Monday, May 31, 2004

Budget cuts memo leaked

Sorry, I'm a little late with this one...the memo was leaked on the 27th.

A memorandum from the White House Budge Office, recently obtained by the Associated Press from congressional sources who requested anonymity, instructs government agencies to prepare for massive cuts to domestic programs in 2006, even as the administration pushes for $1 trillion in new tax cuts.

...As revealed in the White House memo, with the exception of the Defense Department which would grow 5.2 percent to $422.7 billion and the Justice Department which would increase 4.3 percent to $19.5 billion, in the 2006 budget nearly every major domestic program would be slated for large decreases.

The Veterans Affairs Department budget would fall 3.4 percent from $29.7 billion in 2005 to $28.7 billion. This would include a $910 million cut to the existing veterans health care budget and a $53 million cut for the homeownership program, nearly reversing the $78 million funding increase that Bush pledged for a homeownership program in 2005.

...Even money for domestic security at the Homeland Security Department and other agencies, a budget John Kerry has promised to increase, a budget that would seem to be immune from any cuts, would drop by 3 percent, from $30.6 billion in 2005 to $29.6 billion.

The document reveals that the Bush Administration is also ordering cuts in the following agencies: 2.4 percent less for the Education Department; 2.6 percent less for the Environmental Protection Agency; 2.1 percent for the National Institutes of Health; 1.9 percent less for the Interior Department.

Meanwhile, the Administration is requesting a $1 trillion reduction in taxes, with most of the reduction going to the wealthiest Americans.
  Intervention Magazine article

Surprise!

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.