May 16, 2005
A Tale Of Two Democracies
Venezuela's booming oil wealth is bankrolling its most ambitious effort in decades to help the poor, an integral part of President Hugo Chávez's "social revolution" that is drawing both praise and skepticism while he strengthens ties with Cuba and increasingly clashes with the United States. [...]
Under Chávez, the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA spent more than $3.7 billion last year on social and agricultural programs, housing and other public projects -- about a third of its earnings.
The Bush administration is seeking a South American country to sponsor an OAS resolution condemning the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez, but has come up empty-handed after two high-profile visits to the region. [...]
A Bush administration official, speaking on background two weeks ahead of Mr. Rumsfeld's March 23 visit, told Brazilian reporters about the administration's goal to see Mr. Chavez admonished at the Organization of American States. Three of five reporters who attended the briefing said the Americans wanted to see Venezuela criticized for "failing in its commitment to democracy," the core mission for all 34 OAS member states.
The Senate gave final passage yesterday to an $82 billion emergency war spending bill, sending President Bush a measure that will push the cost of the Iraq invasion well past $200 billion.
Even with such massive expenditures, Army officials and congressional aides say more money will be needed as early as October. Army Materiel Command, the Army's main logistical branch, has put Congress on notice that it will need at least two more emergency "supplemental" bills just to finance repair and replacement of Army equipment.
By 2010, war costs are likely to exceed a half-trillion dollars, say congressional researchers.
President Bush plans to unveil a $2.5 trillion budget today eliminating dozens of politically sensitive domestic programs, including funding for education, environmental protection and business development, while proposing significant increases for the military and international spending, according to White House documents.
Overall, discretionary spending other than defense and homeland security would fall by nearly 1 percent, the first time in many years that funding for the major part of the budget controlled by Congress would actually go down in real terms, according to officials with access to the budget. The cuts are scattered across a wide swath of the government, affecting a cross-section of constituents, from migrant workers to train passengers to local police departments, according to officials who read portions of the documents to The Washington Post.
About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush's goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009. One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education. Medicaid funding would be reduced significantly and even major military weapons programs would be scrapped to make more resources available for the war in Iraq.
Posted by Eddie Tews at May 16, 2005 06:43 PM
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