White House warns cuts coming in '06 - Education, homeland security, etc.

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/27/MNG8T6SHV31.DTL

Agencies' budget procedures are revealed in memo

Washington -- The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is re-elected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year.

Administration officials had dismissed the significance of the proposed cuts when they surfaced in February as part of an internal White House budget office computer printout. At the time, officials said the cuts were based on a formula and did not accurately reflect administration policy. But a May 19 White House budget memorandum obtained by the Washington Post said agencies should assume the spending levels in that printout when they prepare their fiscal 2006 budgets this summer.

"Assume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005 budget database," the memo informs federal program associate directors and their deputies. "If you propose to increase funding above that level for any account, it must be offset within your agency by proposing to decrease funding below that level in other accounts."

J.T. Young, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the memo, titled "Planning Guidance for the FY 2006 Budget," is a routine "process document" to help agency officials begin establishing budget procedures for 2006. In no way should it be interpreted as a final policy decision, or even a planning document, he said.

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[Turbineguy]

1. Cut education, build more jails

No tree left behind!

[keithyboy]

33. And keep those tax cuts coming for the wealthy. Pretty soon we will

be rid of all poor people.

[mbperrin]

2. Sounds reasonable,,,,

we sure don't need a buncha stuff like ejication, right?

Look! Isn't that Kobe?

[TahitiNut]

6. Funny. Whenever I see "Kobe" mentioned, ...

... I wonder what a city in Japan has to do with anything. I guess I'm just not saturated with pop-crap enough to regard it as some unambiguous single-name pop reference. Hell, I still think of "Madonna" as a religious image in a (usually Renaissance) painting or sculpture. :shrug:

[0007]

14. .....is junior gonna cut the ejaculation control program?

Perhaps junior should wear a colored coded bracelet?

[DiverDave]

3. What we need for this country

is another round of TAX CUTS!! Everything will be fine!!
WHOO-HOO!! the rich guys will love it!!
/Sarcasm off
Bastards, just plain bastards.

[Mountainman]

4. Sounds right, we need billions more for the war profiteers.

If this isn't a reason to kick the Repubs out of office I don't know what is. They are asking for money to fight an indefinite war on terror while telling the citizens that there is no money to educate their kids or to fix the infrastructure.

Hell why not tax the war profiteers so we can get some of our money back that Cheney has given them. At least it all wouldn't go to Haliburton that way.

Sometimes I think that we should be able to decide where our tax money goes. We should have boxes to check on our tax returns that say if we want our money to go to war, or foreign aid, or domestic policies etc.

[TahitiNut]

10. They're on their way ...

"Defense" (I'm actually detesting that false term) spending is going up and "domestic" spending is gong down as a per cent of GDP.




At the same time, we're seeing a dramatic reduction of labor compensation for the creation of wealth. (Let's remember, the labor is the only way that wealth is created.)

[mhr]

18. Good Charts Correlated With Reality - Better Than Some Others Often Posted

Thanks for sharing TahitiNut.

[TahitiNut]

19. I'm glad others appreciate them. The data are readily available.

The BEA.gov and BLS.gov sites are particularly rich resources. Our government spends a great deal of our money on computer systems and data collection. (Their data-collection is far better than even that of Hitler's Germany.) All it takes is a browser, an Excel spreadsheet, and some very simple analysis to show the rather astounding damage the Busholini regime has done to the economic well-being of the "bottom 95%" in this nation.

It's a bit sad for me, however, particularly as a former high school math teacher, to see the appallingly limited comprehension of rather simple graphs that most folks possess -- even on DU.

I still think the following graph is the most indicative of the Busholini rape of the labor force in this country. It's very much akin to the decimation policy of the Roman Empire. (I update this chart monthly, based on BLS data.)

[TahitiNut]

27. I personally think this graph best depicts ....

... the appalling economic disenfranchisement of the labor force under the Busholini regime. (But it requires some explanation to make it clear.)



First of all, it must be emphasized that only labor creates wealth. The questions then become (1) are people fairly compensated for their labor and (2) how widely distributed is labor compensated at all (i.e. by employment). Because labor has become more productive (i.e. the rate at which labor creates wealth has increased) we see a slightly declining rate of participation in the workforce while, at the same time, the rate at which wealth is created increases. Nonetheless, mere population growth (and reductions in average compensation) has resulted in an average annual growth rate in the number of employed of about 2.1%. What that means is that all other things being equal, we should be able to expect about 2.1% more employed people this month than the same month last year. With a private(non-farm) labor force of 110 million, that means we should see about 2,310,000 more people employed this month than the same month last year. (That, of course, implies an average monthly increase in the number of jobs of about 200,000.)

