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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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The Clinton budget: A soft-sell Contract on America

By John Catalinotto

The 1998 fiscal-year budget President Bill Clinton submitted to Congress Feb. 5 can be characterized as the "Contract on America with a happy face." Overall, it continues to reduce social programs, with a few minor exceptions.

Clinton and the Republican Congress are still looking for a way to cut Social Security benefits while avoiding an expected strong protest from seniors. The most likely plan is to "adjust" the Consumer Price Index downward to reduce cost-of-living increases. Other plans include speculating with Social Security funds on the stock market.

The president has proposed to provide health-insurance coverage for 5 million of the 10 million children who have none at present. But to pay for this, he wants strict annual limits on per-capita Medicaid spending.

Clinton's plan also dumps 180,000 disabled children from the Supplemental Security Income program. It makes it harder to qualify for aid for all but the most severely disabled. The White House claims other bills Clinton vetoed would have knocked even more children off the rolls-a lame defense of a harsh policy.

The most publicized item in the budget regards education, where funding is increased by 20 percent to $51 billion. This increase is concentrated on allowing more youths to attend at least two years of college by giving tax credits and tax deductions for college tuition.

Poor get the short stick

The plan puts most benefits into the hands of people who can already afford to send their children to college, rather than helping the poorest people.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney said Clinton's education proposal "reflects his priority to address middle-class concerns."

The most deceptive budget item concerns military spending. Clinton claims the $259.4 billion he proposes for the Pentagon is a cut. Yet it is more than he projected last year would go to the military in 1998. Budget projections are made for several years in advance.

Also, built right into the Clinton budgets are increases in military spending each year from now to 2002. In addition, lower than expected inflation rates over the past few years have raised the real value of the funds already allocated to the Pentagon.

According to the Council for a Livable World in Washington, the administration actually added $7 billion to the Pentagon's five-year budget. It also allowed the Pentagon to keep $4 billion in inflation savings.

In 1996, Congress added $7 billion to Clinton's military budget. In 1997, it added $10.4 billion. A similar hike can be expected this year.

None of this takes into account pressure from the military-industrial complex to increase military outlays. This pressure will grow stronger as research on new weapons is finished.

The biggest project under way is the Joint Strike Fighter. A major reason for the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas merger now being consummated was to beat out their rival, Lockheed Martin, for the contract. Currently the Pentagon plans to allocate $219 billion for the new planes, and this can increase greatly.

Omits hidden military costs

Even the $259 billion figure is a lie, since it omits the hidden costs of past and future military spending. A fact sheet put out in April 1996 by the Center for Defense Information shows that these hidden costs-veterans' benefits, additional military retirement pay, space programs and the military share of the interest on the debt-add up to another $231 billion each year.

The biggest expense is for interest on the debt. Most of this debt was incurred in the Reagan-Bush administrations. They cut taxes for the rich while allocating over $1 trillion extra for strategic military items. The military share of this interest is $166 billion a year, according to the CDI.

When the Republicans criticize Clinton's proposals, they do so only to demand even lower outlays for social programs, more funds for the military and a cut in capital-gains taxes. The last item is another giveaway to the rich.

The only road to a more progressive budget is through a struggle independent of both capitalist parties.

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