It's a question of priorities

It's a question of priorities. Moral priorities at that. The President has not only chosen to put our young men and women in mortal peril in Iraq, but is now attempting to dismantle the social safety net of our country's most at risk. His 2006 budget, if made law, would devastate the system that is dedicated to looking after the young and old, eviscerating the safety net that the most vulnerable Americans depend upon.

First it's the proverbial "crisis" in Social Security. Economists and accountants, members of the General Accounting Office (the financial experts of our government), continue to claim that the emergency that the President contends in the social security system is in fact, not a crisis at all.

Then, there's Medicare. The Bush budget for 2006 cuts $45 billion from the program, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. Montana's share of these cuts is somewhere around $133 million. In addition, the Bush budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs that he touted during the campaign. His budget would cut 670,000 kids from food stamps. More than 27,000 Montana residents have already lost their health care coverage since he took office in 2001.

If health care issues aren't important to you, how about homeland security? The Bush budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $9.9 million for Montana, which will take police and firefighters off our streets. The Bush budget cuts the COPS program by 96 percent, which has put 395 officers on Montana streets.

The Bush budget has also ignored education. His own No Child Left Behind Act is underfunded by $13.1 billion ($72.7 million less funding in Montana). He promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of Union address, but his budget says otherwise to the tune of $6.6 billion short, or $25.4 million less than what's needed in Montana. This will increase the burden on parents of 17,522 students in Montana who receive these grants. Is it any wonder that college tuition in our state may go up over $500 a semester next year while eliminating 48 educational programs if his budget becomes law!

President Bush has no problems spending $2.1 trillion over 10 years to extend his tax cuts for the wealthy or $9.9 billion squandered on the missile defense boondoggle this year, but then calls $60 billion in federal Medicaid spending unaffordable? Or stating that because we are fighting a perpetual "war on terror"— against enemies we are creating—our military budget must be increased. Meanwhile, many good people of Montana, some of our country's poorest residents, red state or blue state citizens around the nation loyal to the President, are getting their unjust rewards.

Unfortunately, most Americans refuse to believe that their President would deceive them as he has. And in fact, it is very disconcerting because there really hasn't been such an egregious abuse of the public trust in American history. But whether the topic is Social Security, Medicare, childcare, Head Start, nutrition programs, food stamps, or education for our young, there is no denying where his priorities are. And they are not with the sick, young, or the indigent. And for those who have been enamored by the Republican leadership because of their Christian values, does the threat of terrorism trump Christian ethics?

Jesus spoke for the dispossessed, the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the orphans. Can President Bush say the same?

David R. James

Eureka