We don't see that. We see losses and below-average gains. The Busholini Regime has been ruling over the worst decimation of labor since the Great Depression. And it's systemic. Coupled with a 3% (in GDP terms) reduction in labor's fair compensation and an increasingly regressive compensation structure (where CEO's are grossly over-compensated and knowledge workers are grossly under-compensated), labor is getting raped. This is why I call this "plantation economics."

[tandot]

5. cutting our programs to finance programs in Iraq

I forwarded that article to all of my friends asking them to forward to as many people as they know.

Our Edukaishun President is planning to again leave millions of children behind and putting us in greater risk by cutting homeland security.

I hope that the Kerry team is working on a new ad at this moment!

[MARALE]

7. Well Ya All

We need the money for the nuclear bombs we are going to build, we need them more than education. WMDs may still show up in Iran and we may need to bomb the hell out of them.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Snellius]

8. Sounds like a Rove ploy to blame the deficit debacle on the Dems

They know there's going to be a huge budget collapse and that they will be blamed; unless they can propose equally huge budget cuts -- which they know and expect the Democrats and moderate Republicans in Congress will oppose -- and then say "See it's all their fault."

[icymist]

15. Maybe Rove can blame it on Clinton!

n/t

[Stuckinthebush]

9. Moving along exactly as planned...

The extreme right has made no secret that they wish to starve the federal government.

It looks like they are succeeding.

[Papa]

11. Yes, this is excatly what they are doing. Drowning the GOV in a bathtub.

They are pure fucking evil.

[gratuitous]

12. Sorry kid, your school is closing

Because Dick Cheney needs another $75,000 this year!

Honestly, why do the overrich need another big fat windfall? What can they possibly get with their money that they don't already have or can already afford? And yet, the corrupt Bush administration empties our Treasury into their overstuffed pockets while people go hungry, without medicine, and schools pack the sardines in 40 to a can.

The estate tax is NOT America's most pressing problem.

[drfemoe]

13. why would anyone assume that a document entitled ..

"Planning Guidance for the FY 2006 Budget"

would in any way be "interpreted" as a
"planning document"?

is a routine "process document" to help agency officials begin establishing budget procedures for 2006. In no way should it be interpreted as a final policy decision, or even a planning document, he said.

When did we fall down the hole?

[tokenlib]

16. Warning!! Soon the rich may have to pay their fair share.

That's what I'd like to hear--right after the election.. The party is OVER!! No more tax cuts for you bloated fat cat corporate slease bags.

Actually I'd like to hear it now.. But the republicans would terrorize the masses--like they always do on taxes.

[salin]

17. hey ... but they still want more... TAX CUTS (for the rich)

So we get both cuts in services AND still continue the escalation of bankrupting the country.

[range78]

20. buget games

I work for the feds and they are playing the budget games right now, the amount of the cuts for the '06 budget is 40%. Everone is basing what they can do on a three year average budget, 03, 04 and 05. Then using 60% as a guide. We just went through a rif and we are being told there will be another in '06.

[calimary]

21. So the "I'm Making You More Secure" president plans to cut funding

for homeland security? Something we ought to be yelling LOUDLY about!

[onehandle]

22. Maybe you guys are not catching the point.....

Bush is planning on CUTTING the very Programs he's RUNNING ON.

Including Homeland Security.

Even the CNN brown nosers were aghast.

[calimary]

23. You mean they actually READ and UNDERSTOOD the copy?

For once? How did they react?

[onehandle]

24. Slightly surprised....

But they immediately went on to a story about a Danish company (old yurp) rewarding their workers with porn to erase all memory of the preceding story.

[Nevernose]

36. Really? Free porn?

Which company do I have to work for to get free porn?

Porn, porn, porn, porn,
Porn, porn, porn, porn,
Lovely porn! Oh wonderful porn!

What was this thread about again? And why are we, as a society, so obsessed with boobies?

[drfemoe]

25. he's already done that!!

Repeat performance. Guess they weren't paying attention the first time.

[Tellurian]

26. Thanks, Tahiti Nut for the info...also

"But the cuts are politically sensitive, directed at popular programs that Bush has been touting on the campaign trail."

