Bush’s misguided mission

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget would drop the ax on some vital federal programs drastically reducing funding for some and eliminating others completely.

The president wants to eliminate grants for state vocational training programs and economic development in struggling communities. He also proposes sweeping reductions to state law enforcement grants, rural health grants and programs that provide public housing, food aid and heating assistance to poor people.

A third of the 150 programs that would be affected involve education including proposed elimination of the 42-year-old Reading Is Fundamental program, which distributes books to children from low-income families. Bush wants to reduce funding for the Even Start literacy program, which provides funding to promote early childhood education and adult literacy in low-income families. Literacy is a crucial building block for people to achieve economic independence, something lost on Bush.

As we noted in a previous editorial, the president’s proposed budget calls for cuts in Medicaid and Medicare funding, with reductions that include cutting payments to hospitals and nursing homes for care of the very sick or aging.

Bush’s overall philosophy is pretty obvious: Cut or eliminate programs that serve poor people.

Meanwhile, the president wants to make permanent the bloated tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and continue throwing money at the failing Iraq war.

The longer the war drags on, the more difficult it is going to be to continue to pay for it. Bush’s solution is to call for deep cuts in domestic programs that serve the poorest, sickest and most vulnerable Americans. It is a terrible, heartless proposal based on class preference.