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Independent Senator Bash's Bush's Budget!!

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Anonymous

Guest
Besides finding out that there are huge cuts in this GW budget for local fire and first responders :( - today I found out that the budget also cuts federal forest fire fighting funding.....The largest Budget in the history of the country- and its all going overseas.... :( :mad: :mad:

Bush becoming Robin Hood in reverse

February 17, 2008

By Sen. BERNARD SANDERS

The American people are worried about the economy – and they should be. Since President Bush has been in office, 5 million Americans have slipped into poverty, median household income for working-age families has declined by almost $2,500, 8.6 million Americans have lost their health insurance and 3 million workers have lost their pensions. In Vermont and across the country, good paying jobs are going to China and other low-wage countries and many new jobs pay low wages with minimal benefits.

In the last few months, the housing bubble has burst, home foreclosures are skyrocketing and many Americans are seeing their major source of wealth, their homes, lose value. In Vermont, with the price of fuel rapidly increasing, most wage increases are now going straight into the fuel tank.

Amid this period of economic stress on the middle class, President Bush has sent his 2009 budget to Congress. Frankly, it is a budget so far out of touch with the needs of ordinary Americans that it leaves one wondering what planet this president is living on.

At a time when the United States has the most unequal distribution of income of any major country, with the top 0.1 percent earning more money that the bottom 50 percent, George W. Bush has decided that the very richest people in our country need huge tax breaks. Meanwhile, with poverty increasing and the middle-class shrinking, Bush has proposed major cuts in programs which benefit low- and moderate-income people. This is truly Robin Hood in reverse. He takes from the poor and the desperate and gives to the rich and the powerful.

If you're a senior citizen on Social Security and you don't have enough money to keep your home warm in the winter, the president wants to significantly cut back on the heating assistance that you receive. He also wants to cut back on senior housing and nutrition programs. If you're a worker receiving Medicaid, the president wants to cut back on your health care. If you're a person whose home lacks insulation and you're paying much more for heat than you should, the president wants to eliminate the weatherization program. If you're a veteran who has put your life on the line defending this country, Bush wants to make it harder for you to access Veterans Affairs healthcare by substantially increasing your fees. And on and on it goes.

On the other hand, if you're the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame and you're currently worth more than $80 billion dollars, the president wants to provide you with $30 billion in tax relief by eliminating the estate tax. Overall, the repeal would provide $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest 0.3 percent over a 20-year period.

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, I will do everything I can to see that Bush's budget is rejected, and that we bring forth a new budget that works for the vast majority of Americans, not just the wealthy few.

Let me just touch on a few of the areas that we must address:

u With 18,000 Americans dying every year because they lack health insurance, we must move forward to guarantee health care for all. We must also make certain that we have enough doctors and dentists in rural areas.

u With the cost of education from child care to graduate school soaring, Congress must make sure that all of our young people, regardless of income, are able to receive a quality education.

u With global warming becoming one of the major crises facing our world, we must invest in energy efficiency and sustainable energy and, in the process, create many good-paying jobs.

u With many of our roads, bridges, wastewater plants and schools in disrepair, we must rebuild our infrastructure, which will also create good-paying jobs.

The federal budget, how we as a nation prioritize our spending, is ultimately a reflection of our national values: what we stand for, what we believe in. George W. Bush's 2009 budget reflects the culture of greed which has emanated from the White House for the last seven years. Now is the time for Congress to reverse that culture, move our country in a very different direction, and develop a budget which provides hope, dignity and opportunity for all our people, rather than special benefits for the few.



Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., is a member of the U.S. Senate's Budget Committee.

Senators rip Forest Service over wildfire budget cuts
By NOELLE STRAUB
Star-Tribune Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and several other Western senators tore into U.S. Forest Service officials on Thursday over a lack of funding for wildfire preparation and suppression.

Tester slammed proposed cuts at a time when "we're one lightning strike and a good wind away from burning the whole damn state down."

Under President Bush's proposed 2009 budget, the agency's budget would drop $373 million from 2008 levels, to $4.1 billion. Dollars would be cut from wildfire preparedness, hazardous fuels reduction and other fire operations. The Forest Service asked for $982 million in those categories, a decrease of $115 million from 2008.

It proposed to boost regular suppression funding from $846 million to $994 million. But the agency also received $432 million in emergency funding for fire suppression for 2008, outside the regular budgeting process. Taking that into account, suppression dollars would be a 22 percent drop.

Money for state and private forestry programs, research, maintenance, management and law enforcement also would decline from 2008.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Folks are just finally getting into the meat of this record high budget- and altho I can't find any news articles verifying it yet- the blogs are lit up with reports that while GW's budget increases the funding for the VA the first year- it actually drastically cuts funding then for the following years....Some oldtime Vets are also saying that it actually cuts benefits even more, because it raises "user fees" they have to pay for everytime they use a service.....
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Africans don't trust Bush's nationbuilding either- want nothing to do with it....How come whenever Bush wants to send troops to a country/area- somehow the word "OIL" always comes up- and the words "protecting US oil and mineral interests " :???:

US shifts on Africom base plans



The US military has decided to keep the base of its new Africa Command in Germany for now, after only one African nation, Liberia, offered to host it.
Most African countries have been wary of plans to base the command, Africom, on the continent.

Africom's commander, Gen William Ward, said there were no plans to create large US garrisons on the continent.

The military command was created last year to unite responsibilities shared by three other US regional commands.

The US plan had been misunderstood by some African countries, Gen Ward told the BBC.

The key aim of Africom was to build the capacity of African countries for security and peacekeeping, he said, adding there were no plans to move the headquarters for at least a year.

African doubts

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua announced in November that he would not allow his country to host an Africom base and that he was also opposed to any such bases in West Africa.

South Africa and Libya have also voiced strong reservations.

Only Liberia, which has historic links to the US, has offered to host it.

There has been concern that Africom is really an attempt to protect US oil and mineral interests in Africa, amid growing competition for resources from Asian economies, says the BBC's Alex Last in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Then there are fears about the continent being drawn into the US war on terror, our correspondent adds.

Gen Ward said Africom was not about militarisation but consolidating existing operations under one single command, while helping Africans with military training and supporting peacekeeping and aid operations.
 

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