Dems: Bush’s budget
is dead meat

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz have declared President George W. Bush’s final budget dead on arrival.
The two Democrats argue that the Republican president’s priorities are out of whack and that the budget is not fiscally responsible.
“This budget won’t go very far in this Congress,” Casey predicted.
The two lawmakers joined in a conference call with reporters to pan the budget, Bush’s last before he leaves office next January.
The $3.1 trillion budget must be adopted by the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. It includes a deficit of $400 billion but projects a balance and even a surplus by 2012.
Casey mocked the president as “the ten-trillion-dollar man,” a reference to the national debt.
“That’s the housewarming gift he’s going to give to his successor,” he said.
Casey said part of the budget woes can be traced to tax breaks given to the wealthy.
He believes such cuts fail to increase revenue and spur the economy.
The freshman senator tried to discredit Bush administration claims that the deficit and debt are linked largely to the cost of the war in Iraq.
“That’s a lot of hogwash,” he said.
Bush submitted his budget to the Democratic-controlled Congress on Feb. 4. It was the first time a president submitted a budget electronically.
Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has already testified in front of the House Budget Committee. Henry Paulson, secretary of the Department of the Treasury, has appeared in front of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The House typically passes its version of the budget before sending it to the Senate. A conference committee resolves the differences between the two chambers before sending it to the president for his signature or veto.
The budget includes robust funding for the military and homeland security, along with $242 million to promote the licensing of new nuclear plants and money to hire 2,200 border patrol agents. Spending on non-security programs grows by less than 1 percent in 2009 and is flat thereafter.
Bush said he would veto any budget that does not cut in half the number and cost of wasteful, pork-barrel earmarks. He also called on Congress to approve a line-item veto for the president to eliminate portions of a budget he does not like.
In Casey’s opinion, hospitals and health care for veterans are shortchanged.
“This is a reckless, reckless budget for the country,” he said.
Democrats like to say that Bush is making “cuts” when, in reality, the president is slowing the rate of growth from the previous year. Critics note that the rate of growth is far smaller than the inflation rate.
“They’re cuts,” Casey argued.
Schwartz, a member of both the House Budget and Ways and Means committees, said there are some things to like in the budget, such as the money for homeland security. But she worries that some domestic concerns — jobs, higher education, infrastructure — are being ignored. She labels the budget as “seriously deficient.”
“It’s not either or,” she said of military and domestic spending priorities. “It’s both.”
The congresswoman is happy that Bush is providing an additional $20 billion over five years for the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
That means families earning twice the income of the federal poverty level are eligible for the program. For instance, a family of four making $41,300 a year is eligible.
However, Schwartz wants 4 million more children enrolled in the program. She contends the budget will merely maintain the ranks of children already in CHIP.
“This simply does not go far enough,” she said.
Back in October, Schwartz and Casey joined Michael Nutter — then a candidate for mayor — at a rally at Frankford and Cottman avenues for the federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.
The Democratic lawmakers oppose the proposed steep cuts in the program and want to add officers to help mayors like Nutter deal with crime issues.
“If you put more police on the streets working with communities, we’re going to be safer,” Schwartz said. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com