President Bush has told officials from several departments about planned cuts to vital programs. This action comes at a critical time and I am surprised the he is actually doing something that can only be viewed as negative. He is cutting funding to departments such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Education, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health. The Education Department's budget alone would be cut by $1.4 Billion and the EPA would drop by 2.6 percent which is roughly $200 Million. The President can't possibly blame the education and environmental cuts on Kerry.

When Bush ran for office in 2000, he stated his views for the environment were pragmatic. He wasn't sure about global warming, so he thought we should study it more before we do anything crazy like signing the Kyoto Protocol, enforce EPA guidleines, make pollution laws stricter and harsher, etc. Now he wants to reduce the funding for that Agency! Here is Bush's stance on the Environment (some of which is in comparison to Gore) (link from OnTheIssues.org).

The Education Department will lose 2.4% of their funding... This is a ton of ammo for Kerry if he realizes it... Bush attacks Kerry because 'he doesn't support the No Child Left Behind Act.' The Act itself wasn't funded and now the whole Department will be underfunded... isn't this the guy who promises more for teachers and to hold them accountable?

Not coincidentally, 'The Defense Department would grow 5.2 percent to $422.7 billion in 2006, and the Justice Department would increase 4.3 percent to $19.5 billion in 2006.' If President Bush is preaching about Homeland Security being our number one priority, why is he cutting the funding?


In other news... Bush is 'unveiling' his ideas on another subject... take a gander:

"Docs are still spending a lot of time writing things on paper. And sometimes it's difficult to read their handwriting," Bush told an audience at Vanderbilt University in the election battleground state of Tennessee.

nuff said Mr. President.