Bush Budget Cuts Programs, Increases Military

[Moses]

Bush's Proposed Budget Cuts Programs, Increases Defense Spending
02.06.2006 8:27 AM EST
The $2.7 trillion plan aims to lower federal deficit, cuts $14.5 billion from domestic programs.


President George Bush
Photo: Getty Images

President Bush submitted a 2007 budget plan to Congress that aims to half the ballooning federal deficit racked up by his administration by the end of his term in 2009. The $2.7 trillion plan calls for an increase in defense and homeland security spending as it cuts $14.5 billion from an array of domestic programs, among them the Medicare health program for the elderly.

According to The Associated Press, the plan for the budget year that begins on October 1 contains provisions in keeping with several of the themes the president hit upon in last week's State of the Union address, among them the soaring cost of energy and medical bills and fears of losing an economic edge to such emerging global powers as China and India (see "Bush Says U.S. Is 'Addicted To Oil,' Offers Few New Plans In Speech").

Reining in the soaring budget deficit is the centerpiece of the plan. Bush's proposal cuts more than $36 billion over the next five years by slashing Medicare spending and eliminating or sharply reducing the budgets of 141 government programs over the next year for a savings of $14.5 billion. The move would allow the president to reach his stated goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his term in 2009.

Bush inherited a budget surplus from the Clinton administration, which turned into a massive deficit during his first administration, topping a record $413 billion in 2004.

The deficit will top $400 billion this year, thanks to the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rebuilding of the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast. The White House said last week that it would request an additional $18 billion for hurricane relief for the current budget year and $120 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of 2006 and into 2007, according to the AP. The spending for the wars is on top of an almost 5 percent increase in the budget for the Pentagon in 2007 to $439.3 billion. The Department of Homeland Security would also get a nearly 5 percent increase under the plan.

"After driving the nation into a fiscal mess, the president is asking our seniors, our students and our families to clean it up while the wealthy special interests reap the rewards," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said in a statement before the budget arrived on Capitol Hill, according to Reuters.

Among the other programs getting a boost in the budget are several mentioned in the State of the Union dealing with the development of alternative fuels, expanded health savings accounts and the "American Competitiveness Initiative" to better equip American students to compete with rising world powers.[While making it financially impossible for anyone but the upper class to attend college].

In other budget news, The New York Times reports that the Pentagon is tripling its spending this year to nearly $3.5 billion in an effort to combat the use of increasingly powerful and sophisticated homemade bombs that are the #1 killer of American troops in Iraq. The spending bump is an acknowledgement that despite the yearly rise in deaths from the devices, the military's response has not been focused or coordinated enough at the highest levels.

The increase will fund the doubling of technical, forensic and intelligence specialists assigned to combating the problem to about 360 and the calling in of hundreds of other experts, including more FBI and CIA agents.

The number of attacks from improvised explosive devices against allied and Iraqi forces has nearly doubled in the last year, according to the Times, from 5,607 in 2004 to 10,593 in 2005. With the military able to discover and defuse only 40 percent of the bombs, 407 of the 846 Americans killed last year in Iraq were killed by the devices.

— Gil Kaufman

[Moses]

Danny Schecter writes:

The Telegraph in Sydney was following the money unlike their US counterparts who just want to make some:

The headline: “US counts war cost: $585bn." They explain what that means:

[/b]

"That is enough to fully fund global anti-hunger efforts for more than 13 years and provide every child in the world with basic immunisation for more than a century.

“Most of the money is for Iraq, where expenses are about $6 billion a month, according to administration officials. The US campaign in Afghanistan is costing about $1 billion a month. [86% of the money is for the Iraq invasion-- a completely unnecessary war, launched for a handful of pro-Israeli power elite, using US money and military and people]

“White House budget office deputy director Joel Kaplan said yesterday that Mr Bush would seek a quick infusion of $93 billion, plus another $66 billion as part of the proposed fiscal 2007 federal budget that will go to Congress on Monday.

“The latest figures, provided by officials from the Pentagon and the White House budget office, are a far cry from the Administration's pre-war estimates.”[/ul]

What is the Pentagon up to in terms of its newly announced "Long War" strategy for agression without end. If you want real facts and informed commentary check out the project on defense alternatives website

www.comw.org/infogate/

[Moses]

POLITICS-U.S.:
Guns Over Butter, Abroad and at Home
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (IPS) - Despite his administration's growing concerns about preventing the collapse of states in strategic parts of the world, U.S. President George W. Bush has proposed cuts in development and disaster assistance while increasing the defence budget by almost seven percent.