...Yes, programs for the people are being cut. While Bush fills the coffers of his defense partners pockets!!!

"The Education Department, a nutrition program for women and children, Head Start, home ownership, job training, medical research and science programs all face cuts in 2006."

"Continuing the strategy of last year's budget, the 2006 budget will constrain discretionary and mandatory spending while supporting national priorities: winning the war on terror, protecting the homeland, and strengthening the economy," the memo states.

Agencies would have the option of preserving current funding levels for programs under their control if they find money from other parts of their budget. But the computer printout contains specific cuts in named programs.

"Despite (administration) denials, this memorandum confirms what we suspected all along," said Thomas Kahn, Democratic staff director on the House Budget Committee. "Next February, the administration plans to propose spending cuts in key government services to pay for oversized tax cuts."

[skippysmom]

28. Is it me, or is this is pre-emptive cut

because he's going to be spending all of our money on another war in Iran or Syria or who the hell knows where?

Do they want to win this election or what?

[progressivebydesign]

29. Well that's a sure fire path to re-election! Duh! N/T

[CBHagman]

30. Light up the White House and Capitol Hill switchboards EVERY TIME...

...Bush or some political ally of his talk about...

...the "death tax." No, it's estate tax or (my personal favorite) the Paris Hilton tax. Only 2 percent of estates pay it.

..."compassion." In its most literal sense, compassion means "to suffer with." Bush has absolutely NO intention of suffering at all, and he wants to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Call the mendacious little monster on this.

...their number-one goal being keeping America safe. Oh, by cutting homeland security? By losing the hearts and minds of current allies and potential ones? By the endless stream of horrifying images from the Middle East? YEAH, I FEEL SAFE.

The White House number is 202-456-1111. You know what to do. Do the same with your senators and representatives, plus the letters to the editor section of your local paper.

[TheDonkey]

31. CNN just reported this, more bad news for shrub

his lies and wrong direction for the country is being exposed more and more.

[struggle4progress]

32. kick

:kick:

[salin]

34. Seems important - the NEWS COVERAGE of this...

story also appears in USA Today. Read a reference to the information in a Conason item on Salon that was from the Washington Post.

Please weigh-in and link any coverage of this story that is carried elsewhere. Big difference of coverage on similar topics in the past.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and while those covering the admin and their ceaseless effort for more and more, larger and larger tax cuts KNOW this - they have covered it abysmally. Now the indications both of some of the "Bill" for the tax cuts, AND of the bush directive NOT to let the details out until AFTER the elections, is getting SOME coverage. That is important. But how widely is this being picked up? And will additional stories start showing up? THIS is an area I would love to see a media feeding frenzy kick up around.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x587005#590189

[salin]

39. Related story also running in the Houston Chronicle

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x589279

[Lorien]

35. They sure seem to take being in office in 2006 for granted

I guess Diebold has given them plenty of assurances. :mad:

[Cooley Hurd]

37. Rep Dana Rohrbacher (R-Moran) on Crossfire yesterday:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0405/28/cf.00.html

<snip>
BEGALA: Congressman Rohrabacher, there's a report in "The Washington Post" about a heretofore secret White House budget memo. And it targeted a whole lot of domestic agencies for cuts after the election that is.

But I want to focus on the veterans. Here's what "The Washington Post" reports. The Department of Veterans affairs is scheduled to get a $519 million spending increase in 2005. -- that's the budget for the election year -- and a $910 million cut in 2006 that would bring its budget below the 2004 level.

Now, I know you to be a patriot first and a partisan second. Please tell me you oppose President Bush's efforts to cut our veterans. REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, first of all, I don't know if that report is accurate. It might be just somebody's suggestion on how we handle the $500 billion deficit, and I doubt if it has already been approved through the policy process in the White House. So to bring it up now, obviously "The Washington Post" just wants to hurt our president.

I will say that,, at any time when we try to tackle this $500 billion deficit, I will have to imagine that the veterans, being patriotic, as they have proven themselves, are going to be willing to be part of that solution if everybody involved has to suffer a little bit in order to get rid of that deficit. Now...

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: What do we have to sacrifice?

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: These are men and some of them women, these are men and some of them women who have served our country. Why can't we ask rich people who are sitting by their pools just to write a check and pay their damn fair share of taxes, Congressman?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
</snip>

Can you fucking stand it???? :grr::grr::grr::grr:

[leesa]

38. I say cut Homeland Security completely. What good is it?