Last week, W announced his new budget plan of $2.77 Trillion. Included in that new budget was a 6.9% increase in military spending. That translates into a $28.35B increase to $439.3B in the military's discretionary budget. Where did that extra money come from? Well one of the programs that took a huge hit was... Education, duh.
Last year's budget called for $56.54B in Education spending. It was downgraded 3.8% to $54.4B, barely double the budget increase the Military got. It will continue to fund the failing Every Child Left Behind at All Costs initiative. Laura must be a hit in all those inner city schools she visits. Maybe she's relieved, there will be less money with which to cart her around.
And another place that almost $30B will come from? W wants to sell the fucking forests off!!!!!
The Bush administration Friday laid out plans to sell off more than $1 billion in public lands over the next decade, including 85,000 acres of national forest land in California.Most of the proceeds would help pay for rural schools and roads, making up for a federal subsidy that has been eliminated from President Bush's 2007 budget.
Congress must approve the plans, which several experts said would amount to the largest land sale of its kind since President Theodore Roosevelt established the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 and created the modern national forest system.
...The Forest Service's proposed budget for 2007 is $4.1 billion, down about $160 million from 2006. The public will have 30 days to comment after maps of the lands proposed for sale are published, which the agency expects to do by the end of the month. Some parcels might be removed if they are deemed too valuable to lose.
Some more info on this bullshit via the USDA Forest Service.
And the point man for the selling is beholden to the real-estate industry....the beat goes on:
http://tinyurl.com/belfq
Posted by: Sir Oolius | February 14, 2006 at 04:37 PM