https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/374/bushbudget.shtml

In a 2006 federal budget proposal marked by hefty increases for the Pentagon and the State Department and belt-tightening for just about everyone else, even spending for police is on the chopping block. The Bush administration has said the federal budget reflects its priorities, and the document makes clear that those priorities are foreign war and its domestic component, homeland security. Non-defense spending will be held to less than next year's expected increase in the inflation rate, meaning most federal programs will see their spending shrink in real terms.

Not even including new spending to pay for Bush's foreign wars -- the administration says it will ask for a supplemental appropriation of around $80 billion to pay for its occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq -- the Pentagon's already mammoth budget will increase from $400 billion to $419 billion, contributing to a whopping 41% increase in war spending since 2001.

One of the biggest losers in the Bush budget is the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. Initiated by then President Clinton as part of his vow to "make America safer" by putting 100,000 additional police officers on the street, the program was funded last year at $499 million dollars, but the Bush 2006 budget slashes COPS by a whopping 95% to only $22 million. Overall, Bush administration grants to state and local law enforcement will drop by nearly 50%, from $2.8 billion in 2005 to $1.5 billion in 2006.

Other Justice Department line items fare better. The FBI budget jumps by 11% to $5.7 billion, including increases in counterterrorism and counterintelligence ($294 million) and the agency's intelligence program ($117 million). And the federal government's lead anti-drug agency, the DEA, will see its budget increase 4% to $1.7 billion, with a charge to disrupt three dozen major drug trafficking organizations.

With a budget deficit estimated to hit a record $427 billion this year, Bush's economic policies effectively carry on the tradition begun by President Reagan, whose combination of tax cuts and increased military spending made cuts in social programs inevitable. With money available primarily for the Bush administration's war aims, more than 150 programs will be killed or radically cut back, including almost 50 education programs and funding for Medicaid. Included in those cuts are $440 million in grants under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act.

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