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In My Opinion: Nation Building, Abroad and at Home
Many CWA members and their sons and daughters are participating in the war in Iraq, and we pray for them and for the safe return of all the American forces serving in the war zone. Even with the fall of Saddam Hussein's cruel regime, Iraq will continue to be a dangerous place during the next phases leading to rebuilding that country with a new democratic system.
While our troops are fighting - in some cases paying in blood - to bring a brighter future to the Iraqis, one thing we can do for these courageous men and women is to guarantee their own future in the form of good jobs, good schools, safe communities and health security for their families when they come back.
However, that promise is threatened right now on another foggy battleground, the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
The Bush administration's proposed budget, already okayed by the House of Representatives on a straight party-line vote, calls for another deficit-driving tax cut aimed at the wealthiest 1 percent - this time an additional $1.5 trillion over 10 years - while also slashing $465 billion in programs that help ordinary citizens.
Astonishingly, even as the fighting continues, the Bush budget calls for $15 billion in cuts for veterans' programs, including health care and rehabilitation, education and housing, pensions for low-income vets, and burial benefits.
Education funding is slashed by 10 percent, including cuts in student loans, school lunch programs, after-school programs, and in funding for one education program - Impact Aid - that specifically is aimed at school districts that serve large military bases.
Also on the chopping block is funding for Medicaid, cash assistance to the elderly, food stamps, law enforcement assistance, and even some aspects of homeland security.
And proposed cuts in training and vocational education programs won't help returning service men and women as they look for jobs - nor the 1.7 million long-term unemployed who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. The jobs picture - the unemployment rate is now 5.8 percent - grew bleaker as employment fell by 465,000 jobs the past two months.
The administration's budget would have a further rippling effect on the cash-strapped states, which already were slammed by the president's 2001 tax cut for the rich. An especially heavy blow would be the new proposed cuts in Medicaid and poor children's health programs which could lead to the elimination of health coverage for 13.6 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Forty-nine of the 50 states have laws that mandate balanced budgets each year, and 43 of them are now facing deficits totaling at least $50 billion altogether, the National Governors Association reports. The result - cuts in health care, education and social programs. Also, higher state taxes that will eat up any relief that working people get from the IRS.
The idea of a huge tax cut when we don't even know the cost of the Iraq war and what it will take to rebuild that country - on top of many other economic uncertainties - is folly.
And the nature of the tax cut is grossly unfair. Again the cuts are loaded to favor wealthy Americans, with millionaires getting a windfall of over $90,000, while half of all families will get less than $100 in savings and 31 percent, nothing. If a tax cut were to truly be an "economic stimulus," the impact should be reversed, with the biggest break going to the poor and middle class, who would actually spend the money and spur the economy.
Part of the plan calls for ending taxation on corporate dividends. The administration has singled out Verizon for its vigorous lobbying efforts on behalf of the scheme - and no wonder. Verizon's top five officers would have saved $1.4 millon last year under this plan, with CEO Ivan Seidenberg alone gaining $363,744 according to the Wall Street Journal. At the same time, the plan would provide no relief at all for Verizon workers and others whose investments are in 401(k) and IRA retirement savings accounts.
The budget battleground will now shift to the Senate, where even some Republicans believe the administration's lust to help the wealthy elite has gone too far. There are proposals now to trim the tax cut plan by half. Better would be to scrap it altogether and invest in needed health and education programs and bolstering Social Security and Medicare.
We have a responsibility to keep building our own nation and improving security, opportunity and well-being for our citizens even as we undertake the responsibility of rebuilding Iraq and helping its people achieve a stable, democratic society.
While our troops are fighting - in some cases paying in blood - to bring a brighter future to the Iraqis, one thing we can do for these courageous men and women is to guarantee their own future in the form of good jobs, good schools, safe communities and health security for their families when they come back.
However, that promise is threatened right now on another foggy battleground, the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
The Bush administration's proposed budget, already okayed by the House of Representatives on a straight party-line vote, calls for another deficit-driving tax cut aimed at the wealthiest 1 percent - this time an additional $1.5 trillion over 10 years - while also slashing $465 billion in programs that help ordinary citizens.
Astonishingly, even as the fighting continues, the Bush budget calls for $15 billion in cuts for veterans' programs, including health care and rehabilitation, education and housing, pensions for low-income vets, and burial benefits.
Education funding is slashed by 10 percent, including cuts in student loans, school lunch programs, after-school programs, and in funding for one education program - Impact Aid - that specifically is aimed at school districts that serve large military bases.
Also on the chopping block is funding for Medicaid, cash assistance to the elderly, food stamps, law enforcement assistance, and even some aspects of homeland security.
And proposed cuts in training and vocational education programs won't help returning service men and women as they look for jobs - nor the 1.7 million long-term unemployed who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. The jobs picture - the unemployment rate is now 5.8 percent - grew bleaker as employment fell by 465,000 jobs the past two months.
The administration's budget would have a further rippling effect on the cash-strapped states, which already were slammed by the president's 2001 tax cut for the rich. An especially heavy blow would be the new proposed cuts in Medicaid and poor children's health programs which could lead to the elimination of health coverage for 13.6 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Forty-nine of the 50 states have laws that mandate balanced budgets each year, and 43 of them are now facing deficits totaling at least $50 billion altogether, the National Governors Association reports. The result - cuts in health care, education and social programs. Also, higher state taxes that will eat up any relief that working people get from the IRS.
The idea of a huge tax cut when we don't even know the cost of the Iraq war and what it will take to rebuild that country - on top of many other economic uncertainties - is folly.
And the nature of the tax cut is grossly unfair. Again the cuts are loaded to favor wealthy Americans, with millionaires getting a windfall of over $90,000, while half of all families will get less than $100 in savings and 31 percent, nothing. If a tax cut were to truly be an "economic stimulus," the impact should be reversed, with the biggest break going to the poor and middle class, who would actually spend the money and spur the economy.
Part of the plan calls for ending taxation on corporate dividends. The administration has singled out Verizon for its vigorous lobbying efforts on behalf of the scheme - and no wonder. Verizon's top five officers would have saved $1.4 millon last year under this plan, with CEO Ivan Seidenberg alone gaining $363,744 according to the Wall Street Journal. At the same time, the plan would provide no relief at all for Verizon workers and others whose investments are in 401(k) and IRA retirement savings accounts.
The budget battleground will now shift to the Senate, where even some Republicans believe the administration's lust to help the wealthy elite has gone too far. There are proposals now to trim the tax cut plan by half. Better would be to scrap it altogether and invest in needed health and education programs and bolstering Social Security and Medicare.
We have a responsibility to keep building our own nation and improving security, opportunity and well-being for our citizens even as we undertake the responsibility of rebuilding Iraq and helping its people achieve a stable, democratic society.