by James Parks, Feb 5, 2008

With less than a year left in office, President Bush is desperately trying to establish his legacy by leaving his successor with a budget that puts his anti-worker agenda and his pet ideas into practice for years to come. While he proposes a stimulus package to jump start the nation’s economy on one hand, his proposed budget makes it harder for working families to make ends meet during an economic downturn. 

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the proposed budget is  

a slap in the face to America’s working families who are already struggling to get by in an economy sinking under the weight of this administration’s disastrous policies. 

Click here to read Sweeney’s full statement on the budget. 

Bush’s budget proposal would retain his costly tax cuts for the wealthy and boost military spending to record levels—while slashing crucial programs for the most vulnerable. For example, the budget would cut $603 billion over 10 years from key social safety net programs, most of that from Medicare and Medicaid, including a $178 billion cut in Medicare over five years.

The budget also would cut more than $760 million from job training and employment programs, including training programs for dislocated workers, young people, American Indians and migrant and seasonal farm workers, as well as senior citizen community service employment programs.  

As Sweeney points out: 

Cutting training programs during an economic downturn is both bad economics and bad social policy. It is particularly unfortunate with respect to youth programs. Black teen unemployment jumped from 28 percent last October to almost 36 percent in January. 

In place of training programs, Bush proposes so-called career advancement accounts, which have little public support. The AFL-CIO has consistently opposed these accounts because they take resources from current programs and provide fewer benefits: Last year when the accounts were proposed, Bush administration officials said they would triple the number of workers receiving training. The AFL-CIO’s analysis of the program found that in fact, fewer dollars would be spread among more workers—leaving workers with less funding and less help. 

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also points out that the proposed budget cuts funding for domestic discretionary programs outside of homeland security—the part of the budget that pays for everything from education to environmental protection to veterans’ health care and Head Start.

Funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would be cut $570 million—22 percent. With energy costs rising daily, these cuts would require eliminating more than 1 million low-income families and elderly people from the program, shrinking the average amount of assistance provided to poor families by 22 percent, or some combination of the two. 

The budget would freeze funding for child care assistance for low-income families for the seventh consecutive year. After adjusting for inflation, child care funding has already fallen by nearly 17 percent since 2002. 

The proposed budget also:  

•  Slashes funding for medical screening by 77 percent for workers who responded to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. Many of them are sick and in need of medical care.
•  Puts even more workers in danger by cutting the budget of the occupational safety and health research agency, NIOSH, by 10 percent.
• Cuts funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by $433 million, even before adjusting for inflation. These reductions include sharp cuts in funding for detection and control of infectious diseases and preventive health services.
• Reduces funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by $330 million, before adjusting for inflation. 

As Sweeney says: 

In this time of economic crisis—much of it exacerbated by his own failed policies—President Bush should focus our nation’s tax dollars on jumpstarting economic growth, helping those in need, rebuilding and modernizing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and building a better future for America’s working families. His 2009 budget does none of this, and instead shoves America further in the wrong direction.   

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