Budget Games That Hurt Children

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and President Bush on Monday. (Pool Photo By Ron Sachs)

It was one of those moments when a public official gives away a larger truth by offering what seems to be a throwaway line.

Testifying this week on President Bush's budget, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. suggested he would not mind a bit if the Democratic Congress added money to prevent cutbacks in coverage under the federal government's children's health insurance program.

"It just may be," Paulson said mildly, "that the Congress believes that that's something that should be funded at a higher level."

In other words, Bush's budget is a collection of artificial numbers -- including cuts in domestic programs that Congress will inevitably reverse -- that allow the president to claim fiscal responsibility while demanding that his tax cuts for the wealthy be made permanent.

The cutbacks in health coverage for lower-income working families are among the most egregious of the president's fiscal choices. And it's not just Democrats who are saying so.

"These cuts interfere with the fundamental responsibility of government: to safeguard the lives of its citizens," said Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a member of that small, hardy group of Northeastern Republicans to survive November's Democratic tide.

"Whether we are helping struggling families stay warm through the harsh winter months or protecting homes and residents against terrorism and natural disasters, we expect our federal partners to carry their fair share," she said. "The cuts to these programs place extraordinary burdens on the states."

Or consider the response of the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA. "The president's new budget," he said, "hurts those living in poverty at a time when we should be doing even more to help the most vulnerable among us."

You'd think Bush would understand this since he regularly praises faith-based groups and long ago touted himself as a compassionate conservative. After all, the president made big news last week when he finally acknowledged what has been close to unmentionable in his administration. "The fact is," he said, "that income inequality is real." Facts, as Ronald Reagan observed, are stubborn things.

But this is a budget destined to make income inequality much worse. The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has created a chart that should be a centerpiece of discussions concerning Bush's accounting.

The center examined what the White House's proposals would mean in 2012, the magical year in which Bush -- with much flimflammery -- claims his plan will produce a surplus. It found that, if enacted, the president's budget would lead that year to $73 billion in tax cuts for households with annual incomes of over $1 million and $34 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary programs, many of them benefiting Americans of low and middle incomes.

So here is a president who believes passionately in redistributing income -- upward.