Congress marches backwards, with Green in tow By Curt Andersen News-Chronicle It seems hard to believe that, even with events of their own manufacture swooshing around their heads in a giant swirly, Republicans in Congress marched backwards to vote for the latest fiscally inept Bush budget. Joining the madness (again) was local US Representative, Mark Green, R - Green Bay. Once again, Green has betrayed veterans. This budget provides $1.3 billion less than what the Veterans' Affairs Committee recommended - on a bipartisan basis - for vital veterans' health care programs. It's bad enough that Green never served in the military, and so has no idea what life is like there, but he also supported President Bush's plan to cut the pay of soldiers in war zones like Iraq. Many enlisted soldiers pay is so low that they are eligible for food stamps. What a salute to our fighting men and women. It should be noted that very few of Bush's cabinet served in the military. They have no problem sending other people off to do their dirty work for them, and for slave wages. We're used to Green being on the bad side of environmental concerns. This budget cuts appropriations for environmental protection by $1.5 billion below last year's already low level, and keeps funding below the 2004 enacted level for every year in the budget. These cuts will undermine our ability to ensure clean air and safe drinking water and to clean up toxic waste sites. If you think this is just fluff, keeping the environment clean is another way to keep yourself and your family from having to live in a bubble. It's all about public health, not just pretty calendar photos. If you think that too much money is spent on environmental concerns, try to imagine how much money you're going to spend on cancer treatments and lost work. This pathetic budget cuts Homeland Security funding by $857 million below the President's request for 2005-2009, applying the cut to all homeland security activities OUTSIDE of the Department of Defense...things like harbor security, chemical plant, and nuclear plant protection. At a time when our nation continues to face threats from terrorists, this is no time to redirect resources from homeland security to tax cuts for the wealthy. This budget underfunds education. It provides $8.8 billion below the authorized level for No Child Left Behind programs. This continues the pattern of Republican underfunding. This program is a sham without proper funding. This budget fails to protect Social Security, spending the entire $1 trillion Social Security surplus from 2005 to 2009, despite repeated promises not to spend a penny of it. Ask yourself what the point of this spending is. Three reasons: first, it will allow the Bush Administration to buy more weaponry for the Iraq war, rewarding George H. W. Bush's company, the Carlyle Group; second, it will give Vice President, Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton, a chance to bring in some more bacon before they scamper out of Iraq with their tails between their legs; third, it offers the Bush Administration the opportunity to not raise taxes because they are stealing from the piggy bank instead. This budget makes the growing deficit worse. After three years of Republican "stewardship," a projected ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion has turned into a projected deficit of $2.9 trillion - an $8.5 trillion reversal. This budget digs the hole deeper, with a deficit of $377 billion for 2005 and annual deficits of at least $235 billion for every year thereafter. Guess whose kids will get to pay for this fiscal ineptitude? Look in the mirror. Statements from respondents to a non-scientific survey of people who have recently gotten jobs included, "You want fries with that?" There are presently 28 states working on anti-outsourcing legislation but nothing is happening in Washington. Green is collecting an immense salary while the jobs flow out of the country like blood from a gushing wound. This is the vaunted fiscal conservatism of the Republican Party? I have seen drunken sailors manage their budgets better than this team. Green might be a bit more empathetic if he was to lose his job. That would be a great start to return to fiscal sanity. Curt Andersen is a Green Bay native. He is a 4-year Navy veteran (Communications Technician, CTO2), owns a small business, is vice president of Clean Water Action Council, and is an adjunct instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. You may contact Mr. Andersen at [email protected]