Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Hard Times Ahead
"With President Bush's signature (on the budget) today, Medicaid recipients can expect higher copayments and deductibles. College students may face higher interest rates on student loans, as lenders are squeezed. Work requirements for women on welfare are likely to be tightened. Federal aid to states for child-support enforcement will be curtailed," says a Christian Science Monitor report in today's edition.
They add that Bush's budget proposal for 2007 would boost Pentagon spending by almost 7 percent, and increase the budgets for the Departments of State, Veterans' Affairs, and
Homeland Security, while asking for budget savings from Medicare, education, transportation, and agriculture. Oh, and of coure, there's a tax cut that will benefit mostly the rich, yet again.
Some of the targeted programs:
They add that Bush's budget proposal for 2007 would boost Pentagon spending by almost 7 percent, and increase the budgets for the Departments of State, Veterans' Affairs, and
Homeland Security, while asking for budget savings from Medicare, education, transportation, and agriculture. Oh, and of coure, there's a tax cut that will benefit mostly the rich, yet again.
Some of the targeted programs:
- Section 202 housing for low-income elderly, which would be cut 26 percent below the 2006 level.
- Section 811 housing for low-income people with disabilities, which would face a 50 percent cut.
- Child Care and Development Block Grant, which would face more than $1 billion in cuts over five years. CBPP reports that by 2011 the number of children receiving child-care assistance would drop by more than 400,000, compared with the 2005 figure.
Get the picture? If you're old, young, or sick, you're out of luck. And this at a time when hunger is rising, when people with disabilities find it nearly impossible to get and keep benefits that they need to survive, when our elderly population is growing, with the likelyhood that they will be less and less able to take care of themselves, as they take hits in Social Security, Medicaire, and other programs.
Even some Republicans are squeamish about such a plan, according to the CMS.
Bush, of course, touts faith-based organizations as the back up. I'm sorry but that's just not good enough. We should not be taking help away from those who need it to give tax cuts to those who don't, and to spend even more money killing people overseas.
¶ 8:52 PM
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hi pam
i see you through laury's website and then randomly on the internet. i like your blog. i plan on coming back and checking up on it in more detail.
feel free to check mine out when bored. im a writer as well
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i see you through laury's website and then randomly on the internet. i like your blog. i plan on coming back and checking up on it in more detail.
feel free to check mine out when bored. im a writer as well
# posted by 
: 10:10 PM
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