Under his 2007 budget request submitted to Congress Monday, Pentagon spending next year would rise to some 440 billion dollars, not including another 120 billion dollars that the administration is expected to ask for as a supplemental appropriation to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September, when fiscal 2006 ends.
By contrast, Bush's proposed 2007 foreign-aid request will remain roughly the same as last year's at some 24 billion dollars, the equivalent of what Washington spends in less than five months in Iraq.

Moreover, the president is calling for a nearly 20 percent cut in development aid -- from roughly 1.5 billion dollars to 1.26 billion dollars in development aid -- and similar cuts in disaster assistance and child-survival and health programmes.
"This administration has said there are three components to national security -- diplomacy, defence, and development," said Mohammad Akhter, president of InterAction, a coalition of some 160 U.S. non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in developing countries. "We see that diplomacy and defence are well taken care of, but development is the weakest tool in our kit. Yet that's where our long-term security lies."

While reducing aid in those areas, however, Bush asked for major increases in his two signature aid programmes: the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which was set up to reward "good performers" among poor countries, and his three-year-old programme PEPFAR, to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria -- most of which is to be spent in 14 selected countries in Africa and the Caribbean and Vietnam.

He is asking for a total of four billion dollars for the latter, including only 300 million dollars for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- a multilateral agency especially favoured by AIDS activists who oppose U.S. conditions on the aid -- and three billion dollars for the MCA, an increase of 1.25 billion dollars from the current level.

While Congress has generally approved the administration's AIDS-related requests, however, it has not hesitated to slash requests for the MCA, in large part because the fund has been very slow to qualify eligible countries for the assistance.

"Historical precedent suggests that the Millennium Development Corporation (which administers the MCA) may not come out with the funding requested," noted Stewart Patrick, a research fellow at the Centre for Global Development (CGD). He also said Congress was likely to increase aid for child survival, as it has in the past.

The defence and foreign-aid requests were contained in a proposed 2007 budget that totals 2.7 trillion dollars, an increase of 2.3 percent over the current fiscal year. Despite the increase, the federal deficit, if approved, would decline from this year's current estimate of a record 423 billion dollars to 354 billion dollars, according to the administration. However, its deficit forecasts have consistently proven over-optimistic.

With such a large increase in proposed Pentagon (Defence Department) spending, Bush's 2007 budget calls for either holding the line or reducing spending in social and education programmes, and even in community policing. In what could prove especially controversial in an election year, he is also calling for cuts in anticipated spending for Medicare, a popular health insurance programme for elderly and disabled people.

Bush combined the release of his budget proposal with a new appeal to make permanent tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy that were enacted during his first term. In a Washington Post column published Sunday, Bush's former top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, warned that tax increases were inevitable unless the budget and the size of the government were reduced.

With the Pentagon budget trajectory still headed upwards, however, such a prospect looks increasingly doubtful. On Friday, the Defence Department released its latest Quadrennial Defense Report (QDR) which, while rejecting calls to increase the size of its over-stretched ground forces in the Army and marines, urged major increases in its special operations forces (SOF), which are particularly costly to train and equip.

Also as part of its "war on terror", which has the Pentagon has renamed "The Long War", it is pushing full speed ahead on expensive new weapons systems that can intimidate potential rivals, such as China or Russia.

"Like the QDR, the fiscal 2007 budget reflects the department's continuum of change as we defend our nation, engage in the long war against terrorist extremism, and prepare for future potential adversaries," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday.
The proposed foreign-aid bill also suggested continuity with the recent past despite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent call for major changes in the ways Washington conducts its business overseas, a process which she called "transformational diplomacy."

Apart from Bush's pet anti-AIDS and MCA programmes, the new foreign aid bill calls for a 70-percent increase in anti-drug spending, to some 1.5 billion dollars worldwide. Much of that will be spent in Afghanistan which, since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001, has become by far the world's biggest source of opium and heroin. "The drug war comes out a real winner in the budget allocation," said Patrick.

He also expressed disappointment that development and disaster-aid programmes, which are designed to promote good governance and help the poorest and most vulnerable sectors in countries that risk becoming "failed states", fared relatively poorly in the budget request compared to the MCA, which is targeted exclusively on countries that perform well in both areas.

"It reaffirms the fears of a lot of folks that that the creation of these signature programmes, particularly PEPFAR and MCC, will lead to a gradual decrease in some of the other accounts that are critical for righting poverty and advancing development," he added.

The point was echoed by InterAction's Akhter. "It doesn't really make any sense to cut that component because, until you provide development assistance and health, people won't arrive at a point where they can take advantage of the MCA," he said.

State Department officials said some of the declines in the child-survival and health accounts will be made up in the expanded PEFAR programme. They also said funding for malaria prevention would increase significantly under the proposed budget.

Aside from changes in the overall spending on development and disaster aid and counter-drug assistance, most of the levels to both specific countries and multilateral programmes, including the United Nations and peacekeeping operations, are similar to those approved by Congress for 2006.

Economic aid to Central and Eastern Europe, including parts of the former Soviet Union, would decline. On the other hand, State Department-administered economic assistance for Iraq, previously part of an 18-billion-dollar package controlled by the Pentagon, will skyrocket from just 60 million dollars this year to nearly 500 million dollars in 2007. Substantial increases in economic aid are planned for Afghanistan, Sudan, and Indonesia.

Some 6.2 billion dollars altogether are earmarked for countries that are considered key strategic allies in the "war on terror."
Military aid and sales overseen by the State Department would remain -- nearly five billion dollars -- would remain roughly the same, with the bulk going to Washington's two biggest economic and military aid recipients, Israel and Egypt.

Patrick said he was surprised that the budget did not feature stronger support for democracy promotion and other political and institutional initiatives designed to strengthen states and make them more responsive to its citizens, particularly given the administration's recent rhetoric.

"A main premise of Rice's transformational diplomacy is that the U.S. needs to marshal all of its resources to advance democracy and good governance in weak and failing states," he said. "But it's not clear how this budget request addresses the challenge."

A nearly 100-million-dollar Democracy Fund established by Congress last year will be parceled out to other existing programmes under Bush's proposal, while mainly nominal increases are planned for Middle East democratisation initiatives, the National Endowment for Democracy, and even public diplomacy.
(END/2006)

[Moses]

War Costs, Defense Budget Rising


Tuesday February 7, 2006 8:46 AM


AP Photo DCMC102

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The country's two overseas wars and its homeland defense could cost as much as $10 billion a month this year - nearly 50 percent more than last year, the White House estimates.

The rising price tag for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and questions about military strategy for Iraq and possibly Iran, are expected to come up Tuesday as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Rumsfeld is expected to talk about the Pentagon's proposed $439.3 billion budget and how it will help pay for the military's transformation into a more flexible fighting force. Transformation includes large spending increases in special operations forces, unmanned vehicles, foreign language skills and gathering intelligence.

During fiscal year 2005, which ended last Sept. 30, the Defense Department spent about $6.8 billion a month on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the replacement of equipment damaged or destroyed there.

White House estimates indicate that the U.S. will spend more than $125 billion during the fiscal year ending in September. An additional $50 billion already is being planned as a downpayment for war costs in 2007.

Rumsfeld is likely to be asked about how well the military is prepared to face off against Iran if that country continues its stated plans to further develop its nuclear capabilities.

He also is expected to directly address congressional concerns about the National Guard, including cutbacks in funding for personnel and the need for additional equipment. Under the current budget, the Army received $5.28 billion to fund 350,000 Guard troops. In the proposed 2007 budget, which begins Oct. 1, the Army would receive $5.25 billion to only fund the current number of Guard troops - which is about 333,000.

Defense officials have said that if recruitment goes up, the Army will find the money to pay for as many soldiers as the Guard can recruit, up to a maximum of 350,000.

The budget also shows that Iraq war costs are escalating in part because the Army is replacing large numbers of worn out or destroyed vehicles. The budget includes $583 million to buy more Humvees with extra armor, and the overall budget for Army combat and support vehicles is $3.8 billion - almost double the 2006 sum.

``Our equipment is wearing out at a significant pace,'' Tina Jonas, the Pentagon's budget chief, said at a news conference Monday.

The Pentagon also is proposing to spend $3.3 billion to protect troops in Iraq from roadside bombs, the biggest killer there. About $2 billion has been spent on that so far in the war.

The $439.3 billion defense budget request is a 7 percent increase over 2006. It would pay for an active-duty military of about 1.3 million troops, or 29,600 fewer than this year. It covers a reserve force of 825,700 people, a drop of 22,800.

The Air Force plans to cut 40,000 people over the next several years.

Funding for special operations forces, like the Army's Green Berets, would grow to $5.1 billion in 2007 - about $1 billion more than this year and double the amount in 2001, Jonas said. The number of special operations forces would grow from about 50,000 today to about 64,000 by 2011.

^---