(The AFL-CIO issued the following statement on February 7.)
WASHINGTON — President Bush’s proposed budget is an assault on the fundamental priorities of working families. It’s another troubling step toward his goal to create a “you’re on your own-ership” society.
The proposed budget slashes programs that help workers build a future for their children and prepare themselves for changes in the workplace. Clear cut examples of Bush’s “you’re on your own-ership” society include proposed cuts in job training programs, cuts in health care for veterans, cuts in Medicaid funding for states and cuts in trade enforcement programs. The ones most affected by his irresponsible budget policies are the most vulnerable – the unemployed, elderly and children. As the manufacturing industry continues to lose jobs at a relentless pace, this is not the time to cut programs that offer job training opportunities for laid-off factory workers. As employers cut defined benefit plans for workers, this is not the time to penalize workers for employers’ pension underfunding by restricting workers’ benefits.
Bush has justified his budget on the basis of fiscal discipline necessary to cut the budget deficit. But the Bush budget is more an exercise in fiscal fiction than honest and disciplined budgeting.
Let’s be clear: Working families are not to blame for the president’s soaring budget deficit. The budget crisis Bush relies on to justify huge cuts in programs that serve all Americans is a problem largely of his own making. Nearly half of the deficit growth since 2001 results from tax cuts that over time will mainly benefit the wealthy. Making these tax cuts permanent, as Bush proposes, would add $10 trillion to the deficit over the next 20 years. And over the next 75 years, the costs of these cuts is three times greater than what we need to address Social Security’s funding problems.
The Bush budget moves us closer in the direction of a society in which economic security for ordinary Americans is at risk, and the neediest among us will be on their own. We hope Congress will have the courage and decency to reject such immoral budget cuts and demand a budget that fixes its real problems and gives all workers the support they need to provide for their families.