Bush budget seeks more border aid
$2.77 trillion plan hits poor, critics charge
11:53 PM CST on Monday, February 6, 2006

Food program cuts 700 local seniors
Dallas County: 59,000 in U.S. cut from federal grocery program
07:11 AM CST on Monday, February 6, 2006

Bush budget seeks more border aid
$2.77 trillion plan hits poor, critics charge
11:53 PM CST on Monday, February 6, 2006 By TODD J. GILLMAN and G. ROBERT HILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – For Texas, President Bush's new $2.77 trillion budget would mean tighter border security and a looser social safety net.

In a spending plan unveiled Monday, the president proposes more money next fiscal year for Border Patrol agents but less for some anti-poverty programs. And hospitals could be hit by rollbacks in coverage for the elderly and poor.

Texas defense contractors, on the other hand, could see a pickup in aircraft orders from the Pentagon.

The president wants to "give our troops and those who defend our security what they need to fight the global war on terror," White House budget director Joshua Bolten said. Nonetheless, the president's top budget priorities, coming amid his continuing call to protect the tax cuts of his first term, drew dire warnings of another round of painful domestic program cuts

And the concerns expressed by a parade of critics ran deeply and broadly. They included predictions of higher Medicare premiums for the elderly, fewer after-school programs for younger children and costlier loans for college students.

"A budget is a statement of moral choices, and this budget makes the wrong choices," said Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

The president's spending plan for the 2007 fiscal year is a 2.3 percent increase. But defense spending would rise 7 percent and homeland security about the same.

Along the border with Mexico, demands for tighter security have grown louder in Congress, and the president has proposed $400 million to add 1,500 new Border Patrol agents – 500 shy of what Congress has asked for, but far higher than the 300 new hires Mr. Bush proposed a year ago.

The commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks had recommended hiring 2,000 new agents a year for five years.

As he has before, Mr. Bush proposed eliminating the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which helps states and counties pay jail costs when they arrest someone who turns out to be an unlawful immigrant.

Each year, governors and local border officials demand the funding be restored, and lawmakers always comply – suggesting to some that the president's proposal amounts to a budgeting gimmick. Last year, Congress allocated $405 million, though even that was only a fraction of what Texas and other states spend.

"It has been a drain on many local governments, and they should not have to bear the brunt of these costs," said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.

The budget also includes $2.1 billion to bolster detention and removal of illegal immigrants and would add about 6,000 detention beds – mitigating the need for a much-criticized "catch and release" program that forces border authorities to let offenders go and hope they return for their court dates. But that also falls short of recommendations.

Defense contractors
Texas defense contractors and their thousands of workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Amarillo could get a boost. The $439.3 billion for defense – not including expenses for the war in Iraq – would ramp up production of the V-22 Osprey, the tilt-rotor aircraft produced by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth and Boeing Co.'s helicopter division, from 11 to 16 units for the Marines and Air Force.

The budget also would boost production of the F-22 Raptor, an exotic stealth fighter for the Air Force partly built in Fort Worth by Lockheed Martin Corp.

There's money, too, for the first five Air Force F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, also built by Lockheed. But the Air Force plans to terminate the C-17 after buying the last 12 of 180 ordered. The transport is assembled in California but partly built by companies in Texas, including Vought Aircraft Industries of Dallas.

The president's budget would eliminate $11.2 million toward the Dallas Floodway Extension Project, aimed at protecting Cadillac Heights. The Army Corps of Engineers, hard-pressed to cope with hurricane damage, has deemed the $30 million project a relatively low priority.

But Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, noted that the administration has tried to ax the program in the past, and aides said she's confident Congress will restore the funds.

Mr. Bush is also intent on pursuing what he has been selling as a "pro-growth economic agenda," in large part by pressing Congress again to make permanent the temporary tax cuts of his first term. So far, though, Congress has balked. And with the House and a third of the Senate facing the voters this fall, re-election politics are certain to complicate the budget debate.

The projected budget deficit this year of a record $423 billion already is fuel for those worried about the rising tide of red ink. The president's budget includes $50 billion next fiscal year for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, an amount the administration acknowledged would fall short of expected needs, and $18 billion for continued Gulf Coast relief after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

So far this fiscal year, the president has sought $120 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan and nearly another $89 billion for the Gulf Coast. The new fiscal year does not begin until Oct. 1. Drawing particular attention will likely be the president's proposals to curtail the growth of Medicare and other such entitlement programs.

