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Home :  Federal Budget & Tax : 
Federal Budget & Tax:      News     Blog     Background    



Wednesday, June 20, 2007

What is the President Smoking? Part II

Following up on my post yesterday about the president's weekly radio address and his pharmaceutical preferences, I came across this article today in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel detailing the struggles of Florida's HIV treatment programs:

Every week, Oakland Park HIV patient Peter Giraldo goes for acupuncture and therapeutic massage to lessen severe nerve pain in his extremities caused by his medications and diabetes.

But the therapies will vanish next month, and other services used by thousands of South Florida HIV/AIDS patients will shrink dramatically as a result of federal budget cuts now coming to a head, county health officials said. Substance abuse treatment, nutritional counseling and other programs stand to be cut.

For a second straight year, local HIV budget planners said they are struggling to stretch declining grants from the federal Ryan White Program.

I wonder if Peter Giraldo thinks the president is being disingenuous when he says during his radio address that he is meeting the urgent needs of the country?





Posted by Adam Hughes, 04:09:14 PM



Tuesday, June 19, 2007

What is the President Smoking?

I stumbled across a copy of the president's weekly radio address this morning and, for the life of me, can't figure out what Mr. Bush is smoking. The address summarized Bush's record on fiscal policy, stating outrageous claims like the president's tax cuts were a success, that Bush has enacted fiscal discipline in Washington, and that government spending imperils economic growth. These statements are all pretty much wrong, but the worst part of the speech was this:

Over the past three years, we have met the urgent needs of our Nation while holding the growth of annual domestic spending close to one percent - well below the rate of inflation...By keeping taxes low and restraining Federal spending, we can meet my plan to have a balanced budget by 2012.

Let's take a look at how well the president has met the urgent needs of our nation. Just recently, we've come across the following reports:

  • New Hampshire may have to cut food and other assistance for the elderly;
  • Hunger in America could be significantly curtailed if we'd only invest a little more;
  • Backdoor cuts to Medicaid have drawn the ire of state Medicaid directors. Michigan is one state that has cut its Medicaid program;
  • Delays and insufficient funding in the FY 06 spending bills threatened cuts to veterans health care, the Social Security Administration, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Small Business Administration, the FBI and DEA, Amtrak, and low-income housing programs - all of which have been operating on shoestring budgets over the past several years;
  • The Walter Reed scandals appear to be a budget issue at its core with privatization of government services pursued to save money over delivering quality services;
  • A growing number of sinkholes are increasingly becoming a problem around the country - mostly due to underfunded or neglected federal wastewater management programs;
  • The Food and Drug Administration has largely blamed budget cuts and a lack of resources for their poor responses to recent food safety problems;
  • The Center for Disease Control stated last week they lacked funding to put a plan in place to respond to a large tuberculosis outbreak;
  • The president's own Millennium Challenge program, which provides funding to foster the development of poor countries, was running $400 million to $1 billion behind in January, 2007;
  • Even funding for Iraq reconstruction has been insufficient and mismanaged;

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg of unmet needs around the country the president doesn't even seem to be aware of. What's more, the president has presided over the largest increase in the national debt in history, as it has increased from $5.95 trillion to close to $9 trillion during his presidency. At this point, it's a little late for him to be shooting for a balanced budget in 2012 - 3 years after he leaves the White House. I'm afraid the damage has already been done.





Posted by Adam Hughes, 02:07:57 PM



Monday, June 11, 2007

BEA Report: 2006 State GDP Rankings

With a surfeit of sources supplying stories on states' fiscal surpluses this news cycle:

... we thought we'd take a step back and look at comparative gains and losses in state economic productivity, as reported in BEA's report last week on state economic growth.

According to the report, the top and bottom five states in per capital real GDP for 2006 are as follows (2003 ranking in parens):

1 Delaware (1)

2 Connecticut (2)

3 Massachusetts (3)

4 New York (6)

5 New Jersey (4)

...

46 Oklahoma (45)

47 Montana (48)

48 Arkansas (47)

49 West Virginia (49)

50 Mississippi (50)

Big gainers (2003-06): Oregon (28->18); Iowa (30->24); Vermont (34->29)

Big losers (2003-06): Michigan (23->35); S. Carolina (40->45); Indiana (29->33)



Posted by Dana Chasin, 12:17:54 PM



Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Federal Budget Cuts Could Hurt New Hampshire

New Hampshire government officials are worried that proposed federal budget cuts to programs for the elderly might hinder their efforts to provide low-cost meals and other programs. The Bush budget proposed to cut those types of programs under the Older Americans Act by 6 percent this year.

The Seacoast Online reports:

Health officials say cuts to meal services would be particularly troubling for seniors in New Hampshire. Last year, more than 1 million meals were delivered to needy seniors in their homes. About 400,000 more lunches, plus the occasional breakfast, were served at senior centers throughout the state.





Posted by Adam Hughes, 11:11:52 AM



Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Pre-emptive Nutrition-Assistance Would Save Money

A new report commissioned by the Sedexho Foundation estimates the annual costs associated with hunger in America is $90 billion. This estimate excludes government programs for nutrion-assistance - which amount to approximately $53 billion in FY 2006. The report finds that increasing anti-hunger investments by an additional $10 billion to $12 billion a year is cost-effective and could even almost wipe out hunger in America.

The lead author of the report, J. Larry Brown from the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University, believes the United States is wasting money by not tackling the issue of hunger head-on:

We ought to debate this, because if we're right, we're spending far more by letting hunger exist than it would cost to end it."

Washington Times: Cost of hunger calculated at $90 billion





Posted by Adam Hughes, 10:00:42 AM




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