The Bush White House released its $2.13 trillion budget Tuesday. President Bush's plan weakens America's public infrastructure while further bloating corporate welfare payouts. Bush's budget sends the government into the red for the first time in four years, with a $106 billion deficit this year alone. The White House wants you to believe that Sept. 11 is the cause of the budget shortfall, but the real culprit is Republican tax cuts totaling $501 billion dollars. The vast majority of these tax benefits will singularly profit corporations and upper-income families.
Bush's State of the Union address stated that \jobs"" are the solution to the nation's rising unemployment crisis, but his budget proposal cuts job training programs for laid-off workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that unemployment jumped sharply by 40 percent in the last year, from 5.9 million in January to 8.3 million in December. Yet the Bush administration is seeking to cut ""youth opportunity grants"" by $180 million in the next year. The U.S. Conference of Mayors sent a letter to the White House criticizing Bush's budget plan because the cuts would affect mostly young adults from the poorest communities. The White House package includes a 10 percent reduction in assistance to dislocated workers and an 11 percent cut in grants for training high school dropouts and economically disadvantaged youths aged 14 to 21.
Seemingly, the Bush Administration believes lining the pockets of giant weapons manufacturers is more urgent than protecting America's youth. Bush wants an enormous increase in the Pentagon's budget of nearly $48 billion'an expansion unmatched since the Cold War era. The U.S. government already spends more on its military than the top five defense-spending countries combined. If Americans are not protected by the hundreds of billions of dollars now spent, it is foolish to think that any amount of money would protect this country from every would-be terrorist.
The Office of Management and Budget reported that the administration will propose a 29 percent cut in federal highway spending. The chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Don Young, R-Alaska, said the proposed cut was unacceptable. In a joint statement made with Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., Young said, ""This would force states to abandon many highway projects, and could result in hundreds of thousands of Americans being thrown out of work."" With all New York has been through, they are expected to receive the harshest cut'a $370 million reduction in highway allocation.
Bush is making sure Americans turn their attention away from major public spending cuts and instead focus animosity towards foreigners. Just last week Bush signed an executive order that would create a new domestic security arm. The new agency, named Citizen Corps, would enlist truckers, letter carriers and health care workers to ""report suspicious activity to the authorities."" Citizen Corps would also double the number of Neighborhood Watch programs in the United States, which will doubtlessly lead to increasing incidences of racial profiling and discrimination.
As the country faces the largest military spending package in decades and the arrival of a new national policing agency that enlists citizens to spy on their neighbors, we are moving closer to becoming a police state. A bill passed through the House just last Thursday, Jan. 31, with a disconcerting amendment to the criminal code. H.B. 100 includes the statement, ""A person is guilty of felony commercial terrorism if he enters or remains unlawfully on the premises or in a building of any business with the intent to interfere with the employees, customers, personnel or operations of a business."" Civil disobedience is a part of American history. Under this broad definition, civil rights protesters would have been labeled criminal terrorists.
Historically, police states have been necessary to silence dissent and repress the outbreaks which result from poverty and dislocation. While power is being concentrated in the hands of a few Pentagon officials and military-industrial complex corporations, only time will tell whether our government suppresses or permits movements for social change, demands for peace and a broader democracy.
