Continuing where I left off…
Bush moves on to discuss the economy in regards to the way the Congress spends taxpayers funds. Targeting 151 “wasteful or bloated programs,” he believes there is $18 Billion that can be cut from the budget. While he goes on to discuss earmarks and pork spending, he doesn’t directly state what the 151 programs actually are. This is probably done for two reasons: a) he doesn’t want to name them specifically to embarrass the locales benefiting from the programs as well as the representatives, or b) they are large programs such as Medicare (for example) that are politically sensitive topics. To emphasize that he is serious, he continues by saying “if you send me an appropriations bill that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half, I’ll send it back to you with my veto.” It will be interesting to see if he follows up with his threat.
The next topic of interest is health care. As he discussed during his 2004 reelection campaign, the President calls for improving the health care system so better options become available for the public, without resorting to a large government system to manage it. He states “I have proposed ending the bias in the tax code against those who do not get their health insurance through their employer.” Why there was this uneven playing field in the tax code to begin with is uncertain (probably dealing with lobbying from the insurance companies), but this will definitely make things financially easier on individuals who self-insure themselves. Additionally, he continues to promote the idea of allowing groups of small-businesses to team together to obtain better insurance plans that large companies have access to, in a process called Association Health Plans.
Education comes up next, with the President touting the successes of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. As many of the readers know, the Democrats love to complain about this program, and how bad it is for the schools across the country. However, most seem to forget that this bill was co-authored with Senator Ted Kennedy, one of the leading Democrats in the nation. Of course, the teachers unions are behind part of the negative campaign push against the program due to the fact that schools can lose funding for failing to meet certain benchmarks (which in a business world would be expected). Continuing, the President discusses the Pell Grants for Kids initiative to ensure kids receive funding to attend private schools when their local public schools are failing to achieve the goals of NCLB. This is merely the voucher program the President pushed during his first four years with a new name, and I highly doubt that the current Democratic Congress would pass it.
Tomorrow, we will continue with the items of trade and energy. Enjoy your weekend.
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