Recently The Washington Post published a front page article referencing a May 19^th White House memorandum outlining the Bush Administration's plans for deep cuts in domestic spending effective October 1, 2005 the beginning of Fiscal Year (FY) 2006.  The President is required by law to submit his FY 2006 budget request to Congress by March 1, 2005, and that memo is a "smoking gun" if ever there were one.  It also confirms suspicions I have harbored for over two years about the real intent of the Bush Administration's record deficits.

            To say the first budget the current Administration plans to submit to the Congress after the November 2^nd elections is radical is an understatement.  For example, according to the memo, Mr. Bush plans to cut education spending in FY 2006 by almost $1.5 billion in the first year not to mention in subsequent years.  What is particularly galling is that Mr. Bush recently traveled around the country with his Secretary of Education promoting his "No Child Left Behind Act," which he underfunded in his current budget by almost $9 billion.

            Mr. Bush's plan for veterans is equally appalling.  According to that same memo, the current Administration plans to cut spending at the Department of Veterans Affairs by over $900 million the first year after the election.  Yet Mr. Bush never misses an opportunity to wrap himself in the flag and preach about our fine men and women in the military.  Our fine military troops would do well to educate themselves about what Mr. Bush plans to do to them when their fighting is over.  This is especially relevant considering the number of wounded troops in Mr. Bush's current operation in Iraq is approaching 5,000.

            Mr. Bush's plans for the country should he win in November have dire consequences for South Carolinians.  For example, Mr. Bush plans to cut the National Science Foundation by $117 million in FY 2006.  This will come at a time when members of South Carolina's Congressional Delegation are calling for a National Science Foundation study to determine the objectivity of the Department of Energy's plans for nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site.

            In Washington, it is often not easy to know who to believe, what to believe and when to believe.  But mathematical facts are not political rhetoric or opinion, and it has been my experience that numbers speak louder than words and always ring truer.  It is generally accepted that Mr. Bush's tax cuts account for between one third and one half of the current budget deficit.  If we are generous, and split the difference, that means Mr. Bush's unfair and untimely tax cuts account for 41% of this year's budget deficit, which may well exceed $520 billion.  I find it difficult to believe that South Carolinians consider it good public policy to provide 95% of a tax cut benefit to the top one half of one percent of income earners, while saddling the country with deficits that could reach two trillion dollars in the next four years.

            My conclusions lead back to the suspicions I referenced in the beginning of this piece.  I am convinced our current fiscal crisis is by design.  The Bush Administration set out from its beginning to starve federal programs to the point of extinction, and if Mr. Bush is re-elected in November that is exactly what he will do.  Security for our elderly, opportunities for our youth and safety nets for our needy are of little or no concern to this administration.  I wonder if this is what the country expected from compassionate conservatism.

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