Editorial: A ‘compassionate’ Republican?

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006 | 8:27 a.m.

Those who relish cutting programs for the poor, cutting taxes for the rich, piling debt onto future generations and increasing the budget for Yucca Mountain will embrace the federal budget President Bush has handed Congress.

The $2.77 trillion budget, released Monday, represents a 2.3 percent increase. It puts the federal government on a path to cut $36 billion from Medicare over the next five years, an action that would affect hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, home-health aides and other vital services. The budget also trims billions from education and public-lands management.

In the same budget is a cut of another kind, a permanent cut in taxes mainly for the nation's wealthiest people. If Congress allows this travesty, it would deprive the federal treasury of $1.4 trillion over the next decade.

The military, Homeland Security, law enforcement and immigration services would see increases, which we agree are needed. But it is not the nation's students, the users of public lands and the poor, elderly and infirm who should be paying for them. Congress should drop the tax breaks and ensure that all Americans pay their fair share.

Of particular local interest is Bush's proposal to spend $544 million for Yucca Mountain, which exceeds by $100 million the amount Congress approved for the current year. An Energy Department spokesman said the increase is needed to "facilitate a nuclear renaissance, which we greatly need."

As Nevada has demonstrated over the past 20 years, deadly nuclear waste cannot be safely buried underneath Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Energy Department and the White House, however, are focused on being able to justify the licensing of more nuclear power plants. They see that as a higher priority than safety for Nevadans.

We hope Congress kills the tax cuts and tempers the program cuts. Unless it does that, this budget will likely lead to another record deficit, and it will certainly lead to more hardship for millions of Americans.