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[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

tvoivozhd---you will never get an honest budget from a

President so thoroughly and habitually committed to deceit

in all things---from happy terms like "Clear Skies" to

describe increasing air pollution. "Healthy Forests" to

describe clearcutting trees financed by slashing down the

few big ones left for seed---and of course pretending the

80 billion dollar Iraq budget is not part of the military

budget, making the latter an honest 499.3 billion dollars

instead of a dishonest 419.3 billion dollars.

And he is pissing away 192.5 billion dollars on his

religious looney sexual abstinence program to which no

teenager listens, money that could be better spent on

almost anything else.

New York Times
February 5, 2005
Bush Budget Calls for Cuts in Health Services
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 - President Bush's budget for 2006 cuts

spending for a wide range of public health programs,

including several to protect the nation against

bioterrorist attacks and to respond to medical

emergencies, budget documents show.

Faced with constraints on spending caused by record budget

deficits and the demands of the war in Iraq,

wadministration officials said on Friday that they had

increased the budget for some health programs but cut many

others, including some that address urgent health care

needs.

The documents show, for example, that Mr. Bush would cut

spending for several programs that deal with epidemics,

chronic diseases and obesity. His plan would also cut the

budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

by 9 percent, to $6.9 billion, the documents show.

The cuts are part of an attempt to control the federal

deficit, while increasing spending on certain priority

programs. Administration officials have said that in the

budget, to be unveiled on Monday, Mr. Bush will propose

that overall domestic spending, aside from entitlements,

grows less than the rate of inflation next year.

But the administration is proposing to increase the

Pentagon budget by 4.8 percent, to $419.3 billion in the

2006 fiscal year, according to Defense Department budget

documents obtained by The New York Times. That sum does

not include the costs of operations in Iraq and

Afghanistan, now running about $5 billion a month. Within

a few weeks, the administration is expected to request

about $80 billion to cover those costs.

The president's approach to domestic programs is

illustrated in the way he balances competing claims at the

Centers for Disease Control.

Mr. Bush requests money to expand a national stockpile of

vaccines and antibiotics. But the public health emergency

fund of the centers, which helps state and local agencies

prepare for bioterror attacks, would be cut 12.6 percent,

to $1 billion.

In the event of an attack, states could use that money to

distribute drugs and vaccines from the stockpile - for

example, by conducting a mass immunization campaign

against smallpox, anthrax or other infectious agents.

Kim A. Elliott, deputy director of the Trust for America's

Health, a nonprofit advocacy group, said, "It's robbing

Peter to pay Paul when you build up the national stockpile

at the expense of bioterrorism preparedness activities at

the state and local level."

Administration officials acknowledged that some of the

proposed cuts would affect high-priority programs. But

they said that the budget this year was exceptionally

tight and that, in some cases, several programs served the

same basic purpose.

Over all, the president's budget would reduce the

Department of Health and Human Services' discretionary

spending - the amounts subject to annual appropriations -

by 2.4 percent, to $68 billion. According to documents,

obtained from budget analysts who opposed the cuts, those

figures do not include Medicare costs, which will increase

sharply with the addition of a prescription drug benefit

in 2006.

A Public Health Service program for "chronic disease

prevention and health promotion" would be cut by 6.5

percent, to $841 million in 2006. The program finances

efforts to prevent and control obesity, which federal

health officials say has reached epidemic proportions.

The president's budget would also eliminate a block grant

that provides $131 million for preventive health services.

Under federal law, the money is used to "address urgent

health problems," which vary from state to state.

Under the president's request, the budget of the National

Institutes of Health, which doubled from 1998 to 2003,

would rise by 0.7 percent, to $28.7 billion next year.

That is much less than what would be needed to keep pace

with the costs of biomedical research, which are rising

more than 3.5 percent a year.

For the National Science Foundation, Mr. Bush will request

$5.6 billion in 2006, an increase of 2.4 percent, budget

documents show. Mr. Bush requested an increase last year

as well, but Congress ended up making a small cut in the

agency's budget for this year.

At the Food and Drug Administration, buffeted in recent

months by concerns about drug safety, the budget would

increase by 4.5 percent, to $1.9 billion. Most of the $81

million increase would go toward the evaluation of

prescription drugs and the inspection of food shipments.

Mr. Bush says he wants a community health center in every

poor county. The budget would increase spending for such

clinics by 17.5 percent, to $2 billion. Budget officials

said these clinics would care for 16.4 million people next

year, up from 14 million this year.

The president is also seeking $718 million for a new

effort to enroll more children in Medicaid and the

Children's Health Insurance Program. Millions of uninsured

children are eligible but not enrolled.

Budget documents also include these domestic proposals:

¶The budget for training nurses, dentists and other health

professionals would be cut 64 percent, to $160.5 million

in 2006. The president would cut $100 million, or 33

percent, from a $301 million program that trains doctors

at children's hospitals.

¶Mr. Bush seeks a $38 million increase in programs

promoting sexual abstinence, which would bring the total

to $192.5 million in 2006, an increase of more than 50

percent since 2004.

¶The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program, which

helps people pay their heating bills, would be cut 8.4

percent, to $2 billion. High prices for home heating oil

make this a particularly contentious proposal.

¶The Centers for Disease Control would receive $306

million, a 4.2 percent increase, for global health

activities, including work on AIDS.

¶Mr. Bush requests $120 million to deal with the threat of

a global flu epidemic. That represents an increase of 21

percent.

The budget would also eliminate a $9 million program for

the treatment of people with traumatic brain injury and a

$9.9 million program to collect stem cells from blood

found in the umbilical cord after childbirth. Scientists

say such cells may prove useful in the treatment of many

diseases, and do not raise the ethical issues involved in

taking stem cells from human embryos.

Mr. Bush said Friday that he would curb spending for

political as well as fiscal reasons. "People in Congress

on both sides of the aisle have said, 'Let's worry about

the deficit,' " he said in Omaha as he campaigned for his

Social Security plan. "I said, 'O.K. we'll worry about it

again.' My last budget worried about it. This budget will

really worry about it."

Echoing a vow made in his State of the Union address, Mr.

Bush said: "We're going to eliminate or vastly reduce 150

programs that aren't meeting needs, aren't meeting

priorities and are not getting the job done. It's time to

be wise with the people's money."

At the Treasury Department, Mr. Bush is seeking an

increase of $500 million, or 7.8 percent, to police

compliance with the tax laws. That would increase the

enforcement budget of the Internal Revenue Service to $6.9

billion. The Treasury said the additional money would be

used to examine more tax returns, collect past due taxes

and investigate cases of tax avoidance.

The Defense Department is proposing to cut $55 billion

from various programs over the next six years, with most

of the reductions in the later years. Even so, the

Pentagon budget is projected to exceed $500 billion by

2011.

The Pentagon intends to buy fewer FA-22 fighter jets, DD(

X) destroyers, Virginia-class attack submarines and LPD-17

amphibious ships, used by the Navy to transport marines.

It also plans to retire one of the Navy's 12 aircraft

carriers, which Navy officials have said will be the

carrier John F. Kennedy, based in Mayport, Fla.

The cuts are partly offset by $25 billion in increased

spending for the Army, as it restructures its forces to

rely on more readily deployable brigades instead of much

larger divisions.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting for this article.

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