Bush's Bully Budget

The news is full of new analyses of the 2008 Fiscal Year budget proposal released yesterday by the White House.

There are at least three distinct totals for Defense spending cited today.

1. Bloomberg talks about, "$622 billion." The New York Times cites the same figure.

2. The Christian Science Monitor calls it "$624.6 billion;"

3. The Washington Post is calling it, "$661 billion."

Not only are the numbers sickeningly profligate, noboby really can say--apparently--what the numbers are that the President is proposing.



From the Bloomberg piece we get a glimpse of the gory details

The fiscal 2008 defense budget provides $27 billion for aircraft programs, up $4.1 billion or 18 percent from this year; $14.4 billion for ship programs, up $3.2 billion or 29 percent; and $6 billion for space programs, an increase of $1.2 billion or 25 percent more than Congress authorized this year.

Altogether, non-war spending would total $481 billion, an increase of 11.3 percent over what Congress authorized in fiscal 2007. Programs of Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Textron Inc., Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp. and European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. all are boosted.

``By historical standards that is a very large increase,'' Steven Kosiak, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment in Washington, said in an e-mailed statement. he said. ``It's roughly as large as the increases that occurred in the first few years after 9/11.''

According to the Boston Globe, Bush's plans to "save" $100 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments would

could destroy the delicate financing that allowed Massachusetts to pass its first-in-the-nation law guaranteeing near-universal health coverage, said Robert E. Gibbons , interim president and CEO of the Massachusetts Hospital Association.

"Freedom" is expensive. We can't fund our military without corresponding austerity in domestic spending. That means, railroad subsidies, education shortfalls, healthcare cuts, and other program cuts that unfairly penalize poorer Americans, according to Bob Greenstein, Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

When are Congress and the American people going to take our country back from these gangsters?