From
NYT
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.
Anybody remember after 9/11, Bush called the WoT the "new battleground"? A new type of war where we wouldn't be as reliant on heavy military spending but would instead have to strengthen our homeland against the type of attack that could be carried out by a couple of guys with bad intentions. Of course, then he cut first responder funding, but anybody who mentions that is a commie.
So what is getting a budget hike this fiscal year? The usual:
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.
So, Pentagon spending is going up, and spending that could increase our response capabilities in case of an actual terror attack is going down. Thanks, Mr. Bush, for reminding us that the WoT is a "new battleground."
There is a lot of meat (itemized percentages and the like)to this article, so I suggest reading it, but the basic point is to shrug responsibility off the federal government and then (presumebly) blame the states if something goes wrong:
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."
He cut first responder aid, he's cutting bioterror preparedness funds, all to fund the Pentagon. If anybody says "new battleground" again, I'm going to smack them.