| Blacks
Decry Bush’s Deep Cuts in
Health, Education and Housing
Date:
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Black
Democrats Tuesday assailed President George W. Bush’s
proposed budget, calling the $2.57 trillion spending
plan “disappointing” and saying drastic
cuts in education, food programs and literacy initiatives
will create serious hardships for blacks across the
nation.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus spent Tuesday
reading Bush’s proposed budget and analyzing its
impact on blacks, while some black Republicans explained
that Bush cut programs that were already being duplicated,
and therefore draining the government of resources.
In one of the tightest presidential budgets on record,
the budget Bush sent to Congress Tuesday substantially
cuts or eliminates 150 federal programs, including health
programs for poor people and veterans, education and
business development, while proposing major increases
for military operations overseas.
“On first review of President Bush's budget proposal,
I find it extremely disappointing,” Rep. Mel Watt
(D-NC), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus,
said in a statement. “The proposed budget neglects
suggestions offered by the Congressional Black Caucus
for ending disparities that exist between African Americans
and white Americans in every aspect of life.”
Watt added that, in the recent meeting the CBC had with
Bush at the White House, the group asked the president
to publicly address the racial disparities during his
State of the Union Address and again in his proposed
budget for fiscal year 2006.
“This budget appears to offer no real solutions
for change and falls short of what the CBC hoped would
be included in the document,” Watt said. “Members
of the CBC are extremely disappointed with the President's
budget proposal and will work with our colleagues on
the Hill for a budget that reflects the values and concerns
of all Americans: education, health care, economic opportunity,
justice for all, retirement security and foreign policy."
Rep. John Conyers Jr., (D-MI) ranking member of the
U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement:
“The President has turned the American economy
from bad to worse. After four years of offering tax
cuts for his richest friends and turning our surplus
into deficits, the President has continued his trend
of slashing important government programs.”
Speaking in Detroit Tuesday to members of the Detroit
Economic Club, Bush defended his budget, saying programs
that were drastically cut either duplicated other services
or did not meet their goals.
Some black Republicans sided with Bush, arguing that
the administration had to make tough decisions to bring
the rising budget deficit under control -- even though
Bush’s budget still worsens federal deficits by
$42 billion over the next five years.
“They
did the best they could do,” Renee Amoore, deputy
chair of the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee,
told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday. “We have to
get this deficit to drop.”
Amoore, who attended a recent meeting with Bush at the
White House with black ministers and business leaders
who supported the president’s reelection, said
political tactics by Democrats are designed “to
make us look mean and bad.”
She said Republican-sponsored initiatives over the years
have helped countless blacks across the country, including
welfare-to-work programs, job-training efforts and health-care
initiatives. Amoore added that Bush is proposing to
spend $2 billion for health care centers in low-income
communities across the country.
“Having clinics in underserved areas is very important,”
Amoore said Tuesday. “We’ve helped many
people jump-start their lives and help them move on.
We’re giving people self esteem, in our communities
in particular.”
Amoore agreed with Bush that some cuts were harsh, but
were necessary. “He’s trying to hold people
accountable for these programs,” she explained.
In the Department of Education, according to the Associated
Press, Bush’s budget would increase aid to poor
districts by 4.7 percent, to $13.3 billion, but also
end 48 programs and reduce spending on 16 others to
free $4.7 billion for other priorities. A third of the
federal programs Bush promised to cut in his budget
are in the Education Department, AP reported.
All federal spending on vocational education, $1.2 billion,
would be eliminated and redirected toward other high
school initiatives, according to AP. Bush would spend
almost $18 billion on Pell Grants to help poor students
attend college, an increase of 45 percent and spend
$200 million to help high school students who read below
grade level. Bush, however, is proposing eliminating
$438 million in state grants for safe and drug-free
schools.
Overall,
there are 48 education programs that would be cut, including
initiatives that offer college prep training to low-income
high school students.
AP also reported that Bush proposes cutting discretionary
spending in the Department of Health and Human Services
by about 1 percent, or $788 million. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the world's largest
public health agency, would take the brunt of the cuts,
with about $500 million being reduced from the $4.5
billion budget. If Congress approves Bush’s budget,
the CDC would slash its health grants and some anti-bioterrorism
grants to state and local health departments.
Under Bush’s plan, the budget for the Department
of Housing and Urban Development would be cut by about
$3.7 billion. Bush’s budget would also cut several
programs that offer housing initiatives for low-income
Americans, including the disabled. Bush also proposes
cutting funding for housing assistance programs for
Americans with AIDS.
But according to the American Progress Action Fund,
a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, “a closer
look at the administration's 2006 budget shows an economic
agenda promoting the wrong choices and wrong priorities.”
“During the Bush administration, more and more
Americans are struggling,” the organization’s
website said. “The number of people lacking health
insurance rose to 45 million in 2003, the highest level
on record. Yet the Bush administration is cutting programs
that help people get back on their feet. For example,
the administration's budget proposes a five-year freeze
on child care funding that will result in cutting the
number of low-income children receiving child care assistance
by 300,000 in 2009."
Gerald Ford, a senior policy analyst for the Congressional
Black Caucus Foundation, said in an interview Tuesday
that the increase in the federal deficit was a direct
result of Bush’s tax cuts for one percent of the
nation’s wealthiest Americans and the limited
amount of revenue flowing into government coffers.
What’s worse, Ford said, is that local and state
governments, which are already cash-strapped, will have
to bear the costs of social-service programs that may
be scrapped under Bush’s proposal. He added that
eliminating social service and housing benefits for
so many low-income families in urban centers is troubling.
Said Ford: “You have to look at what this budget
will mean for those people living in major metropolitan
areas.”
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