A Bush League Legacy

Here are some of the details of Bush’s budget proposal:

The President once again requests that his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts be made permanent. Making these tax cuts permanent is estimated to cost over $2 trillion in lost revenue over the ten year period 2009 to 2018. These huge revenue losses are attributable to several factors, including reductions in individual income taxes ($1 trillion), making the estate tax repeal permanent ($522 billion), cuts to dividends and capital gains tax rates ($301 billion), and reductions in taxes for families with children ($156 billion).

The FY 2009 budget proposes to cut LIHEAP, the program that provides energy assistance to low-income families. The proposed cut of $570 million represents a 22 percent reduction from its 2008 level and disregards official forecasts that households will have to spend on average almost $1,000 on heating fuels during the 2007-08 winter, an 11 percent increase from the previous winter.

The President’s budget seeks $675 billion for overall military spending in 2009, an 11 percent increase from FY2008. With this 2009 request, total spending on the Iraq War and the War on Terror since 2001 will amount to more than $870 billion, without even taking into account anticipated further spending requests throughout FY 2009 to sustain these wars.

Despite continuing substantial unmet needs of vulnerable children and families, the President’s budget includes deep cuts in core social services targeted to protecting children from abuse and neglect, assisting children and adults with disabilities, and helping homeless seniors. The $6 million Community Services Block Grant, which provides resources to low-income children and adults in counties across the country, is again proposed for elimination. The President also cuts the Social Services Block Grant — a major source of child welfare funding by 30 percent ($500 million) for 2009 and would eliminate the block grant in 2010. The sad irony is that the Administration has proposed to eliminate these two block grants on the grounds that they cannot demonstrate results, yet has admitted that block grants’ results are difficult to measure. At the same time, however, the President is recommending that states be given new opportunities to block grant the currently open-ended federal foster care program for abused and neglected children.

[From Children’s Defense Fund: Budget Analysis]

And these are just a few of details provided by the Children’s Defense Fund. How people can believe that Bush and his cronies in the Republican party actually care about families, actually care about children, are actually working for the good of the country I simply don’t understand. The idea that if you tell a lie often enough that people will believe it seems to be proven by the fact that Republicans can actually claim moral high ground and not cause nation-wide laughter to erupt.