to the impact to communities and taxpayers that these budget cuts will have, the 2006 budget also does damage to the US economy, as revealed in a March 4 analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This analysis reveals that the president's budget would increase the deficit by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years. Coupled with the proposed $2 trillion in borrowed funds needed to privatize Social Security, the debt burden to the US taxpayer will be staggering if the Bush administration has its way with the budget and privatization.

Despite the so-called "faith-based" underpinning of this administration, many people of faith have stepped forward to oppose this proposed budget, labelling it a question of public morality. Here are a few comments and links:

"You need to know that the 2006 federal budget that President Bush has proposed calls for deep, massive, crippling cuts in programs that support education, children, and the poor while seeking to make permanent the most dramatic tax breaks for wealthy Americans in recent memory. If this budget is advanced, present deficits will look like pocket change by comparison, the consequences of which extend beyond our lifetimes. The real winners will be millionaires and billionaires, polluters, and crony capitalists. Our most needed programs -- those benefiting the least among us -- would be slashed to pay for the flood of red ink caused by the President's enormous tax cuts for the wealthy." [read article]

"Budget Critics: What Would Jesus Cut? Immoral. That's what several religious groups are calling President Bush's latest budget. The charge has political ramifications. It threatens to undermine some of Mr. Bush's support from voters concerned with values. But it also raises a deep question: Can budgets be moral or immoral?" [read article]

Jim Wallis: "Budgets are moral documents that reflect the values and priorities of a family, church, organization, city, state or nation. They tell us what is most important and valued to those making the budget. The biblical prophets frequently spoke to rulers and kings… And the prophets usually spoke for the dispossessed, widows and orphans (read: poor single moms), the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the least, last and lost. They spoke to a nation's priorities." [read article]

Furthermore, a New York Times poll found that the Bush priorities are out of step with Americans across the spectrum of faith and nonfaith communities: "Americans say President Bush does not share the priorities of most of the country on either domestic or foreign issues, are increasingly resistant to his proposal to revamp Social Security and say they are uneasy with Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the retirement program, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."

And another poll show that the public considers the Bush administration to be out of touch with US taxpayers' priorities and would significantly alter the administration's budget.

This graphic from the Washington Post shows that most of the programs the White House seeks to eliminate are in the Education and Health and Human Services departments.

This Washington Post graphic illustrates the breakdown of all of the proposed Fiscal Year 2006 budget cuts.

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