Bush’s Misplaced Priorities

Last Friday, the ever-widening cracks in the conservative coalition forced the Republican House leadership to table a $54 billion budget-cutting bill. This frozen bill should not be revived; rather, it should be left in cold storage because it cuts critical social programs for the poor in order to sustain the Bush administration’s foolhardy tax cuts.

The abrupt pause—debate is scheduled to resume after Veteran’s Day—came after moderate Republicans rebelled over proposals to enable drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and to severely cut social programs, including food stamps and Medicaid.

These funding cuts hurt the neediest among us; moreover, these cuts lock the poor into poverty and solidify class stratification in the United States. Raising Medicaid co-payments and premiums for those living just above the poverty line (as the House bill intends to do) makes medical care less accessible to those who can least afford it. Likewise, cutting funding for student loans and school lunches limits opportunities for education and advancement on the part of the intelligent and hardworking poor.

Coupled with the hundreds of billions of dollars in already-enacted and still-planned tax cuts for the rich over the tenure of the Bush administration, these spending cuts highlight the misplaced priorities that have characterized Bush’s regime of “compassionate conservatism.” As House Representative Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., put it: “You’re denying resources to programs that serve the middle class and neediest of the needy on the eve of a projected vote to provide tax benefits and breaks to the most advantaged in our society.”

Moreover, the Republican Party’s sudden rediscovery of fiscal responsibility rings hollow, to say the least. The House spending bill trims four percent off the forecasted $1.6 trillion budget deficit. In a stunning juxtaposition, Congressional Republicans are also trying to pass a $70 billion tax cut bill, which overwhelmingly benefits well-off taxpayers. Even if this harsh spending bill passed Congress, the tax cut would still lead to a net increase in the budget deficit. All told, the House spending bill does absolutely nothing to reduce the deficit while inflicting great harm on the poor.

Even within the bill, there are provisions for $35 billion in new spending, including giveaways to dairy farmers and doctors—a symptom of Congress’s dangerous addiction to pork-barrel spending. Instead of seeking to cut much needed social spending, House Republicans should look to excise their propensity for earmarks, which produced $24 billion in pork in the recent highway bill alone. Instead of building the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska, Congress could continue to provide free school lunches to the children of destitute legal immigrants, who have no guarantee of other meals.

Ultimately, the spending bill is a statement of American values and priorities; it is a sad indictment of the United States that our leaders—when not seeking exemptions for CIA agents to torture captives—spend their time dealing out ever-increasing amounts of pork and attempting to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Thankfully, some House Republicans found the will to stand up to this naked rapacity. As the battle intensifies, they and their allies must stand for what is right over what is easy.