Bush’s Budget

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on February 3, 2004). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

Bush has announced his budget, and the Chicago Sun-Times takes a look:

The president’s budget reveals his priorities, what he truly cares about. It is not a reassuring picture.

The president’s first priority remains tax cuts, largely for the wealthy. Millionaires are pocketing \$30,000 a year in tax breaks from this president. The president wants, first and foremost, to make his tax cuts permanent — no matter what that means for the deficit, for investments in our future, for already obscene extremes of inequality in what once was a middle-class nation.

Tax cuts for the wealthy come first — before jobs, before schools, before health care, before poverty, before the war on Iraq, before dealing with the deficits. Bush proposed these tax cuts when the economy was soaring and the budget was in surplus. He demanded them when the economy tanked and the budget went into deficit. He insisted on them even as he led the nation into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And now, with record deficits, a jobless recovery, costly and endless occupations, he wants only to make them permanent.

…With schools inundated with record numbers of students, Bush won’t even keep his own promise to fund his education reforms. With university tuitions soaring and community colleges getting cut, he abandons his campaign pledge to increase Pell grants. His much-advertised community college budget doesn’t even make up for what has been lost.

Bush devotes less than 3 percent of his budget for education. Educating the next generation is less important to the president than providing for the inheritances of the next generation of wealthiest Americans.

Surprised? No. Annoyed? Greatly.

Just scanning the Google News related headlines, it looks like nobody seems to think Bush has a clue what he’s doing. Kos looks at the reaction too, noting that even Republicans aren’t happy with this.