------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
NOW SCHOOL LUNCHES ARE SUSPECT: BUSH BUDGET IS WAR AGAINST POOREST By Monica Moorehead At the same time that the Bush administration is spending untold billions of dollars in preparation for a genocidal war against Iraq, it has widened tax breaks for the super-rich and launched a war against poor and oppressed people inside the United States in the form of criminal budget cuts. Bush's proposed $2.23 trillion budget for the 2004 fiscal year would relieve the federal government of responsibility for billions of dollars in federal spending on vital social programs such as unemployment benefits, health insurance, housing subsidies, school lunch programs and Head Start--a preschool program that since the 1960s has provided affirmative action in educational opportunities for poor children. Instead, Bush will substitute "block grants"--effectively washing his hands of any federal responsibility to meet bare minimal requirements to insure that the most marginalized sectors of society have some of their human needs met. In essence, this decentralization promotes the reactionary "states' rights" position advocated by pro-slavery Confederate states that voted to secede from the Union during pre-Civil War days in order to maintain the enslavement of Africans. Proponents of Bush's nearly $1.5 trillion in tax cuts unabashedly admit this is a windfall to the wealthy. The rationale is that the benefits will trickle down to low-income people and stimulate the economy. But tax cuts won't translate into capital investment in this period of capitalist economic stagnation. The wealth that the rich grab will stay in their pockets. Bush's budget is really a scheme to protect the huge assets, capital gains, interest and dividends of the wealthiest people from being taxed. This safety net for the rich, at the expense of the workers and the poor, means that the gap of inequality has widened. According to the Census Bureau, from 1989 to 2001 the income level of the richest fifth of society rose at a rate six times faster than the poorest fifth. And this growing gap between rich and poor has occurred over the course of both Republican and Democratic administrations. CUTS BASED ON DEMONIZING POOR The Bush administration is skilled at the art of diversion. When it wants to recolonize the oil-rich region of Iraq, it demonizes its president, as though Saddam Hussein is the only person in Iraq who will be affected by a war. Bush rationalizes his proposed cuts in the National School Lunch Program by claiming "error" and "fraud"--code words for demonizing the poor. A reported 28 million children, half of them from low-income families, receive a lunch paid for by the federal government. The Bush administration now wants to require that all families show proof of income--pay stubs or tax returns--as part of a stricter requirement for eligibility. Service providers say this will result in a dramatic decline of the number of children in this program, including the children of immigrant workers who risk deportation if they lack the proper papers. The Pentagon can waste hundreds of dollars on a toilet seat and not be penalized. If a poor family, however, does not fill out a form correctly, or is caught understating income, it is grounds for a child not receiving a meal--possibly the only meal that day. This adds to growing numbers of malnourished children in the United States. Those who provide the lunches would be forced to police the poor instead of feeding them. The vice president of the American School Food Service Association, Barry D. Sackin, said that the Bush plan "would turn us into accountants and auditors and take us away from what we should be doing: serving nutritious meals to children." (New York Times, Feb. 5) The Bush budget also calls for gutting the federally funded Section 8 housing program that has provided rental assistance to low-income tenants since the 1930s. Bush would also require that those who remain on welfare work longer hours for their measly checks. And he wants to put the Medicaid program, which has been a jointly funded federal-state health insurance program, under the control of the states--which are already reeling under huge budget deficits. It is estimated that at least one-third of the 44 million impoverished people now eligible would lose vital health-care services. Anti-war activists must connect the struggle against poverty and unemployment on the domestic front with the channeling of wealth to the military machine. Bush's 2004 budget, a welfare program for the super- rich and the military, shows why "Money for jobs and human needs, not war" must be the battle cry for this movement. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
