Cuts to budget must not stand

2/26/08
It’s an odd set of priorities that allows the hyping of the terrorist threat above all others and then the cutting of funds for those who would respond to terrorism. But as President Bush winds his way through his final year in office, this is just what he has in mind.
The administration’s 2009 budget proposal calls for a 79 percent cut in the largest state homeland security grant program, a 60 percent cut to firefighters, a 56 percent cut to transit security grants and a 48 percent reduction to port security grants. When Bush says, “As commander in chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people,” it’s hard to know what he’s talking about.
To his credit, Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who spends much of his time cozying up to the president on all things war-related, has come out strongly against such cutbacks. It does no good to stay on the offense overseas, he says, without a similar commitment to security at home.
His counterpart, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, is even more incensed. “I will do everything in my capacity as Banking Committee chairman to protect the working Americans whose future is compromised by this year’s budget proposal,” he said, saving special ire for cuts to medical programs, community development grants and housing solutions.
Congress boosted homeland security funding in the current federal budget. For example, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey will share $151 million to upgrade transit security in systems such as Metro-North, about double what they received the year before.
What is troubling is the shunning in the Bush proposed budget of first responders and people charged with preventing an attack in the first place. Time after time we have been told that our transit systems and our ports are especially vulnerable to attacks. To reduce this country’s ability to fight those threats isn’t just shortsighted; from an administration that stresses safety above all else, it’s morally wrong.
Bush’s power and influence are greatly diminished, and his budget wishes may not go through. Dodd and Lieberman owe it to their constituents to see that Bush’s cuts are once again not allowed to happen.