US President George W. Bush is proposing to slash medical care for the poor and elderly to meet the soaring cost of the Iraq war.
Bush's US$2.9 trillion budget, sent to Congress on Monday, includes US$100 billion extra for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for this year, on top of US$70 billion already allocated by Congress and US$141.7 billion next year. He is planning an 11.3 percent increase for the Pentagon. Spending on the Iraq war is destined to top the total cost of the 13-year war in Vietnam.
The rise in military spending will be paid for by a squeeze on domestic programs, including US$66 billion in cuts over five years to Medicare, the healthcare scheme for the elderly, and US$12 billion from the Medicaid healthcare scheme for the poor.
Bush said: "Today we submit a budget to the United States Congress that shows we can balance the budget in five years without raising taxes ... Our priority is to protect the American people. And our priority is to make sure our troops have what it takes to do their jobs."
Although Democrats control Congress and have promised careful scrutiny of the budget over the next few months, Bush has left them in a bind, unwilling to withhold funds for US troops on the frontline. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the days when Bush could expect a blank cheque for the wars were over, but she also insisted the Democrats would not deny troops the money they needed. Democrats could block Bush's proposed cuts to 141 domestic programs.
John Spratt, the Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, said: "I doubt that Democrats will support this budget and, frankly, I will be surprised if Republicans rally around it either."
Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said: "The president's budget is filled with debt and deception, disconnected from reality, and continues to move America in the wrong direction. This administration has the worst fiscal record in history and this budget does nothing to change that."
The Vietnam war cost about US$614 billion at today's prices. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Iraq war has so far cost US$500 billion. About 90 percent of the spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars goes to Iraq. In addition to the spending on Iraq and Afghanistan this year and next, Bush is seeking US$50 billion for 2009.
Bush said the fact that there was no projected figure for 2010 did not mean he expected US troops to be out of Iraq by then. He said he did not want to set a timetable "because we don't want to send mixed signals to an enemy or to a struggling democracy or to our troops."
Included in the budget is US$5.6 billion for the extra 21,500 US troops that Bush ordered to Iraq last month. Some Democrats have threatened to withhold this part of the budget, but more than half of the troops are in place with the others on the way. A plan to build the Joint Strike Aircraft has been withheld. Its absence, at the request of the Pentagon, could have a knock-on effect for jobs in the UK.
In the run-up to the invasion in 2003, the Pentagon's projected estimate of the total cost of the war was US$50 billion. A White House economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, was fired by Bush when he suggested that the total cost would be US$200 billion.
The New York Times noted that the cost of the war would have paid for universal healthcare in the US, nursery education for all three and four-year-olds in the country, immunization for children around the world against a host of diseases, and still leave about half of the money left over.
The Pentagon has long complained that it is overstretched. Bush wants to raise its budget from US$600.3 billion to US$624.6 billion for next year -- about 20 percent of the total budget.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS