ll bilancio USA taglia la spesa sociale per finanziare la guerra e le riduzioni fiscali per i ricchi

Usa, bilancio, welfare, sanità, fisco, armamenti Wsws 06-02-03

Il bilancio USA taglia la spesa sociale per finanziare
la guera e le riduzioni fiscali per i ricchi

Bill Van Auken

–
Approvati dal Parlamento americano tagli al bilancio
per $39,5MD, per oltre la metà tolti da Medicare, sanità anziani (-$6,4Md) e Medicaid,
sanità poveri e disabili (-$4,8MD.).

–
in base alla nuova legge i governi degli Stati possono imporre
premi e contribuzioni per le erogazioni Medicaid, alzando il limite per l’ideoneità
ad usufruirne.

o
dal rapporto CBO – Ufficio finanziario del Congresso,
nel prossimo decennio le modifiche apportate a Medicaid aumenteranno i costi
per i farmaci per circa 20 milioni di bassi redditi aventi diritto a questa
previdenza sanitaria, costringendo almeno 65 000 persone a rinunciarvi, il
60% bambini.

o
Circa l’80% del risparmio deriva da maggiori
contribuzione degli assicurati deriverebbe dal minor utilizzo del servizio;
altri risparmi da mancato riconoscimento dei costi di sedie a rotelle,
occhiali, etc.

o
altro provvedimento anti-welfare, aumento
interessi su prestiti per i college dal 6,1 al 8,5%…, con +$14Md di entrate
aggiuntive su 5 anni, che saranno usate per i tagli fiscali per i ricchi.

o
– $11Md per la sanità per i bambini, previsti
nuovi fondi di soli $1Md., una misura che inasprisce la cosiddetta riforma del
welfare avviata da Bill Clinton nel 1996.

–
La formulazione finale della legge sarebbe stata
dettata dai lobbisti per HMO e per le società farmaceutiche, che sono tra i
maggiori contribuenti alla campagna elettorale di entrambi i maggiori partiti.

–
Questa legge finanziaria è chiamata “Legge per la riduzione
del deficit”, rappresenta in realtà meno del 3% dei 14 300 MD di spesa federale
prevista per i prossimi 5 anni. Per il 2006 è previsto un aumento del deficit
federale di altri $360MD.

–
Il senato sta discutendo riduzioni fiscali per $56MD.,
già approvate alla Camera, principalmente maggiori riduzioni fiscali per profitti
da capitale e dividendi.

o
la metà a favore di uno 0,2% di popolazione con
un reddito annuo di oltre $1milione; in totale oltre ¾ delle riduzioni fiscali beneficeranno
redditi famigliari di oltre $100mila annui, il 14% della popolazione.

o
Il mancato introito fiscale causato da questi
privilegi è calcolato in $100MD, nei prossimi 5 anni.

–
La Casa Bianca richiederà al Congresso spese belliche per altri $70MD per Irak ed
Afghanistan, oltre i $50MD. stanziati a dicembre 2005, per un totale di $420MD.
in poco più di 4 anni, per la maggior parte usati per l’aggressione contro l’Irak.

–
A fine 2006 il costo delle due guerre giungerà a
$500MD, un ammontare 10 volte quanto previsto dall’Amministrazione prima della
guerra in Irak.

–
Il bilancio militare proposto dal Pentagono per il 2007
salirà a $439,3MD, +4,8% sul 2005.

o
nell’ammontare sono compresi $84,2MD per nuovi armamenti,
+8% su 2006;

non sono comprese le richieste di finanziamento supplementare per le
guerre in Irak e Afghanistan, e neppure gli oltre $6MD annuali per il
mantenimento dell’arsenale nucleare.

Wsws 06-02-03

US budget slashes social spending to
fund war and tax cuts for the rich

By Bill Van
Auken

In the wake of George W. Bush’s State of
the Union address, the White House and the Republican-led Congress have moved
swiftly to implement a series of budget measures that will slash funding for
health care and education while allocating vast new sums for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and tax cuts for America’s
wealthy elite.

The House of Representatives approved
a $39.5 billion five-year budget-cutting package on Wednesday. More than half of the savings has been carved out of funding for Medicare
and Medicaid, the principal programs that provide
minimal health care coverage to the elderly, poor and disabled.

On Thursday, Congressional sources
reported that the White House was preparing to ask Congress for another $70
billion to pay for the US
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This comes on top of $50 billion approved just last December, and brings the
total allocated for these military interventions in little over four years to
more than $420 billion, the vast majority of it spent on the aggression against
Iraq.

Before the year is out, the
administration will seek yet another supplemental appropriation to pay for the
military operations in the two countries. It is anticipated that before the
end 2006, the cost of these wars will top the $500 billion mark—ten
times the amount estimated by the administration prior to the invasion of Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Senate continued
debate on a $56 billion tax cut that has already been passed by the House.

Taken as a whole, these legislative
initiatives will deepen the social misery in America while widening the already
enormous gulf separating a tiny financial oligarchy from the masses of working
people. They further underscore American capitalism’s growing dependence upon
militarism to offset the decline in its economic position in the world arena.

The House bill is misnamed the
Deficit Reduction Act. In fact, it will do next
to nothing to reduce the US
budget deficit, which is expected to rise to $360 billion this year. While
draconian in their impact on those who depend on the programs being slashed,
the budget cuts hardly make a dent in this deficit and account for less than
3 percent of the $14.3 trillion in federal spending projected over the next
five years.

The House leadership and the Bush White
House praised the budget package for taking what one Republican congressman
termed a “first step toward long-term fiscal discipline.” However, it is clear
that discipline is being demanded only from those at the bottom of the social
ladder, who will pay for the amassing of even greater personal fortunes by
those at the top.

The tax package that is currently under consideration is centered on the
extension of capital gains and dividend tax cuts, over half of which would go
to the top 0.2 percent who have incomes in excess of $1 million a year. Over
three-quarters of the tax cuts benefit only households making more than
$100,000 a year—just 14 percent of the population. According to some
estimates, the real cost of this give-away to the super-rich and the most
privileged sections of the upper-middle-class will be closer to $100 billion
in lost federal revenues over the next five years.

The biggest spending cuts enacted by
Congress include $6.4 billion slashed from Medicare, the health program for the
elderly, and $4.8 billion from Medicaid, which provides
health coverage for the poor and disabled.

The legislation marks a fundamental
shift in federal policy, allowing state governments to impose premiums and
co-payments on Medicaid benefits and further limit eligibility. Its approval
came just days after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report
pointing to the barbaric consequences the budget-cutting measures will have for
millions of Americans.

According to the CBO report, over the
next decade the changes in Medicaid will increase costs on prescription drugs
for some 20 million low-income recipients and force at least 65,000 out of the
program altogether—60 percent of them children. The report estimated that
the greatest savings from the legislation will come from higher co-payments and
premiums, causing people to drop out of the program or not seek needed medical
care because they will be unable to afford it.

“In response to the new premiums,”
the report warned, “some beneficiaries would not apply for Medicaid, would
leave the program or would become ineligible due to nonpayment.” It added, “About 80 percent of the savings from higher
cost-sharing would be due to decreased use of service.”

The areas expected to be targeted with
new premiums include mental health services, intensifying a national crisis
that already sends three times as many mentally ill people in the US to prisons
than to mental health facilities.

Additional savings will result from
repealing federal standards and allowing states to deny Medicaid benefits for
such things as wheelchairs, crutches, canes, eyeglasses and hearing aids.

The savings in the Medicare program for
the elderly come from a series of changes including increased premiums, cuts in
funding to hospitals and a freeze on funding for home health agencies. Another
punitive provision aimed at elderly nursing home residents would deny them
Medicaid benefits if they had given away money over the previous five years.
This would include money donated to charity or contributed to the college tuition
of a grandchild.

While slashing benefits for the poor and
elderly, the legislation was carefully crafted to protect the interests of the
managed health care industry and the major drug companies. Provisions in the
Senate version of the bill that would have required the big pharmaceutical
firms to give larger rebates on drugs bought by states under Medicaid and cut
overpayments to HMOs covering Medicare beneficiaries—which alone would have
saved an estimated $22 billion over 10 years—were stripped from the
legislation. Some in Congress charged that the final language of the bill
was directly dictated by lobbyists for HMOs [Health Maintaining Organization –
N.d.T.][1] and drug companies,
which are among the largest campaign contributors to both major parties.

Another socially regressive provision
will sharply increase interest rates on college loans to students and their
parents. The interest rate on PLUS loans to parents
will rise from the current 6.1 percent to 8.5 percent next July, while the
rate on federal Stafford Loans used by some 10 million students will climb from
5.3 percent to 6.8 percent.

This change amounts to a cut in
financial aid that will ultimately deprive a section of working class youth
of the right to a higher education. It is projected to generate as much
as $14 billion in revenue over five years, money that will be used to defray
the cost of tax cuts for the rich.

The legislation also includes stiffer
work requirements for some 2 million adult Americans on welfare. The
burden, which will require most recipients to spend 40 hours a week either
working or in job training, will fall most heavily on single mothers. At
the same time, the bill includes only $1 billion in new funding for
childcare—$11 billion less than what is needed to allow parents to manage
the extended work requirement, according to an estimate by the Congressional
Budget Office.

This measure deepens the attacks
initiated under the so-called welfare reform introduced by the Democratic
administration of Bill Clinton in 1996.

The 216-214 vote on the final legislation split largely on party lines, with 13
Republicans joining the Democratic minority in opposing the bill. Its
passage underscored once again the inability of the Democratic Party to offer
any alternative to the reactionary social agenda of the Bush administration.

The Deficit Reduction Act is a holdover
from last year. The administration is already preparing to introduce even
deeper cuts in social programs and further increases in military spending in a
fiscal 2007 budget that it will present to Congress next week. Declaring his
support for the bill passed by Congress, Bush vowed he would “continue to build
on the spending restraint we have achieved.”

The 2007 budget will continue the
sharp and protracted growth in US military spending. The proposed Pentagon
budget for the next fiscal year will rise to $439.3 billion, a 4.8 percent
increase over last year. This includes $84.2 billion to be allocated for new
weapons, an 8 percent rise in such purchases over fiscal 2006. This budget is over and above the supplemental funding requests
for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and does not include more than $6
billion spent each year to maintain the US nuclear arsenal.