Over the next five years, Mr. Bush proposes saving $65 billion – about $36 billion alone in Medicare – by slowing the growth of the entitlement programs that also include Medicaid and Social Security.

And the Medicare curtailments will undoubtedly "shift costs to beneficiaries and force more to pay higher Medicare premiums," the AARP said in statement, expressing "serious concerns."

Effect on Parkland
In Dallas, the changes could have a serious impact at Parkland Hospital and its $857 million annual budget. Chief executive Ron Anderson said the cuts would force hospitals to raise rates, hoping to recoup some of the shortfalls from the uninsured and private insurers. County taxpayers may also feel a pinch, since they pay 40 percent of Parkland's costs.

Referring to Mr. Bush's desire to make permanent his cuts to such taxes as capital gains and inheritance, Mr. Anderson said: "The real question we have to ask ourselves is, is making these tax cuts permanent more vital than having a viable Medicare program for the elderly. At some point it's almost magical thinking to think you can do all that."

Another 141 smaller, discretionary programs are being severely cut or eliminated for a savings of about $15 billion. The Agriculture Department's Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides $107 million in food assistance to about 477,000 largely low-income seniors, is targeted because the administration says it overlaps with the federal food stamp program.

In Dallas, where program providers were convened in their 10th annual meeting, Jan Pruitt, chief executive officer of the North Texas Food bank, vowed to fight the supplemental food program cuts, saying it would harm thousands of seniors in Dallas County alone. "What this will take is the mobilization of the general public saying you're not going to balance this budget on the backs of senior citizens." she said.

Staff writers Richard Whittle in Washington and Paul Meyer in Dallas contributed to this report. E-mail tgillman@dallasnews.com and bhillman@dallasnews.com

 

Food program cuts 700 local seniors
Dallas County: 59,000 in U.S. cut from federal grocery program
07:11 AM CST on Monday, February 6, 2006 By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News

More than 700 Dallas County senior citizens living in poverty have been cut from a federal program that provided them with 25-pound boxes of free groceries each month.

The local seniors were among 59,000 people nationwide who lost assistance from the Commodity Supplemental Food Program on Feb. 1.

Officials at the North Texas Food bank, which still administers the program to 7,037 seniors, worry that many will go hungry without the food packages that included staples such as cereal, beans and peanut butter.

"The reality of the situation is, people are going to fall through the cracks," said Jan Pruitt, the local food bank's chief executive officer. "They're going to go pick up their box, and it's not going to be there, and they're not going to go anywhere else."

The nonprofit agency plans to open three food pantries this month for the seniors who will no longer receive the assistance. But Ms. Pruitt said many seniors may be unable to go to the pantries or are unwilling to ask for help.

"We know these government cuts are going to mean seniors going without food because we can't reach everybody," she said. "This is really impacting a very vulnerable population."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced the program because of rising food costs and budget cuts, spokeswoman Jean Daniel said. About 477,000 elderly people and women with children in 32 states and the District of Columbia now receive the food boxes, down from 536,000 in 2005. The only other Texas county to participate is Webb.

The federal government encourages people dropped from the program to apply for other federal nutrition programs, including food stamps.

"We encourage everyone who is eligible to apply," Ms. Daniel said. "We want to make sure they have access to those services with dignity and respect."

The North Texas Food Bank is advising seniors to call 211, a direct number to call for area social services. The food bank also reached out to senior centers to find some of those enrolled in the program, instead of waiting for them to respond, Ms. Pruitt said.

"This generation has a little harder time accepting the help," she said.

The Dallas County residents cut from the program live at six senior apartment complexes, including Residence at the Oaks in Dallas. A woman who lives at the complex and will no longer receive the food boxes said many of her neighbors who receive the food are sick and disabled.

"Some people here do not have families or don't have nowhere else to go, and depend on what they receive," said the woman, who did not want to be identified. "It was a great blessing to have the food distributed here. That's going to be a great loss."

E-mail khorner@dallasnews.com

FOOD HELP

The North Texas Food Bank is encouraging seniors who will no longer receive groceries from the Commodity Supplemental Food Program to contact the 211 information and referral hotline.

The food bank also will set up three pantries to help seniors through private donations. To donate to the food pantries, contact the North Texas Food Bank at 214-330-1396 or go to www.ntxfoodbank.org.